Jullien

A capstone work from a renowned philosopher who explores how Western cultural biases may be challenged by classic texts in order to enter another way of thinking How can a person from a Western culture enter into a way of thinking as different as that of the Chinese? Can a person truly escape from his or her own cultural perspectives and assumptions? French philosopher François Jullien has throughout his career explored the distances between European and Chinese thought. In this fascinating summation of his work, he takes an original approach to the conundrum of cross-cultural understanding. Jullien considers just three sentences in their original languages. Each is the first sentence of a seminal text: the Bible in Hebrew, Hesiod's Theogony in Greek, and the Yijing (I Ching) in Chinese. By dismantling these sentences, the author reveals the workings of each language and the ways of thought in which they are inscribed. He traces the hidden choices made by European reason and assumptions, discovering among other things what is not thought about. Through the lens of the Chinese language, Jullien offers, as always, a new and surprising view of our own Western culture.

Although the French Hellenist and sinologist François Jullien has published more than thirty books, half of which have been translated into English, he remains much less known in the English-language world than many of his fellow “French philosophers”. This may be due to his work being perceived as within the limits of sinology. This book attempts to rectify this, highlighting Jullien’s work at the intersection of Chinese and Western thought and drawing out the “unthought” in both traditions of thinking. This "unthought" can be seen as what conditions our thought, and opens it up onto new ways of thinking and understanding. The notion of "unthought" is at the core of Jullien’s methodology, operating in what he calls the "divergence of the in-between". Written in an engaging style, Arne De Boever offers an accessible introduction to François Jullien’s work that emphatically challenges some of the core assumptions of Western reasoning.

Comparative and International Education is a seemingly infinite field, and it has always tested new frontiers since it was launched as a field of scholarly enquiry 200 years ago by the vision of Marc-Antoine Jullien. The philanthropic mission which Jullien spelled out for the field remains its most noble. The contributions to this book look afresh at this mission, within the context of twenty-first century globalised society, while also highlighting and re-assessing other sources in the field. This book was originally published as a special issue of Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education.

An enticing collection of before-and-after scenarios, created by master artist and acclaimed author of This Is Not A Book Graphic artist Jean Jullien insightfully and comically depicts a set of clever and surprising before-and-after two-frame narratives, each progressed by a page turn. From pale skin to sunburned skin, dirty to clean, long hair to short hair (to long again), Jullien masterfully builds anticipation and a satisfying resolution with each pairing. Striking the perfect balance of predictability and unexpectedness, this book will leave readers in wonder as they flip back and forth.

A playfully deceptive format that encourages young readers to see things differently. Selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the Best Books of 2016, Picture Books category This is not a book - it's a laptop, a pair of hands to clap, a toolbox! Each spread of this book is actually something else entirely, challenging young readers to see things quite differently! Turning the page and finding a full-sized image of piano keys will invite children to swing the book on its side for imaginative play; turning the page again to find a monster with its mouth wide open will prompt children to use the book to chomp everything around them! The result stretches beyond the pages of this book, prompting readers to think creatively about other objects in their daily lives. Created for ages 2-4 years

In premodern China, painters used imagery not to mirror the world, but to evoke unfathomable experience. Considering this art alongside the philosophical traditions that inform it, this book explores the 'nonobject', a notion exemplified by paintings that do not seek to represent observable surroundings.

A hilarious guessing game of facial reactions created by the author of bestselling This Is Not A Book Jean Jullien tickles the funnybone once again with a book of facial overreactions. Faces are presented first, allowing the reader to wager predictions of what may have prompted such an expression, before the dramatic answer is revealed. Why the face? reads the text alongside an agitated boy with eyes and nose scrunched up. Pick up the full-page flap to reveal a whole mess of smelly items, from stinky socks to an oozing trash can, and the text, Whoa, that stinks. Jullien masterfully provides enough clues for the reader to piece together the narrative, including both predictable and surprising scenarios. Based on young children's natural fascination with faces, this book encourages readers to practice empathy and build emotional intelligence, with cleverly simplified and humorously satisfying vignettes. A brilliant addition to Phaidon's growing Jean Jullien board book library. Ages 2-4

Each spread in this board book is actually something else entirely -- from a flip phone and a folded t-shirt to an elephant's trunk and much more.

Living holds us between two places. It expresses what is most elementary--to be alive--and the absoluteness of our aspiration--finally living! But could we desire anything other than to live? In The Philosophy of Living, François Jullien meditates on Far Eastern thought and philosophy to analyze concepts that can be folded into a complete philosophy of living, including the idea of the moment, the ambiguity of the in-between, and what he calls the "transparency of morning." Translated by Krzysztof Fijalkowski and Michael Richardson, this volume asks poignant questions about what it means to be alive and inhabit the present. Jullien develops a strategy of living that goes beyond morality and dwells in the space between health and spirituality.

"To grow up is to grow old. With time, great love can turn into indifference. And even the most earnest revolution can imperceptibly become its own system of privilege and corruption—just as global warming has slowly modified the climate by degrees. Jullien argues that our failure to notice the effects of cumulative changes over time is due to Western thought’s foundations in classical Greek philosophies of being, which encourage thinking in terms of determined forms and neglect the indeterminable nature of the transition taking place. In contrast, Chinese thought, having a greater sense of the fluidity of life, offers a more flexible way of understanding everyday transformations and provides insightful perspectives from which to consider our relation to history and nature. In particular, a Chinese approach, argues Jullien, allows us to discover that there may be occasions when it is more efficacious to yield to situations than to confront them head-on".