Abstract:This article is a case study in feminist reclamation in Ruist (Confucian) philosophical traditions. While most feminist reclamation has been concentrated in the history of Western philosophy, this article considers what is involved in feminist reclamation in an East Asian context, taking one of Ruism's greatest critics as its subject. The article argues that the early twentieth-century Chinese anarcho-feminist He Yin Zhen 何殷震 (aka He Ban 何班 and He Zhen 何震) (ca. 1884–1920) should be considered a Ruist (Confucian) philosopher, providing (...) reasons ranging from the historical to the decolonial. Because of her sensitivity to issues of gender, hierarchy, and oppression, and her critical interventions in Ruist philosophy, it argues that He Yin Zhen's work enriches the Ruist canon and could transform Ruist philosophizing for the future. (shrink)

This essay is a logico?philosophical critique of the Marxian system of sociology with special reference to the theory of social change. To every change in the natural order (taken in conjunction with the technological order) corresponds an appropriate change in the human order, that is, in the system of social relations. This, it is shown, is the fundamental Marxian thesis regarding social equilibrium. And accordingly the key idea regarding social change is that a gradually maturing inherent disproportion between the two (...) orders is the basic condition of social change, eventually leading to the establishment of a new social equilibrium at a higher level. A close examination of the concept of mode of production and changes therein is attempted in the course of elucidating the above thesis. It is argued that the technological interpretation of the concept of mode of production conflicts with the Marxian anthropology and that we should have a structural interpretation according to which it will refer to the economy as a whole and will include among other elements production relations. This interpretation leads the discussion into one of the central problems of Marxism, namely, the relation between the mode of production and the social system. It is argued that the social system is basic to Marx and after a close analysis of the concept of system it is shown that the Marxian theory of base and superstructure rests mainly on confusion of conceptual orientations. This, it is shown, is connected with a fundamental idea of Marxism, viz., that of a system without a transcendent centre. This essay endeavours to prove that such an idea is logically untenable. Hence the Marxian Laws of Transformation of Quantity into Quality and Negation of Negation are examined and shown logically untenable. The last section discusses the question about the determinant of technological change and eventually of social change. Three possible Marxian solutions are examined: (a) in terms of needs ? it is argued that this is inconsistent with Marx's theory of man and labour; (b) in terms of science and new ideas ? it is shown that this ultimately goes contrary to Marxian materialism and positivism; and finally, (c) the systemic solution in terms of the dialectic of nature and man is subjected to logical scrutiny and it is shown that this cannot be consistent and valid without involving a trans?historical standpoint; for, it is argued, the idea of the self?directing Humanity on which it rests is a self?contradictory notion. (shrink)

Sarah A. Mattice develops a comparative intervention in contemporary metaphilosophy. Drawing on resources from hermeneutics, cognitive linguistics, aesthetics, and Chinese philosophy, she explores how philosophical language is deeply intertwined with the definition and practice of the discipline.

Exploring the Heart Sutra brings an interdisciplinary philosophical approach to this much-loved Buddhist classic. This new translation with commentary situates the sutra in a Chinese context, offering fresh interpretive resources for making sense of this profound work.

From self-cultivation to global justice, from environmental ethics to the interrelation of religion and science, this collection of essays highlights the central role of philosophy, and comparative philosophy in particular, for understanding and appreciating the connections and discontinuities of East and West.

Both an emphasis on logic and an emphasis on rhetoric lead to a kind of care for language. However, in early Greece this care for language through the lens of logic manifested in the drive to ‘get it right’, whereas in early China the care for language manifested in the pervasive concern for zhengming, for using names properly. For the early Chinese thinkers, especially the early Confucians, this was not predominantly a linguistic affair—zhengming is a key component of moral cultivation. (...) As we explore the ethical import of Confucian role ethics, we need to pay attention to the philosophical vocabulary of this worldview and to how our understanding of these crucial terms changes if persons are seen as relational—a central premise of Confucian role ethics. In this essay I argue against reading zhengming as fagu, merely a conservative retrieval of historical meaning, as suggested by the political philosopher Hsiao Kung-chuan, among others. Instead, I argue for three theses: (1) although stubbornly persistent, ‘rectification of names’ is not an adequate translation for zhengming; (2) the conservative reading of zhengming is problematic and needs to be rethought as an hermeneutic process intersecting past meanings, present circumstances, and future possibilities; and (3) zhengming is, in an important sense, the ‘art’ of Confucian role ethics, for achieving moral competency in this tradition is a matter of constantly revising one's roles and relationships. (shrink)

This paper explores the role of philosophical exemplars, focusing on two uncommon but valuable figures: Guanyin, bodhisattva of compassion, and the plumber-as-philosopher described by Mary Midgley. These figures highlight philosophical activity as benefitting from a wide variety of heterogenous sources, styles, and models, and suggest that philosophy be understood as a response to lived needs. The paper concludes with some suggestions for ways in which these exemplars might be relevant for contemporary issues in the academy.

Sarah A. Mattice develops a comparative intervention in contemporary metaphilosophy. Drawing on resources from hermeneutics, cognitive linguistics, aesthetics, and Chinese philosophy, she explores how philosophical language is deeply intertwined with the definition and practice of the discipline.

In this essay I am concerned with our understanding of philosophical dialogue. I will examine the most prevalent western model of dialogue—the combat model—and suggest some flaws in this model. I will outline concerns as to how standards for what counts as ‘philosophical’ are determined, and use this outline to frame preliminary objections to conceiving of philosophical dialogue as combative. Noting that philosophy is a socially and historically rooted practice, I argue that the view of philosophy as a kind of (...) combat has its origins in features of ancient Greek life. Next, I will look to other cultures and traditions for differing conceptual resources. Specifically, I look to ancient China’s philosophical narrative as one that does not primarily conceive of philosophy in terms of combat. I conclude by suggesting the relevance of this inquiry into methodology for practices of teaching philosophy. (shrink)

In Truth and Method, Gadamer asserts that prior to beginning the process of understanding a text, we make certain assumptions about the text being a unity modeled on a one-on-one conversation. How should we approach a text that was composed by so many authors over such a long span of time? Using resources from the Zhuangzi, I argue for expanding the metaphor across time, space, and identity in order to rethink Gadamer's assumption and its operative metaphor.

Although aesthetics has been to some extent marginalized in western philosophy, within the Chinese philosophical tradition aesthetics plays a key role. This article explores Chinese aesthetics as a site of valuable resources for rethinking the ways in which we conceptualize philosophical activity. After introducing a few distinct features of the Chinese aesthetic tradition, the article examines aesthetic distance in terms of guan, he, and ying, Chinese conceptions of artists and participants, and aesthetic suggestiveness or the inexhaustibility of a work of (...) art, in order to suggest that the Chinese philosophical tradition might contribute its sense of connection between style or method of doing philosophy and aesthetics to a contemporary metaphor of philosophy as aesthetic experience. (shrink)

Prominent figures in the philosophical literature on attention hold that the connection between attention and selection is essential (Mole, 2011), necessary (Wu, 2011; 2014), or conceptual (Smithies, 2011). I argue that selection is neither essentially, necessarily, nor conceptually tied to attention. I first isolate the target conception of selection that I deny is so tightly coupled with attention: graded intramodal selection within consciousness. I analyse two visual cases: analysis of the first case shows that there can be attention without a (...) connection to tasks or action; analysis of the second case shows that there can be attention without a phenomenal foreground/background structure. Finally, I extend the argument into the domain of the body by considering a form of meditative absorption in body sensations to recapitulate the conclusions drawn from the two visual cases. (shrink)

A Comment on Roger Ames’s Confucian Role Ethics: A Philosophical Vocabulary, in Author Meets Critics Book Symposium.

Is attention a cognitive process? I reconstruct and critically assess an argument first proposed by Christopher Mole that it cannot be so. Mole’s argument is influential because it creates theoretical space for a unifying analysis of attention at the subject level (though it does not entail it). Prominent philosophers working on attention such as Wayne Wu and Philipp Koralus explicitly endorse it, while Sebastian Watzl endorses a related version, this despite their differing theoretical commitments. I show that Mole’s argument is (...) invalid, amend it to secure its validity, but argue that it still fails. I consider the extent to which the failure of Mole’s argument spreads to the versions offered by Wu, Koralus and Watlz. Mole’s argument fails because it equivocates between the set of conditions that suffice for constituting attention and the subset of those conditions which are salient, but insufficient, for constituting it. Reflection on this distinction has consequences for the individuation not just of attentional processes but all cognitive processes. (shrink)

Whether it be the China of Confucius or the Germany of Jurgen Moltmann, premodern India or the World Trade Organization, philosophy has brought us face-to-face with the pressing issues of our times. More often than not, these inquiries have stimulated creative responses to the opportunities and problems that shape our experiences. But the responsiveness of inquiry to its respective concerns can only grow according to the dimensions of the conversation underwriting the inquiry itself. With its comparative and interdisciplinary approach, Comparative (...) Philosophy Today and Tomorrow: Proceedings from the 2007 Uehiro CrossCurrents Philosophy Conference creates a space for juxtaposing philosophical views on shared themes, thereby stimulating fresh insight into issues of contemporary significance. From self-cultivation to global justice, from environmental ethics to the interrelation of religion and science, this collection of essays highlights the central role of philosophy, and comparative philosophy in particular, for understanding and appreciating the connections and discontinuities of East and West, if you will, of past, present and future. (shrink)

The United States has a current population of approximately 313.9 million people. In 2013, more than 600 million users had active accounted on Qzone, China’s largest social media site (Millward 2013). Although discussions of social media tend to assume American or European users, social media is a worldwide phenomenon, and different locales bring different concerns to bear on social media ethics. China not only leads the world in terms of sheer numbers of users, but also has the most active environment (...) for social media, ranging from instant chat platforms like QQ to blogs, microblogs, social networking sites, and gaming platforms. Chinese users also spend approximately 40 percent of their time online on social media sites (Chiu, Ip, and Silverman 2012_. Given this, inquiries into social media ethics should involve China (and other non-Anglo-European locales and concerns). This chapter is split into two parts: part I draws on distinctly Chinese philosophical conceptions of living well in order to provide a cultural recontextualization of some of the questions associated with social media and ethical development, and to hopefully enrich larger discussions of social media ethics; part II considers the contemporary situation of social media in China, what social media actually looks like in China, and some of the political concerns surrounding social media in China. (shrink)

While influential works have been devoted to comparative studies of various Asian philosophies and continental philosophers such as Nietzsche, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Derrida, this collection is the first to fully treat the increased interest in intercultural and interdisciplinary studies related to the work of Emmanuel Levinas in such a context. Levinas and Asian Thought seeks to discover common ground between Levinas’s ethical project and various religious and philosophical traditions of Asia such as Mahāyāna Buddhism, Theravādic Buddhism, Vedism, Confucianism, Daoism, and (...) Islam. -/- In these 13 essays, contributors draw on resources as diverse as the self-sacrificial ethic of bushidō, Islamic jurisprudence, and contemporary research in cognitive science. The essays are organized around three primary themes of enduring ethical, political, and religious importance. The first set of essays considers a dialogue between Levinasian and Asian accounts of the self, others, and the intersubjective relationship. Through a conversation with a variety of non-Western traditions, the second group of essays addresses the question of Levinas’s extreme portrayal of the self’s responsibility to the other and its potential limits. Finally, the collection ends with essays that utilize Asian thought and culture to consider ways in which Levinas’s ethics of alterity might be put into practice in the sphere of politics, social norms, and institutions. -/- Levinas and Asian Thought is not only a comprehensive attempt to bring Levinas into conversation with the philosophies of Asia, but it also represents a focused effort to recognize, address, and overcome Levinas’s own Eurocentrism. Overall, the thoughtful investigations collected here chart new territory, pushing Levinas’s practice of philosophy outside its familiar European and Jewish contexts, expanding our understanding of key Levinasian terms, thus furthering the thinking necessary for ethics as first philosophy. This volume will be of interest to a wide range of scholars and students, as it builds connections among Levinas studies, Asian philosophy, comparative philosophy, continental philosophy, and ethics. (shrink)

Faith, broadly construed, is central to the political, social and personal life of any rational agent. I argue for two main claims: first, that a typology of faith based on the fine-grained Indic categories of bhakti, śraddhā, prasāda, abhisaṃpratyaya and abhilāṣa dissolves many of the philosophical problems associated with the nature of faith; second, that this typology of faith has elements that cannot be encompassed in a belief-desire psychology. The upshot is that the structure of the mind is more complicated (...) than belief-desire psychology admits and that understanding the nature of faith has a role to play in charting the structure of the mind. (shrink)

This is a book review of "Why be Moral?" Learning from the Neo-Confucian Cheng Brothers.

Many of the chapters in this volume present focused examinations of methodology for and in Chinese philosophical traditions. They explore questions of how classical Chinese philosophers understood their practices, how different philosophical methodologies impact current study of and engagement with Chinese philosophical traditions, and what methodological innovations might be on the horizon. Many of the authors in this volume point out the ways in which ambient assumptions color our research, and the ways in which engagement across traditions can highlight previously (...) hidden assumptions. In this chapter, instead of focusing on methodology in terms of research, I take methodology as the starting point for considering pedagogical assumptions about Chinese philosophy. Specifically, I argue that how Chinese philosophy was understood and when practiced in its own context, it is not only relevant to but can serve as a meaningful resource for teaching Chinese philosophy. (shrink)

Gutoku Shinran (1173-1263) is one of Japan’s most creative and influential thinkers. He is the (posthumous) founder of what ultimately became Jōdo Shinshū, better known today as Shin Buddhism, the most widely practiced form of Buddhism in Japan. Despite this, his work has not received the global attention of other historical Japanese philosophical figures such as Kūkai (774-835) or Dōgen (1200-1253). The relationships of influence between Shin Buddhism in general—or Shinran’s work more specifically—and earlier Chinese sources, especially non-Buddhist sources, are (...) complex, rarely examined in much detail, and often buried under layers of interpretive difficulties, made all the more challenging for contemporary Anglophone scholars by the ways in which Shin Buddhism has been marginalized in much of the philosophical scholarship on East Asian traditions. Exploring his work through a lens of connection to the broader Chinese philosophical landscape reveals new insights, both for our understanding of Shinran’s philosophical project, and for contemporary comparative engagement across East Asian traditions, helping to resituate Shinran as a globally significant philosopher. (shrink)

Given a compact Polish space E and the hyperspace of its compact subsets , we consider Gδσ-ideals of compact subsets of E. Solecki has shown that any σ-ideal in a broad natural class of Gδ ideals can be represented via a compact subset of ; in this article we examine the behaviour of Gδ subsets of E with respect to the representing set. Given an ideal I in this class, we construct a representing set that recognises a compact subset of (...) E as being “small” precisely when it is in I, and recognises a Gδ subset of E as being “small” precisely when it is covered by countably many compact sets from I. (shrink)

O objetivo deste trabalho consistirá em, sob um determinado recorte, expor e comparar os pensamentos de Charles Sanders Peirce e Bertrand Russell. Far-se-á uma comparação entre as concepções de Peirce e Russell sobre filosofia, matemática e lógica. Essa exposição comparativa terá o objetivo de mostrar e ressaltar as diferenças dos dois autores estudados. Tendo-se em vista esse objetivo, o presente trabalho será dividido em duas seções: na primeira seção, tratar-se-á exclusivamente de Peirce, e será feita uma breve exposição de suas (...) concepções de filosofia, matemática e alguns elementos de lógica; na segunda seção, tratar-se-á de Russell nos temas de filosofia, matemática e lógica, notando-se que, ainda nesta segunda seção, será efetuada, para cada um dos temas tratados, uma comparação entre as ideias de Peirce e de Russell. (shrink)

How would feminist concerns fare in the debate between Confucian role ethics and virtue ethics? Ann Pang-White sketches the contours of a non-dichotomous, role-based virtue ethics that is illuminated by a Confucian feminist account as one possible answer to this query. By reimagining the virtues of chastity and filiality that are indispensable to Confucian contexts, Pang-White seeks to develop a reading that can be useful in defending feminist values and replacing outdated understandings of gender roles in societies informed by Confucian (...) thought today. In continuing the conversation with her, Stephen Angle asks whether a modernized, relational, role-based virtue ethics can really suffice to respond to feminist concerns. Sarah Mattice proposes that Pang-White center intersectional perspectives on feminism for the latter’s project, while Lily Zhang invites her to analyze how certain ethical conflicts that arise within the framework of Confucian ethics between roles and virtues can be resolved from Pang-White’s perspective. Pang-White’s reply to the panel reiterates different aspects of her relational role-based virtue ethical reading of Confucian feminism to argue that a better appreciation of the situatedness and imperfections of morality is needed to understand the imperfections that come in with it. _ _. (shrink)

This book presents consciousness models from Eastern and Western perspectives that accommodate current scientific research in the natural sciences and humanities, from neurological experiments through philosophical enquiries to spiritual approaches. It offers up to date research from key disciplines in consciousness studies ranging from neurology, quantum mechanics, algorithmic science, mathematics, and astrophysics to literary studies, philosophy, and (comparative) theology. The volume examines the dichotomy between Western and Eastern perceptions of consciousness – where consciousness is perceived as brain activity by Western (...) scientists, and as a divine presence by various religions, especially in the East. The essays contextualize each other and reciprocally illuminate the potential and limits of the respective approaches. The texts aim at a transdisciplinary and transcultural exchange of ideas in consciousness studies and address a readership from interested lay-readers to experts of the field. The volume is of interest to researchers of consciousness studies. (shrink)

What is philosophy? What is metaphor? Could thinking take place metaphorically? If one follows the mainstream Western definition of philosophy, the answer to the latter question would certainly be negative. Metaphors are perceived as primitive, pre-analytical, and imprecise—thus pre-philosophical! Drawing on multiple cross-cultural resources, Metaphor and Metaphilosophy: Philosophy as Combat, Play, and Aesthetic Experience by Sarah A. Mattice insightfully challenges this widespread assumption in the current...

Study of Samayasāra, treatise on Jaina philosophy by Kundakunda.

Literary renditions of cities have always gravitated towards the spatial imagination and its ethical counterpart outside the textual space. This paper explores the multicultural geography of the North Indian city Allahabad observed through Neelum Saran Gour’s postcolonial narratives Allahabad Aria and Invisible Ink, projecting the narrative alignment of spatial aesthetics and cultural ethics. Interrogating the spatial dimensions of a “narrative world” within narrative theory and its interdisciplinary crossover with cultural geography, the article seeks to examine Gour’s literary city not (...) simply as an objective homogeneous representation, but as a “kshetra” of spatio-cultural cosmos of lived traditions, memories, experiences and collective attitudes of its people, in the context of E. V. Ramakrishnan’s theoretical reflections. The article proposes new possibilities of adapting the Indian concept “kshetra” to spatial literary studies; its aim is also to suggest a new source of knowledge about the city of Allahabad through a community introspection of “doing culture” in the texts, bringing into view people’s shared experiences, beliefs, religious practices and traditions as offshoots of the postcolonial ethos. The article aims to re-contextualize the city’s longstanding multicultural ethics in the contemporary times of crisis, which may affect a shift in the city’s relevance: from regional concern to large-scale significance within ethnically diverse South Asian countries and beyond. (shrink)

This essay examines the multifaceted roles of drinking parties in early Greece and in medieval China. It takes as paradigm examples descriptions of ritual intoxication in Plato’s Laws and in the poetry of Ouyang Xiu and Mei Yaochen, arguing that these divergent cultural and philosophical traditions can be both related and made distinct through concepts of pleasure, creativity, and social harmony.

pSarah A. Mattice’s emExploring the Heart Sutra/em is an ambitiously creative, well researched, clearly explained, and richly transdisciplinary work. Mattice’s use of music sampling is inspired, and her survey of translation theories and contextualization of the philosophical traditions in Chinese cultures lay out the reasons for her own translation and line commentary on the Heart Sūtra that privileges its Chinese cultural heritage. It would be a fine book even if without the two long chapters in the middle, whose (...) connections with the emHeart Sūtra/em are tenuous./p. (shrink)