Mainstream educational theory and practice tend to favour what Freire, in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, has called ‘banking education’, in which students are seen as depositories of knowledge. But seeing pedagogy as a matter of simply communicating knowledge misses the epistemological complexities of our relationship with the world. By means of a reading of the Dao De Jing and the Zhuangzi, in this paper I intend to explore how the communication of not-knowing may be of central value in teaching and (...) learning. Arguing that our lives are characterised by an ‘epistemological chaos’ in which the distinctions between knowing and not-knowing can never be firmly established, I suggest that the Daoist texts may allow teachers and students to rethink the purpose of education as a matter of yang sheng, or ‘nourishing life, by means of developing skill in dealing with the epistemological chaos in which we are immersed. [China Media Research. 2014; 10: 10-19]. (shrink)

To the complete novice learning about philosophy can be daunting. The Philosophy Book changes all that. With the use of powerful and easy to follow images, succinct quotations, and explanations that are easily understandable, this book cuts through any misunderstandings to demystify the subject.

Levinas, Storytelling and Anti-Storytelling explores the troubling nature of storytelling through a reading of the work of Emmanuel Levinas. Levinas is a thinker who has a complex relationship with literature and with storytelling.

The telling of tales is always a troubling business, and the way in which we tell stories about ourselves and about others always involves a degree of ethical risk. Levinas, Storytelling and Anti-Storytelling explores the troubling nature of storytelling through a reading of the work of Emmanuel Levinas. Levinas is a thinker who has a complex relationship with literature and with storytelling. At times, Levinas is a teller of powerful tales about ethics; at other times, on ethical grounds, he disavows (...) storytelling altogether. Levinas, Storytelling and Anti-Storytelling explores the tensions between philosophy and storytelling that run throughout Levinas's work. By asking about how Levinas tells and untells his stories, and by risking the telling of tales that Levinas himself does not dare to tell, this book opens up new ways of thinking about Levinas's ethics of responsibility. It may be, as Levinas often insists, that storytelling presents us with ethical dangers; but Levinas, Storytelling and Anti-Storytelling makes the case that an ethics of responsibility may demand that, whilst mindful of these dangers, we nevertheless continually seek out new stories to tell about ourselves, about others and about the world. (shrink)

Explains the history of philosophy and demystifies some of its most hard-to-grasp concepts. This is done by arranging the philosophers in chronological order from 700 BCE and Thales of Miletus to the present and Slavoj Zizek.

This essay explores the cultural translation of the Chinese classic, the Book of Changes or Yijing through a reflection on my own attempts to adapt, use and misuse the text in literary form. My own engagement with the Yijing began when I set out to write a novel- of sorts based on the Chinese classic. The process of writing this novel, Sixty-Four Chance Pieces: A Book of Changes, has required not only that I culturally translate the Yijing, but that I (...) allow myself to be culturally translated in turn by this text. By combining theoretical approaches from China and the West, and by crossing between theoretical reflection and storytelling, this essay explores the complexity of this double cultural translation of readers and texts by asking what it might mean to understand, misunderstand or fail to understand a text as it is transmitted between often divergent contexts. (shrink)

How did the universe begin? What is truth? How can we live good live? The Little Book of Philosophy answers these questions and more. Packed with simple explanations, witty illustrations, and step-by-step diagrams that untangle complex theories, you'll find plenty of food for thought in this book, whether you're a novice, a student, or an armchair philosopher"--Page 4 of cover.