This article sheds light on the diversity of meanings and connotations that tend to be lost or hidden in translations between different conceptualizations of nature in East and South-East Asia. It reviews the idea of “nature” in Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Tagalog, Cebuano, Lumad, Indonesian, Burmese, Nepali, Khmer, and Mongolian. It shows that the conceptual subtleties in the conceptualization of nature often hide wider and deeper cosmological mismatches. It concludes by suggesting that these diverse voices need to be represented in (...) global reports on sustainability, which can be fostered by the direct involvement of experts from diverse traditions of thought who have access and interpretative knowledge of sources in languages other than English. To take into consideration the diversity of conceptualizations of nature can lead to better decisions about sustainability and improve the acceptability and efficiency of environmental policies in each local context, as well as internationally. Solutions and policies on the ground must be designed based on the local conceptual and cultural frames. (shrink)

South Africa is a major hub of HIV prevention trials, with plans for a licensure trial to start in 2015. The appropriate standards of care and of prevention in HIV vaccine trials are complex and debated issues and ethical guidelines offer some direction. However, there has been limited empirical exploration of South African stakeholders’ perspectives on ethical guidance related to prevention and care in HIV vaccine trials.

平凡で穏やかに暮らせる「ふつうの幸せ」こそ最大の幸福だと、今、人々はやっと気がついた。雇用、医療、介護など社会のセーフティネットは重要だけれど、自分の外に求めるだけでは、人生はいつまでも満たされない。 「ふつうの幸せ」を手に入れるには、「私が私が」という自慢競争をやめること。お金、恋愛、子どもにしがみつかないこと。物事の曖昧さ、ムダ、非効率を楽しむこと。そして他人の弱さを受け入れること―脱ひとり勝ち 時代の生き方のルールを精神科医が提案。.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Museum Education and the Project of Interpretation in the Twenty-First CenturyRika Burnham and Elliott Kai-KeeThis is what we shall look for as we move: freedom developed by human beings who have acted to make a space for themselves in the presence of others, human beings become "challengers" ready for alternatives, alternatives that include caring and community. And we shall seek, as we go, implications for emancipatory education conducted by (...) and for those willing to take responsibility for themselves and for each other. We want to discover how to open spaces for persons in their plurality, spaces where they can become different, where they can grow.—Maxine Greene, The Dialectic of Freedom, 56In the art museum of the future, we walk into a gallery in which the hum of conversation fills the space. A small group of visitors clusters around a single work of art, exchanging their observations, led quietly in their conversation by a museum educator. The group has gathered for a program in which visitors are invited into a dialogue with the educator, with each other, and above all, with the artwork. As this group's conversation concludes, other groups will take their place, attending to different works of art, unfolding them in different ways.We share with David Carrier a vision of the future museum rooted in the Enlightenment dream of a sphere of conversation accessible to all citizens, a public museum space "devoted to a genuinely democratic talk about visual art." In such a museum the galleries are not primarily considered places where art historical information is transferred. They are instead redefined as places where conversation takes place around works of art and where the project of interpretation is constantly enacted.The educators who are responsible for these conversations have a central place in the future museum. Once charged with translating curatorial interpretations to the public, educators are now charged with including everyone [End Page 11] in the translation of the artworks. Knowledgeable in the collections and experienced with audiences, they bring people and works of art together for appreciation and exploration. Engaged in the exchange of thoughts and observations about artworks, carried into the back-and-forth flow of discussion about the artworks, visitors translate impressions into conjectures, and, ideally, understanding and interpretation.Visitors come to the museum to learn about art through gallery conversations during which they actively take part in a form of interpretive play that animates, and in a sense performs, works of art as visitors look at them and talk about them. When the play is successful, it is full of energy and passion. The museum galleries become active places where ideas are freely exchanged, where hermeneutic improvisation and experimentation are encouraged and valued.The constantly recurring play of art makes the museum a place of interpretive freedom, open to many viewpoints and the possibility of multiple interpretations. Educator and visitor both realize that understandings of works of art are never complete. They know that every conversation opens the artworks to the possibility of new meanings and new interpretations.In the museum of the future, the mission of offering visitors such special experiences is not distinct from the museum's traditional charge of caring for the objects in its collections. For it is only when visitors attend to the works of art, and interpret them, that the artworks come alive. As John Dewey said almost a century ago, the work of art comes alive in the viewer's experience. Visitors, educators, and curators share in the endeavor of making sense of works of art, each taking their own part in the process of bringing them to life with their scrutiny, and keeping them alive as they interpret and reinterpret them.The deepest and most affecting experiences visitors have in art museums are those in which they share in the unfolding, unraveling, and translation of the meaning of artworks. In the museum of the future, everyone is invited into such conversations. Everyone understands that they are important participants in the lives of the objects displayed there, as they take part in the play of interpretation that dances around them.Museums are first and foremost for people; they are... (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Art of Teaching in the MuseumRika Burnham (bio) and Elliott Kai-Kee (bio)A class is studying a small painting by Rembrandt in the galleries of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The museum educator has been inviting the assembled visitors to look ever more closely, guiding the class toward an understanding both of the painting itselfand of our reasons for studying it. The class has been anything (...) but passive—indeed, it has been lively. The painting is The Abduction of Europa (1632), a picture that depicts in delicate detail a story from Greek mythology, the kidnapping of the Phoenician princess Europa by Zeus in the guise of a white bull. The visitors have shared their observations, speculations, ideas. As the class concludes, the museum educator asks the participants to speculate on the painting's larger meaning, to say what they think this work is, finally, about, as revealed by their long discussion. The group's experience has clearly moved beyond the telling of a single story. One participant suggests that Rembrandt's work is about the fearlessness of traveling into the unknown. Another says that it concerns the story of the soul's leaving the earthly for the heavenly realm. When the class comes to an end, people move closer to the painting and continue their discussions.In the same museum, another museum educator is also conducting a group of students through the galleries. He begins with a Roman statue of Venus, followed by an eighteenth-century French terra-cotta bust of Madame Récamier by Joseph Chinard. For each sculpture, he asks the students to focus on only one detail, the hands. The students are encouraged to observe and take note of the sculpted figures' gestures, much as if they were studying a person. Time seems to slow as perception sharpens. The educator listens patiently as the students begin to "read" the sculptures as a whole through the expressiveness of the hands. The group moves on to a mysterious portrait by Millet in which the students discuss the nature of love, and [End Page 65] then to a painting of a Russian princess by Winterhalter, in which the artifice of all the details is suddenly theatrical, dazzling, and delightful. At the end, no one wants to leave.As museum educators we teach in many kinds of programs, and teach in many ways. Every museum educator brings unique gifts to the art of teaching through works of art. The two classes described above might seem at first glance quite different. The first museum educator stays with a single work of art for the entire session, constructs her class around the observations and ideas of the students, and trusts that through their collective experience, a larger meaning will emerge. The second educator inspires his students with a feeling of confidence by guiding their observations of a single feature common to several works, and then allows a main idea to emerge. The two classes, however, are also alike in certain essential ways. In both cases, the students and the instructor are animated, concentrated, focused, and active. Their investigation is tightly focused on the works under discussion, and the group together reaches for a sense of the artworks as a whole. At the end, when the participants cluster around the works of art, still wanting to continue the experience of discovery, the instructors know that theirstudents have understood that engagement with a work of art is a beginning, not an end.The opportunities museum educators have to teach and learn are granted to us by the collections of objects in the care of the institutions in which we work, and by the students and visitors we invite to consider these objects. These artworks also impose upon us a great obligation, to bring them alive for those we lead through the galleries. For ultimately, it is our devoted attention that keeps artworks alive generation after generation.This essay is the result of our work as museum educators. It began with a casual discussion about what constitutes good teaching, and what we can do to guide ourselves and our docent colleagues toward consistent and principled teaching in our museums. We... (shrink)

In this paper we argue for the contribution that deconstruction can make towards an understanding of complex systems. We begin with a description of what we mean by complexity and how Derrida’s thought illustrates a sensitivity towards the problems we face when dealing with complex systems. This is especially clear in Derrida’s deconstruction of the structuralist linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure. We compare this critique with the work of Edgar Morin, one of the foremost thinkers of contemporary complexity and argue (...) for the possible contributions that both thinkers provide towards an understanding of complex phenomena in the world. We then move on to illustrate the particular economy of thinking we are forced to engage with when dealing with complex systems. This economy is inspired by Derrida’s deconstruction of Bataille’s general economy. This economy illustrates the fundamental nature of critique in the process of dealing with complex systems, the third concept we explore in this paper. The process of critique illustrates the necessity for both cutting apart and weaving together of economies in order to maintain the possibility for divergent ways of being in the world. We conclude with the ethical implications of dealing with complex systems and some first steps towards an ‘ethics of complexity’. (shrink)

Responding to Kunneman’s argument that the notion of ‘ethical complexity’ introduces an existential and ethical turn in the field of complexity thinking, it is argued that Kunneman’s concept of ‘diapoiesis’ corresponds to a critical interpretation of ‘complexity thinking’. By applying critical complexity thinking to the notion of voluntary work, Kunneman explores the possibility of rearticulating the notion of voluntary work outside the boundaries of the static economic paradigm of consumption and production of labor. He redefines voluntary work in terms of (...) the many tensions that emerge as a result of belonging to a number of spheres simultaneously. Reconfigured by what can be called a ‘dialogical hermeneutics of complexity thinking’ Kunneman exposes the moral narrative that underpins the ethical imperative that is inextricably linked to ‘civic meaningfulness’. (shrink)

With an excellent compilation of essays, Tetsugaku Companion to Nishida Kitarō offers an answer to one of the foundational questions for any philosophical research: Why Nishida at all? To seasoned...

The traditional narrative of Zen Buddhism focuses on a religious experience that goes beyond words and concepts. I argue that Dōgen’s understanding of enlightenment is not limited to a religious experience, as it involves a creative process of Buddha-making that demands the flexibility to present a novel expression of the Buddha way with the transiency of the impermanent world. In arguing for the processual understanding of the Buddha way and enlightenment, I refer to the fluidity of dao in Chinese philosophy (...) to shed light upon the significance of creativity in authentic practice. By doing so, I explain why an unexamined Zen is problematic for Dōgen. (shrink)

Abstract:This article conducts a close textual analysis of "A Painting of a Rice Cake (Gabyō)," a key fascicle in the Shōbōgenzō that reveals the significance of artistic creation as a metaphor for realizational practice. By analyzing the multiple meanings of "gabyō," it is shown that artistic creation can clarify the nonduality of practice and enlightenment in Dōgen's thought, inasmuch as enlightenment is a constant practice as if making an evanescent and cocreative painting of enlightenment with the entire world as Buddha-nature. (...) For Dōgen, enlightenment involves a deeply personal attunement to and a concrete actualization of the dharma that is not reducible to the purely theoretical understanding of Buddhist texts, and the metaphor of "painting rice cakes" demonstrates the importance of expressive activities in manifesting one's understanding of the dharma. (shrink)

In this article, I examine Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō to reconsider the notion of hope, many discourses of which are characteristically future oriented. Although there is an overwhelming suspicion that hope is incompatible with Buddhism due to its forward-looking nature, I argue that Dōgen’s Buddhist soteriology can establish a present-focused conception of hope that can challenge the dominant discourses of hope. In this comparative analysis, I first examine the conditions for hope and show that most theories regard hope as teleological and future (...) oriented. As Dōgen rejects a linear conception of time, a future-oriented hope collapses in Dōgen’s soteriology. Nevertheless, I argue that Dōgen’s theory of temporality can ascertain a new theory of hope grounded in the interconnectedness of all moments, a present-oriented conception of hope based on the radical teleology established within the moment of the absolute now. Through an analysis of Dōgen’s soteriology from the perspective of hope, it becomes evident that Dōgen’s theory of temporality creates a space for karmic causality while also emphasizing the non-obstruction between practice and enlightenment. Hence, the notion of hope presents a way in which we can reconcile the apparent contradictions between the twelve-fascicle Shōbōgenzō that emphasizes the former and the seventy-five-fascicle version that advocates the latter. Although hope is not central to Buddhist soteriology, this article shows that it is beneficial to analyze Buddhist teachings from the perspective of hope, for not only does it offer a new insight to the growing philosophical discourses on hope, but it also presents a way in which we can reconcile the contradictions within Dōgen’s various writings. (shrink)

This article examines Rancière’s political reading of aesthetics through a historical analysis into the two aesthetic theories of freedom at work in Rancière’s philosophy; Kant’s freedom as self-governance and Schiller’s freedom as harmony. While aesthetic experience is considered morally conducive through its association with freedom, this article argues that Rancière translates such discussions of freedom into that of equality by extracting the political dimensions of aesthetic experience. Given that art has the unique ability to empower the spectator through its aesthetic (...) experience of equality, the true political potential of art arises from its power to redistribute the sensible rather than through the overt expression of political themes. By juxtaposing Rancière’s politics of art with Kant’s beauty as the symbol of morality, this article argues that art becomes a symbol of political emancipation for Rancière in its capacity to generate the experience of equality. Inasmuch as Rancière attributes the aesthetic revolution to the eighteenth century, it becomes evident that the empowerment of the spectator has been central to art since the inauguration of the aesthetic regime. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Zen Pathways by Bret W. DavisRika Dunlap (bio)Zen Pathways. By Bret W. Davis. New York: Oxford Unity Press, 2022. Pp. 455. Hardcover $110.00, isbn 978-0-19-757369-3.Bret Davis introduces Zen Pathways as his attempt to write "the book that I wish had been there for me to read more than thirty years ago, when I started down the parallel pathways of Zen and philosophy" (p. xi). Although much ink has (...) been spilled on the tradition that claims to be beyond words and letters, Davis thinks that this book "makes a unique contribution, one that will be welcomed especially by readers who are interested in both the philosophy and practice of Zen" (p. xi). Davis is right: Zen Pathways stands out as an excellent book of Zen for both philosophers and practitioners as well as for students who are interested in Mahāyāna Buddhism or modern Japanese philosophy of the Kyoto School. The scope of the book is quite comprehensive with twenty-four chapters that seamlessly flow to cover the fundamental teachings of Zen and the philosophical issues therein. While Davis does not divide these chapters with headings, some chapters can be group together under certain themes; the overview of Zen (chapters 1–2), practice of meditation (chapters 3–4), overview of Buddhism, especially Mahāyāna, from the perspective of Zen (chapters 5–7, 10), no self and enlightenment (chapters 8–9, 11), comparative analyses with Christianity (chapters 8–9, 12–16, 23), notable topics in Zen, such as language, art, no-mind, and nature (chapters 17–20), Zen and modern Japanese philosophy (chapters 21), different schools of Zen (chapters 22), and the oxherding pictures as the path of Zen (chapters 24). Readers can focus on one specific theme or read the whole book to get a good grasp of Zen Buddhist philosophy.One of the strengths of Zen Pathways is that it offers clear explanations and rigorous philosophical analyses of Zen teachings without becoming either a purely scholarly inquiry or an anti-intellectual apology for the impossibility of explaining enlightenment. In Chapter 1, "What Really Is Zen?", Davis explains the foundation of Zen in a nutshell: "Zen is neither a matter of subjective opinion nor a matter of objective doctrine; it is a matter of universal truths manifesting in ways and words appropriate to particular times and places" (p. 15). This characterization clarifies two important aspects of enlightenment in Zen Buddhism: there are universal truths or insights that practitioners are after, and once they learn them, they need to live by these insights and actualize [End Page 1] these truths in their own particular ways. Davis endeavors to balance these two aspects through the rigorous yet engaging ways in which he develops these chapters, offering clear philosophical explanations of teachings and kōans while supplying stories and examples from his own experiences of Zen practice. Thus, this book is not just on Zen but of Zen, negotiating these aspects to strike what he calls "the appropriate middle way between the unwholesome and unhelpful extremes of being 'stingy with the Buddha Dharma,' on the one hand, and spreading 'the stench of Zen' by flaunting [his] personal experience, on the other" (p. xix). Given that the intended primary audience is teachers and students in college courses on Asian and comparative philosophy and religion, this book, with the academic rigor of a scholar and the personal touch of a practitioner, is an outstanding resource to learn and teach these universal truths of Zen.The details of these truths are spelled out in chapters 5–11 in particular, as Davis offers philosophical explanations of Zen Buddhist teachings, such as the Four Noble Truths, Middle Way, anātman, nonduality of self and other, panentheism, and enlightenment as realizing one's true self or kenshō. Before plunging into these technical notions, Davis makes it clear that all of these are ultimately about self, that Zen is about realizing one's true self to discover within "an opening to the outside, an opening that in fact frees us from the rigid and absolute distinctions we are accustomed to making between inside and outside, self and other, and... (shrink)

What is the role of feelings (jō) in Dōgen’s Buddhist thought? Throughout the Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki, it is clear that Dōgen has a negative view of human feelings (ninjō), as he thinks they are born out of our ignorance. Nevertheless, Dōgen does not dismiss feelings per se, insofar as we can align our disposition and emotional responses according to the Buddha way. The key to this alignment is compassion: although Dōgen refers to human feelings as something negative, his elucidations are qualified (...) with references to compassion (jihi 慈悲) as the expression of enlightenment. Therefore, what is important in following and actualizing the Buddha way is not the dismissal of feelings altogether but the transformation of them in accordance with the Buddha way. In this chapter, I argue that proper compassionate feeling is important for Dōgen because it is indicative of one’s personal attunement to the impermanence of all, nonduality of all beings, and prevalence of Buddha-nature, which are crucial for realizational practice as an expression of enlightenment. (shrink)

An accessible introduction to Zen Buddhist moral philosophy.

The aim of this study was to use ethical arguments to strengthen the relationship between the concepts of legitimacy and evaluation. The analysis is based on the ethics of Levinas and Buber and is motivated by a sense of responsibility using dialogical ideology as a mediator. The main questions in this study consider the following: Does caring science as an independent academic discipline have the moral responsibility to develop a theory for evaluating the quality of basic research? and Will such (...) a quality evaluation theory have a reasonable probability of introducing legitimization into caring science? On an ethical level, this study introduces a meaningful interaction inspired by social demands and is linked to the concept of research justification. Legitimization turns from an abstract idea to an achievable entity by an act. The act of evaluation has the likelihood of delegating legitimacy and empowers the foundation of caring science, which in turn will become a cornerstone of nursing. At this stage there is no intention to develop an evaluation theory, rather to create a meaningful discussion for the future development of an ethics-based theory. (shrink)

Open peer commentary on the article “Loving the Earth by Loving a Place: A Situated Approach to the Love of Nature” by Laura Candiotto. Abstract: We highlight the radicalness of Candiotto’s proposal, by following the flow of the conceptual devices that create a new language for deepening ways of thinking and enacting our relation with the Earth, in terms of loving sense-making, enactive listening, and becoming native.

Verse treatise, with autocommentary and supercommentaries, on the basic concepts and epistemology of Nyāya and Vaiśeṣika schools in Indic philosophy.

The objective of this paper is to analyze the broader significance of Frege’s logicist project against the background of Wittgenstein’s philosophy from both Tractatus and Philosophical Investigations. The article draws on two basic observations, namely that Frege’s project aims at saying something that was only implicit in everyday arithmetical practice, as the so-called recursion theorem demonstrates, and that the explicitness involved in logicism does not concern the arithmetical operations themselves, but rather the way they are defined. It thus represents the (...) attempt to make explicit not the rules alone, but rather the rules governing their following, i.e. rules of second-order type. I elaborate on these remarks with short references to Brandom’s refinement of Frege’s expressivist and Wittgenstein’s pragmatist project. (shrink)

Verse treatise, with autocommentary and supercommentaries, on the basic concepts and epistemology of Nyāya and Vaiśeṣika schools in Indic philosophy.

Treatise also known as Bhāṣāpariccheda on the basic tenets of the Nyāya and Vaiśeṣika schools in Hindu philosophy; includes autocommentary.

Work on Nyaya philosophy; includes Siddhāntamuktāvalī autocommentary and Dinakarī of Dinakarabhaṭṭa, 18th cent.

Classical verse treatise, with autocommentary and commentaries, on the fundamentals of Nyāya and Vaiśesika school in Hindu philosophy.

On Vedanta philosophy ; Sanskrit text with Hindi translation and explanation.

Study of Yuktidīpikā, classical commentary on Sānkhyakārikā of Īśvarakr̥ṣṇa.

Study with text of Vedāntakārikāvalī of Bucci Veṅkaṭācāryulu, 18th/19th cent., work on Viśiṣṭādvaita philosophy.