For too long, scholars interested in panentheism have focused almost exclusively on Western approaches to the issue. This book offers the first in-depth study of a wide range of Indian paradigms of panentheism, both ancient and modern, and brings these paradigms into creative and constructive dialogue with Western traditions. This volume features original essays written by leading international scholars. The volume discusses a broad range of Indian panentheistic traditions, including the Upaniads, Bhedbheda Vednta, Rmnuja's Viidvaita Vednta, Yogcra Buddhism, (...) and the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda tradition. The chapters connect these traditions with Western panentheistic conceptions developed by thinkers such as Spinoza, Berkeley, Schopenhauer, Krause, Royce, Tononi and Koch, and Western process philosophers. Panentheism in Indian and Western Thought will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in philosophy of religion, Indian philosophy, comparative philosophy, and comparative religion. (shrink)

_Essays on Beauvoir’s influences, contemporary engagements, and legacy in the philosophical tradition._.

This is a comprehensive introduction to the history of Western Philosophy from the Pre-Socratics to Twentieth Century thought. In addition to all the key figures, the book covers figures whose contributions have so far been overlooked, such as Vico, Montesquieu, Durkheim and Weber. Along with in-depth discussion of the philosophical movements, Skirbekk and Gilje also discuss the natural sciences, the establishment of the Humanities, Socialism and Fascism, Psychoanalysis, and the rise of the social sciences. _History of Western (...) Thought_ is an ideal introduction to philosophy and the sociological and scientific structures that have shaped modern day philosophy. (shrink)

The question at the centre of this paper is part of a larger debate. Though the more limited question is hardly ever asked in academic discussions, the larger question – how can knowledge - or more broadly and less helpfully- thought in the world outside the West can be decolonized is at the center of lively debates surrounding the ‘end’ of postcolonial theory. Even this question can be asked in two significantly separate forms: about decolonizing knowledge in these societies; (...) or, alternative, knowledge about these societies, which would presumably include knowledge produced in the Western academia about these societies. The two propositions make a lot of difference. This essay, therefore, deals with that larger question of the humanistic and the historical sciences indirectly, because I believe that without becoming clear about this smaller question – what is Western about Western thought? - which might strike people as odd, we cannot make much progress. Indeed, my claim is that so much of uncertainty still attaches to the first discussion – whether we are making any progress at all or not – is precisely because the second question is not seen with clarity as being a precondition to making progress in the first. (shrink)

This is a comprehensive introduction to the history of Western Philosophy from the Pre-Socratics to Twentieth Century thought. In addition to all the key figures, the book covers figures whose contributions have so far been overlooked, such as Vico, Montesquieu, Durkheim and Weber. Along with in-depth discussion of the philosophical movements, Skirbekk and Gilje also discuss the natural sciences, the establishment of the Humanities, Socialism and Fascism, Psychoanalysis, and the rise of the social sciences. _History of Western (...) Thought_ is an ideal introduction to philosophy and the sociological and scientific structures that have shaped modern day philosophy. (shrink)

This challenging and beautifully written book describes the leading ideas of Indian philosophy and religion. It traces the probable influence of Indian mysticism on Greek thought and Christian development, through Alexandrian Judaism, Christian Gnosticism, and Neo-Platonism. The author argues that Christianity, which arose out of an eastern background and became wedded to Graeco-Latin culture, will find rebirth in a renewed alliance with this Eastern heritage.

Dooyeweerd would be the first to disclaim originality, or that his is a final system, but rather declares that his is a development of Christian philosophy on the biblical foundations of John Calvin and Abraham Kuyper. As such, his philosophy is of major importance and of far-reaching implications. Dooyeweerd discusses in this work the pretended autonomy of theoretical thought ; the sense of history and the historicistic world- and life-view ; the relationship between philosophy and theology and concludes it (...) with a chapter on the question: What is a human person? (shrink)

Dooyeweerd discusses in this work the pretended autonomy of theoretical thought; the sense of history and the historicistic world- and life-view; the relationship between philosophy and theology; and concludes with a chapter on the question: What is a human person.

Reexamines the Western philosophical tradition, looking at the basic concepts of the mind, time, causation, morality, and the self.

For too long, scholars interested in panentheism have focused almost exclusively on Western approaches to the issue. This book offers the first in-depth study of a wide range of Indian paradigms of panentheism, both ancient and modern, and brings these paradigms into creative and constructive dialogue with Western traditions. This volume features original essays written by leading international scholars. The volume discusses a broad range of Indian panentheistic traditions, including the Upaniṣads, Bhedābheda Vedānta, Rāmānuja's Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta, Yogācāra Buddhism, (...) and the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda tradition. The chapters connect these traditions with Western panentheistic conceptions developed by thinkers such as Spinoza, Berkeley, Schopenhauer, Krause, Royce, Tononi and Koch, and Western process philosophers. Panentheism in Indian and Western Thought will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in philosophy of religion, Indian philosophy, comparative philosophy, and comparative religion. (shrink)

From Socrates and the Sophists to Kant, from Augustine to Aquinas and the Reformers, Colin Brown traces the turbulent, often tension-filled, always fascinating story of the thinkers, ideas and movements that have shaped our intellectual landscape. Is philosophy the "handmaiden of faith" or "the doctrine of demons"? Does it clarify the faith or undermine the very heart of Christian belief?Brown writes, "This book is about the changes in preconceptions, world views and paradigms that have affected the ways in which people (...) have thought about religion in general and Christianity in particular in the Western world.... It is a historical sketch, written to help students--and anyone else who might be interested--to get a better grasp of the love-hate relationship between philosophy and faith that has gone on for close to two thousand years."Students, pastors and thoughtful Christians will benefit from this rich resource. The first in a proposed three-volume work, Brown's easy-to-read, hard-to-put-down introduction to Christianity and Western thought focuses on developments from the ancient world to the Age of Enlightenment. (shrink)

Expanding the scope of existential discourse beyond the Western tradition, this book engages Asian philosophies to reassess vital questions of life's purpose, death's imminence, and our capacity for living meaningfully in conditions of uncertainty. Inspired by European existentialism in theory, the book explores concrete techniques for existential practice via the philosophies of East Asia. The investigation begins with the provocative existential writings of twentieth-century Korean Buddhist nun Kim Iryop, who asserts that meditative concentration conducts a potent energy outward throughout (...) the entire karmic network, enabling the radical transformation of our shared existential conditions. Understanding her claim requires a study of East Asian traditions more broadly. Considering practices as diverse as Song-dynasty Chinese views on mental cultivation, Buddhist merit-making ceremonies, the ritual memorization and recitation of texts, and Yijing divination, the book concludes by advocating a speculative turn. This 'speculative existentialism' counters the suspicion toward metaphysics characteristic of twentieth-century European existential thought and, at the same time, advances a program for action. It is not a how-to guide for living, but rather a philosophical methodology that takes seriously the power of mental cultivation to transform the meaning of the life that we share. (shrink)

I begin this paper with some autobiographical reflections of my own journey in Chinese languages and philosophy not only in order to demonstrate how Chinese philosophy can change one’s attitudes toward Western philosophy, but also to suggest that the shift in philosophical perspective that occurs—when viewed through a Chinese lens—is reasonable. The second half of this paper consists of interpretative hypotheses about the content of Chinese philosophy vis-à-vis the West. I reflect more specifically how the different structure of the (...) Chinese language seems to have worked in Chinese philosophical reflection and contrast that with the way intentional idioms did in Western philosophy. Looking mainly at theory of language, the key similarity between the two traditions is expressed in the current “pragmatic” view that “meaning” is irreducibly normative. The differences that attend to this formulation between Chinese and Western thought will also be discussed. (shrink)

I try to outline parallels and differences between eastern and western thought about the supreme reality, And to answer the question: to what extent is theism found in both traditions? western classical theism is found significantly similar to advaita vedantism and even to mahayana buddhism. None of these is theistic in the full sense of identifying the God of worship with the supremely real. Some forms of non-Classical western theism and of pluralistic vedantism (bengali school, Founded (...) by sri jiva goswami) make this identification. Western classical pantheism is also considered--As another non-Genuine form of theism. Hua yen buddhism is similar. (shrink)

This book traces the genealogy of ideas of reason, self and sexuality in the West, opening the way to a richer and more diverse understanding of sexual experience. Western philosophy and religion have distorted and continue to distort our experience of sex and love through three far-reaching constellations of reason, self and sexuality. Thinkers like Plato, Aquinas and Kant helped to fashion an ascetic ideal of reason hostile to bodily pleasures and sexual diversity. By contrast, philosophical hedonism advocates a (...) less demanding conception of rationality and defends sexual pleasure. But this approach of thinkers like Hume, Bentham, La Mettrie and de Sade is still one-sided and limiting. A third constellation, Romanticism avoids the limitations of both forms of rationalism, but in the name of a religion of love and passion that ultimately threatens the integrity of the self. In Reason and Sexuality in Western Thought, a richer understanding of sexual experience is traced to a dissident philosophical tradition. In their different ways Montaigne, Spinoza, Hegel and Kierkegaard, Marcuse and Foucault contribute to a more holistic, multi-layered and open conception of reason, sexuality and the self. This book will be essential reading for all students of philosophy and gender studies. (shrink)

The article relates Ch'an Buddhism, to Western thought via the philosophy of Spinoza, in particular through the concept of substance. It shows that Spinoza abandoned this concept as a fundamental metaphysical one. The consequent reuse of ?substance? requires a re?examination of the concepts of property and identity. It is seen that Spinoza made this drastic break with Western tradition by experiencing egolessness, the psychological basis for his metaphysical moves. The move is illustrated by the development of quantum (...) physics. Egolessness and a rethinking of identity are basic to a feeling for, if not an understanding of, Ch'an Buddhism. (shrink)

This book compares Chinese thought to that of the West. With recent Western interest in Chinese Buddhism (also known as Zen) and Daoism an understanding of their underlying ways of thinking is crucial for approaching them properly. The topics treated include worldview, world -- man relation, and mind and consciousness. A unique feature of the book is the comparison between Daoism and Chinese Buddhism on the one hand, and the Greek schools of Epicureanism and Stoicism on the other. (...) A remarkable similarity as well as a significant difference is found between these ways of life. In both China and Greece they learned how to live in the 'Now'. But in China this is centred around the body, while in Greece this was a strictly rational pursuit. The main differences between the Chinese and Western ways can be summarised in the words 'accord' and 'separation'. Clearly, in East and West different roads have been, and still are walked. Yet, these roads do not inevitably entail different ways of life. 'Walking two roads at once' (Zhuangzi) it is possible to go beyond accord and separation. (shrink)

The article comprises three parts. Part I contains an overview of the areas in the analysis of modern French philosophy that have been of the greatest relevance to Russian researchers over the last years. We conclude that numerous aspects of the French philosophical thought of the twentieth century are well represented in the research of Russian authors, who also point out the emerging trends in its development. Part II deals with the development of analytic philosophy in Russia within the (...) framework of such areas as “critique of bourgeois philosophy”, a purely ideological stand only nominally related to philosophy, logic, and the history of philosophy and theoretical research. Part III contains a periodization of the history of phenomenology in Russia, pointing out the most important achievements of the contemporary Russian scholars of phenomenology as well as their understanding of the essence, the problems, and the aims of phenomenological philosophy. We also indicate the tendencies within the development of the discipline in the Russian Federation. (shrink)

이 글에서는 전쟁이 갖는 의미와 역할에 대해 논구했던 대표적인 서양근대 사상가들의 전쟁관을 고찰한다. 다수의 서양 근대사상가들은 전쟁 현상을 적극적으로 부정하거나 거부하지 않았고 오히려 국가운영과 정치활동에서 불가피하게 겪어야 하는 하나의 필요악으로 간주하였다. 이 글에서 다룬 마키아벨리, 홉스, 클라우제비츠, 헤겔 등도 예외가 아니다. 그럼에도 우리는 서양 주류학자들의 이른바 승전론(勝戰論)이나 낙관적인 전쟁해석을 맹목적으로 따를 것이 아니라, 오히려 역사 속에서 정의와 공존의 이상에 기초해서 평화의 가치를 역설한 인물들을 기억하고 그 이념을 계승하도록 노력해야 할 것이다. 우리는 일차적으로 선별된 서양근대 사상가들의 전쟁론에 내포되어 있는 이념적 특성과 (...) 그것의 한계를 분석할 것이다. 나아가 우리는 이를 바탕으로 해방이후 서구사상의 수용과 해석에 치중함으로써 사상적, 현실적 차원에서 그로부터 막대한 영향을 받아 왔지만, 냉철한 현실인식과 독자적인 가치판단에 따른 전쟁과 평화관을 제시하지 못한 채 여전히 분단과 휴전 상태에 머물고 있는 우리 한국사회에 시사하는 바가 무엇인지 음미할 것이다. (shrink)

The third international conference on classical influences took place in Cambridge in 1977 under the title 'Classical Influences in Western Education, Philosophy and Social Theory'. Dr Bolgar has here collected and edited the proceedings and produced a volume which attempts to relate the progress of classical studies to the general history of ideas from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth century. The book should be of interest to specialists in classical studies, to students of the literature of the period, and (...) to students of eighteenth-century French, Italian and American history. (shrink)

Within the Western tradition we can find important and interesting philosophical differences between the continental European and the Anglo-American ethical and political outlooks towards biotechnology. The Anglo-American attitude appears based on naturalistic and empiricist views, while continental European viewpoints are built on idealistic liberal humanism. A Northern European view integrates both of the above-mentioned liberal traditions. The main problem is that although these different outlooks can be said to be liberal in their common promotion of equality, autonomy, and individual (...) rights, they still tend to conflict. I purpose to explicate the main differences of these liberalisms and to analyze how they affect the ethical views towards biotechnology in the Western world. Secondly, I will search for the shared values involved in these approaches in order to find common ground for open discussion on the ethical problems involved in biotechnological development. (shrink)

The significance of the plurality of the Copernican Revolution is the main thrust of this undergraduate text In this study of the Copernican Revolution, the ...

A collection of ten new papers by ten authors, exploring respects in which there are Judaic sources for important (and often contested) Western moral and political ideas and ideals. It focuses on distinctively Judaic roots of the so-called 'Judeo-Christian tradition.'.

The definitions and distinctions of thematics in this collection are of intrinsic interest, then, to Classical and Late Antique, Medieval, Renaissance, and ...