This book summarizes the author's extensive research on Confucian morality issues and focuses on elaborating the extremely important and unique role of moral thought in Confucian ideology. The book shares the author's own standpoints on a range of issues - including where moral thoughts originated, what the major principles are, and what methods were adopted in Confucianism - to form a comprehensive and in-depth interpretation, and help readers achieve a better understanding. Moreover, the book focuses on the similarities and differences between Chinese and western cultures and presents an in-depth analysis of the differences and roots regarding various aspects, including Chinese and western historical development paths, thoughts and cultures, national spirits, national mentalities, and social governance models. The formation of either culture has its own practical reasons and historical roots. The book represents a major contribution, helping readers understand the similarities and differences between Chinese and western cultures and social civilizations, enabling them to integrate and learn from Chinese and western cultures, and promoting a better development for Chinese society and the international community alike. Combining detailed data and an approachable style, it contributes to the legacy of Confucianism by applying a critical attitude. The author thinks out of the box in terms of theoretical analysis and studies on certain issues. As such, the book will be of great academic value in terms of studying China's ideological culture, especially its morality culture, and will benefit scholars and research institutions alike.

This book gathers essays that introduce the ideological advances in the philosophy of engineering and technology in contemporary China. It particularly focuses on China's distinctive concepts and methods, revealing different views and academic debates to offer readers a comprehensive overview of this important field. The contributors present unique perspectives based on practical problems and traditional philosophy, examining such issues and concepts as axiology and theories of process, the difference between engineering activities and technology activities, and the core of the relationship between "Dao" and "Technique." Other essays cover the ethics of technology, practical wisdom (phronesis) and practical reasoning, as well as creative concepts and methods concerning the philosophical problems in high technology, architectural technology, and technological innovation. The authors also consider more general issues in the field. This book compiles the relevant research achievements of Chinese scholars in various time periods. Some authors have revised and translated into English papers published in Chinese, while others present their research in English specifically for this study. An annotated bibliography of the major publications in the field completes this collection.

This book investigates the internationalization of Chinese culture in recent decades and the global dimensions of Chinese culture from comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives. It covers a variety of topics concerning the contemporary significance of Chinese culture in its philosophical, literary and artistic manifestations, including literature, film, performing arts, creative media, linguistics, translations and philosophical ideas. The book explores the reception of Chinese culture in different geographic locations and how the global reception of Chinese culture contrasts with the local Chinese community. The chapters collectively cover gender studies and patriarchal domination in Chinese literature in comparison to the world literature, explorations on translation of Chinese culture in the West, Chinese studies as an academic discipline in the West, and Chinese and Hong Kong films and performances in the global context. The book is an excellent resource for both scholars and students interested in the development of Chinese culture on the global stage in the 21st Century.

This Handbook provides a robust collection of vibrant discourses on African social ethics and ethical practices. It focuses on how the ethical thoughts of Africans are forged within the context of everyday life, and how in turn ethical and philosophical thoughts inform day-to-day living. The essays frame ethics as a historical phenomenon best examined as a historical movement, the dynamic ethos of a people, rather than as a theoretical construct. It thereby offers a bold, incisive, and fresh interpretation of Africa's ethical life and thought.

This book presents the research achievements of Jin Yuelin, the first logician and a prominent philosopher in China, who founded a new philosophical system combining elements from Western and Chinese philosophical traditions, especially the concept of Tao. It consists of three sections: the first section interprets Jin's studies on Chinese philosophy, Russell's ideology and other general discussions in the field; section 2 includes Jin's studies on logic, which made him the founding father of modern logic in China; and section 3 presents Jin's ideas on politics, including his studies on Thomas Hill Green.

This book contains short analyses (kaidai) of Ogyu Sorai's (1666-1728) most important works, as well as a biography and a number of essays. The essays explore various aspects of his teachings, of the origins of his thought, and of the reception of his ideas in Japan, China, and Korea before and after "modernization" struck in the second half of the nineteenth century. Ogyu Sorai has come to be considered the pivotal thinker in the intellectual history of Early Modern Japan. More research has been done on Sorai than on any other Confucian thinker of this period. This book disentangles the modern reception from the way in which Sorai's ideas were understood and evaluated in Japan and China in the century following his death. The joint conclusion of the research of a number of the foremost specialists in Japan, Taiwan, and the West is that Sorai was and remains an original, innovative, and important thinker, but that his position within East-Asian thought should be redefined in terms of the East-Asian tradition to which he belonged, and not in the paradigms of European History of Philosophy or Intellectual History. The book represents up-to-date scholarship and allows both the young scholar to acquaint himself with Sorai, and the intellectual historian to compare Sorai with other thinkers of other times and of other philosophical traditions.

This open access book offers comprehensive information on Wang Yang-ming's life, helping readers identify and grasp the foundations on which his philosophy was established. Though a great man, Wang had an extremely difficult life, full of many hardships. Based on various official histories, Wang's own writings, and his disciples' records, the book explores the legendary life of this ancient philosopher, who not only diligently pursued his objective of living as a sage, but also persistently sought the ideal state of a sage in ideology. The author also shares his own interpretations of the main aspects of Wang's philosophy using simple and straightforward language. This book will help readers understand and appreciate Wang Yang-ming's extraordinary life, his generous mind, deep thoughts and bright personality, inspiring them to pursue enriching lives. It offers a unique and insightful work for undergraduate students and all others interested in Wang's philosophy and life story.

This book explores feminine archetypes and mythological figures in African and European traditions with an underlying goal of describing the foundations of social status for women. The author provides a rich corpus of mythology and tales to illustrate aspects of female and mother-daughter relationships. Diop analyzes the symbolic aspects of maternity and femininity, describing the social meaning of the matrix, breasts, and breastfeeding. A retrospective of female characters in African literature brings an interesting approach to explore the figures of femininity and maternity in society. After an extensive analysis of African mythology and tales, the author proposes a way to integrate them in the clinical psychotherapy as a projective material. The analysis of clinical cases offers an example of how this material can be used in therapy with women from African descent.

This book uses the mutual interactions between Chinese and Western culture as a point of departure in order to concisely introduce the origins and evolution of Chinese culture at the aspects of constitution, thinking, values and atheistic. This book also analyzes utensil culture, constitution culture and ideology culture, which were perfected by absorbing classic arguments from academia. As such, the book offers an essential guide to understanding the development, civilization and key ideologies in Chinese history, and will thus help to promote Chinese culture and increase cultural awareness.

This book examines all verses of the Quran involving knowledge related concepts. It begins with the argument that an analysis of the Quranic concept of ignorance points to epistemic virtues that can pave our way towards gaining knowledge and/or understanding. It deals with the Quranic concepts of perceptual, rational, and revelatory knowledge as well as understanding and wisdom in the light of recent discussions in Western analytic epistemology. It also argues that the relevant Quranic verses seem to involve concept of an epistemic conscience whose proper exercise can yield knowledge or understanding. While not overlooking the Quranic emphasis on revelation as a source of knowledge, the book draws our attention to a remarkable overlap between some strains of contemporary virtue epistemology and Quranic approach to knowledge. It shows that the Quranic verses suggest a progressive sequence from propositional knowledge to understanding to wisdom.

Mindfulness for the High Performance World provides a unique approach to mindfulness training, built upon the principles of Buddhist philosophy written in line with the Dalai Lama's description of meditation and mindfulness as "Science of the Mind". This unique volume explores mindfulness as a learnable skill in context with the underpinnings of the teachings of Eastern psychology. The authors, Norm, a physician, cancer researcher and triathlete and Karolynn, a psychotherapist, mindfulness meditation teacher and marathoner, live and work in a high-stress, high-expectation world. Their approach is rooted in an understanding that thoughts produce biochemical and physiological changes and provides a strategic framework to instruct an individual on how to categorize types of thoughts. After harnessing this ability, one is positioned to become both more aware of his or her thoughts as well as the specific patterns of sensations they produce, or Sentinel Sites . The awareness of what the mind is doing and the ability to interrupt a thought pattern and/or control the response almost instantly leads one to having a healthier life, improved relationships with others and better adaptability to one's environment. Emphasizing the importance of physical activity and nutrition, the authors present a systematic approach for people who want to learn and incorporate mindfulness and transform how they live without having to divert their lives and careers. Offering itself as an accessible and skill-based introduction to the principles, practices, and benefits of mindfulness, Mindfulness for the High Performance World is a useful resource for students, athletes and professionals living and working in high-performance, high-stress environments and also for mindfulness practitioners seeking to deepen their skill level.

Buddhism is one of the oldest and largest of the world's religions. But it is also a tradition that has proven to have enormous contemporary relevance. Founded by Siddhartha Gautama, who came to be called the Buddha, the religion has spread from its origins in northeast India, across Asia, and eventually to the West, taking on new forms at each step of the way. Buddhism: What Everyone Needs to Know offers readers a brief, authoritative guide to one of the world's most diverse religious traditions in a reader-friendly question-and-answer format. Dale Wright covers the origins and early history of Buddhism, the diversity of types of Buddhism throughout history, and the status of contemporary Buddhism. This is a go-to book for anyone seeking a basic understanding of the origins, history, teachings, and practices of Buddhism.

This definitive volume is the first modern translation of Vatsyayana's Kama Sutra to include two essential commentaries: the Jayamangala of Yashodhara and the modern Hindi commentary by Devadatta Shastri. Alain Danilou spent four years comparing versions of the Kama Sutra in Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, and English, drawing on his intimate experience of India, to preserve the full explicitness of the original. I wanted to demystify India, he writes, to show that a period of great civilization, of high culture, is forcibly a period of great liberty.

How a hybrid Confucian-engendered form of governance might solve today's political problems What might a viable political alternative to liberal democracy look like? In Against Political Equality, Tongdong Bai offers a possibility inspired by Confucian ideas. Bai argues that domestic governance influenced by Confucianism can embrace the liberal aspects of democracy along with the democratic ideas of equal opportunities and governmental accountability to the people. But Confucianism would give more political decision-making power to those with the moral, practical, and intellectual capabilities of caring for the people. While most democratic thinkers still focus on strengthening equality to cure the ills of democracy, the proposed hybrid regime-made up of Confucian-inspired meritocratic characteristics combined with democratic elements and a quasi-liberal system of laws and rights-recognizes that egalitarian qualities sometimes conflict with good governance and the protection of liberties, and defends liberal aspects by restricting democratic ones. Bai applies his views to the international realm by supporting a hierarchical order based on how humane each state is toward its own and other peoples, and on the principle of international interventions whereby humane responsibilities override sovereignty. Exploring the deficiencies posed by many liberal democracies, Against Political Equality presents a novel Confucian-engendered alternative for solving today's political problems.

This monograph explores the logical systems of early logicians in the Arabic tradition from a theoretical perspective, providing a complete panorama of early Arabic logic and centering it within an expansive historical context. By thoroughly examining the writings of the first Arabic logicians, al-Farabi, Avicenna and Averroes, the author analyzes their respective theories, discusses their relationship to the syllogistics of Aristotle and his followers, and measures their influence on later logical systems. Beginning with an introduction to the writings of the most prominent Arabic logicians, the author scrutinizes these works to determine their categorical logic, as well as their modal and hypothetical logics. Where most other studies written on this subject focus on the Arabic logicians' epistemology, metaphysics, and theology, this volume takes a unique approach by focusing on the actual technical aspects and features of their logics. The author then moves on to examine the original texts as closely as possible and employs the symbolism of modern propositional, predicate, and modal logics, rendering the arguments of each logician clearly and precisely while clarifying the theories themselves in order to determine the differences between the Arabic logicians' systems and those of Aristotle. By providing a detailed examination of theories that are still not very well-known in Western countries, the author is able to assess the improvements that can be found in the Arabic writings, and to situate Arabic logic within the breadth of the history of logic. This unique study will appeal mainly to historians of logic, logicians, and philosophers who seek a better understanding of the Arabic tradition. It also will be of interest to modern logicians who wish to delve into the historical aspects and progression of their discipline. Furthermore, this book will serve as a valuable resource for graduate students who wish to complement their general knowledge of Arabic culture, logic, and sciences.

Die Interpretation der Vatererzahlungen im umfangreichen Corpus Philonicum zeigt exemplarisch: Schriftauslegung konnte formal und intentional in einer komplexen Wechselbeziehung zu spezifischen regionalen, milieubedingten, gesellschaftlichen und religioesen Faktoren im 1. Jh. n. Chr. stehen. Philos drei Werke zum Pentateuch sind ein Ausweis dafur, in welchem Masse hermeneutische Prinzipien bei einem Exegeten konstant bleiben konnten und in welchem Umfang Entwicklungen unterschiedlichen Adressaten gegenuber moeglich waren. Solche Ergebnisse bilden Grundlagen, die fur spezielle neutestamentliche Fragestellungen fruchtbar gemacht werden mussen.

This book offers a comprehensive account of the great Neo-Confucian Master Cheng I (1033-1107), showing his philosophical ideas in a modern light. It systematically examines Cheng's extensive literature and provides an ingenious interpretation of Cheng's social and political views. The author, Yung-ch'un Ts'ai, was a respected scholar of sociology and theology in 20th century China.

This book takes stock of the strides made to date in African philosophy. Authors focus on four important aspects of African philosophy: the history, methodological debates, substantive issues in the field, and direction for the future. By collating this anthology, Edwin E. Etieyibo excavates both current and primordial knowledge in African philosophy, enhancing the development of this growing field.

This book identifies that "Xiang thinking" is the eidetic connotation and a fundamental trait of traditional Chinese thinking, offering insights of considerable methodological significance. "Xiang thinking" is a mode of thinking different from conceptual thinking or idealized rational thinking and, in a certain sense, it is more primal. In the past century, particularly since 1949, the primary works on Chinese philosophical history have, as a rule, addressed the ancient Chinese tradition of philosophical ideas by virtue of the philosophies of Plato, Descartes and Hegel: methods that inherently challenge Chinese philosophical insights. This has naturally led to the fact that the insights as such remained obscured. This book starts to reverse this trend, intending to help Chinese people understand and appraise themselves in a more down-to-earth fashion. In addition, it is particularly helpful to people of other cultures if they want to understand ancient Chinese philosophy and culture in a context of fresh and inspiring philosophical ideas. (By Zhang Xianglong)

Since the late 19th century, when the "new science" of psychology and interest in esoteric and occult phenomena converged - leading to the "discovery" of the unconscious - the dual disciplines of depth psychology and mysticism have been wed in an often unholy union. Continuing in this tradition, and the challenges it carries, this volume includes a variety of inter-disciplinary approaches to the study of depth psychology, mysticism, and mystical experience, spanning the fields of theology, religious studies, and the psychology of religion. Chapters include inquiries into the nature of self and consciousness, questions regarding the status and limits of mysticism and mystical phenomenon, and approaches to these topics from multiple depth psychological traditions.

Promoting cultural understanding in a globalized world, this text is a key tool for students interested in further developing their understanding of Chinese society and culture. Written by a team of experts in their fields, this book provides a survey of Chinese culture, delving deeper into areas such as Chinese philosophy, religion, politics and education. It offers the reader a wide range of essential facts to better understand contemporary China through its history and cultural background, touching on key areas such as the development of science and technology in China, as well as the country's economy and trade history, and is a key read for scholars and students in Chinese Culture, Sociology and Politics.

This volume, an important contribution to dialogic and Bakhtin studies, shows the natural fit between Bakhtin's ideas and the pluralistic culture of India to a global academic audience. It is premised on the fact that long before principles of dialogism took shape in the Western world, these ideas, though not labelled as such, were an integral part of intellectual histories in India. Bakhtin's ideas and intellectual traditions of India stand under the same banner of plurality, open-endedness and diversity of languages and social speech types and, therefore, the affinity between the thinker and the culture seems natural. Rather than being a mechanical import of Bakhtin's ideas, it is an occasion to reclaim, reactivate and reenergize inherent dialogicality in the Indian cultural, historical and philosophical histories. Bakhtin is not an incidental figure, for he offers precise analytical tools to make sense of the incredibly complex differences at every level in the cultural life of India. Indian heterodoxy lends well to a Bakhtinian reading and analysis and the papers herein attest to this. The papers range from how ideas from Indo-European philology reached Bakhtin through a circuitous route, to responses to Bakhtin's thought on the carnival from the philosophical perspectives of Abhinavagupta, to a Bakhtinian reading of literary texts from India. The volume also includes an essay on 'translation as dialogue' - an issue central to multilingual cultures - and on inherent dialogicality in the long intellectual traditions in India.

This book is a study of the methodological, metaphysical, and epistemological work of the Eastern Han Dynasty period scholar Wang Chong. It presents Wang's philosophical thought as a unique and syncretic culmination of a number of ideas developed in earlier Han and Warring States philosophy. Wang's philosophical methodology and his theories of truth, knowledge, and will and determinism offer solutions to a number of problems in the early Chinese tradition. His views also have much to offer contemporary philosophy, suggesting new ways of thinking about familiar problems. While Wang is best known as a critic and skeptic, Alexus McLeod argues that these aspects of his thought form only a part of a larger positive project, aimed at discerning truth in a variety of senses.

This book comprises 30 chapters representing certain new trends in reconcenptualizing Confucian ideas, ideals, values and ways of thinking by scholars from China and abroad. While divergent in approaches, these chapters are converged on conceptualizing and reconceptualizing Confucianism into something philosophically meaningful and valuable to the people of the 21st century. They are grouped into three parts, and each is dedicated to one of the three major themes this book attempts to address. Part one is mainly on scholarly reviews of Confucian doctrines by which new interpretations will be drawn out. Part two is an assembled attempt to reexamine Confucian concepts, in which critiques of traditional views lead to new perspectives for perennial questions. Part three is focused on reinterpreting Confucian virtues and values, in the hope that a new sense of being moral can be gained through old normative forms.

This book presents 25 selected papers from the International Conference on "Developing Synergies between Islam & Science and Technology for Mankind's Benefit" held at the International Institute for Advanced Islamic Studies Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, in October 2014. The papers cover a broad range of issues reflecting the main conference themes: Cosmology and the Universe, Philosophy of Science and the Emergence of Biological Systems, Principles and Applications of Tawhidic Science, Medical Applications of Tawhidic Science and Bioethics, and the History and Teaching of Science from an Islamic Perspective. Highlighting the relationships between the Islamic religious worldview and the physical sciences, the book challenges secularist paradigms on the study of Science and Technology. Integrating metaphysical perspectives of Science, topics include Islamic approaches to S&T such as an Islamic epistemology of the philosophy of science, a new quantum theory, environmental care, avoiding wasteful consumption using Islamic teachings, and emotional-blasting psychological therapy. Eminent contributing scholars include Osman Bakar, Mohammad Hashim Kamali, Mehdi Golshani, Mohd. Kamal Hassan, Adi Setia and Malik Badri. The book is essential reading for a broad group of academics and practitioners, from Islamic scholars and social scientists to (physical) scientists and engineers.