Born of a terrible insomnia--"a dizzying lucidity which would turn even paradise into hell"--this book presents the youthful Cioran, a self-described "Nietzsche still complete with his Zarathustra, his poses, his mystical clown's tricks, a whole circus of the heights."
"On the Heights of Despair" shows Cioran's first grappling with themes he would return to in his mature works: despair and decay, absurdity and alienation, futility and the irrationality of existence. It also presents Cioran as a connoisseur of apocalypse, a theoretician of despair, for whom writing and philosophy both share the "lyrical virtues" that alone lead to a metaphysical revelation.
"No modern writer twists the knife with Cioran's dexterity. . . . His writing . . . is informed with the bitterness of genuine compassion."--Bill Marx, "Boston Phoenix
""The dark, existential despair of Romanian philosopher Cioran's short meditations is paradoxically bracing and life-affirming. . . . Puts him in the company of Nietzsche and Kierkegaard."--"Publishers Weekly, " starred review
"This is self-pity as epigram, the sort of dyspeptic pronouncement that gets most people kicked out of bed but that has kept Mr. Cioran going for the rest of his life."--Judith Shulevitz, "New York Times Book ""Review"

Contents: Raja Yoga; Pantanjali's Yoga Aphorisms; Immortality; Bhakti-Yoga; Para-Bhakti or Supreme Devotion; Glossary.

Erasmus: His Life, Works, and Influence is a comprehensive introduction to Erasmus's life, works, and thoughts. It integrates the best scholarship of the past twenty years and will appeal to undergraduates in all areas of cultural history as well as Erasmus specialists.

One of the greatest Marxist theorists of his generation, Georg Lukacs was a prolific writer of remarkably catholic, if moralistic, tastes. In The Lukacs Reader , his biographer Arpad Kadarkay represents the great range and variety of Lukacsa s output. The reader includes, in original translations, and with introductory essays, Lukacs on: Kierkegaard, Shakespeare, Ford, Strindberg, Ibsen, Wilde, Shaw, Gaughin, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, and Heidegger. Also collected are: the autobiographical essay a On the Poverty of Spirita , material from Lukacsa s diary, and such key articles as: a Aesthetic Culturea , a The Ideology of Modernisma , a Bolshevism as an Ethical Problema , and a Class Consciousnessa . What emerges is a figure very much at the centre of European thought whose value to modern culture and philosophy differs markedly from that which received opinion generally admits.

Can Zen tell us whether particular wars are right or wrong? What role did D. T. Suzuki and other Zen figures play in the Japanese nationalism that fueled World War II? What are we to make of nationalistic elements in the thought of Nishida Kitaro, Tanabe Hajime, Nishitani Keiji, and other philosophers of the Kyoto School? What connection was there between the Japanese project of overcoming the modernity of the West and the militarism of its 15-year war in Asia? In a collection of carefully documented essays, 15 Japanese and Western scholars take up these and other questions about the political responsibility of Japanese Buddhist intellectuals. This well-indexed and meticulously edited volume offers a variety of critical perspectives and a wealth of information for those interested in prewar and wartime history, Zen, Japanese philosophy, and the problem of nationalism today.

With more than four thousand entries and over one hundred illustrations, this encyclopedia offers a complete survey of the four major religious traditions of Asia. It is designed not only for students and scholars but also to help general readers find their way through the thicket of unfamiliar words and concepts that are often encountered today in various fields such as the health professions, psychotherapy, the sciences, and the media. Among the subjects covered are:
- Important terms such as "chakra," "karma," "koan," "nirvana," "tantra," "Tao," and "yin-yang"
- The lives and teachings of mystics, philosophers, and masters of meditation
- Basic texts and scriptures
- Sects and schools of thought
- Mythological figures and events

In addition, pronunciation tables, a comprehensive bibliography, and a Ch'an/Zen Lineage Chart are provided.

The Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, The Prajnaparamita, is a collection of about forty texts. They were composed in India between approximately 100 BC and AD 600. Those contained within this volume are among the shorter ones; they are also some of the most well known such as The Heart Sutra and The Diamond Sutra.The Prajnaparamita texts are central to the Mahayana, the Great Vehicle tradition of Buddhism which today includes the Zen and Tibetan traditions. They are a magnificent work which offer guidance to those who wish to plumb the depths of their own mind and come face to face with the reality of existence by realising the truth of the Buddha's deep teachings on Emptiness and Great Wisdom.Dr Edward Conze (1904-1979) was the author of many books and the translator of much of the Prajnaparamita texts. He served on the faculties of several universities in Britain and the United States inlcuding Oxford, London, and California. Not only was he a great Buddhist scholar but also a serious practitioner, and his translations are very highly regarded.

French philosopher Gilles Deleuze is known as a thinker of creation, joyous affirmation, and rhizomatic assemblages. In this short book, Andrew Culp polemically argues that this once-radical canon of joy has lost its resistance to the present. Concepts created to defeat capitalism have been recycled into business mantras that joyously affirm "Power is vertical; potential is horizontal!" Culp recovers the Deleuze's forgotten negativity. He unsettles the prevailing interpretation through an underground network of references to conspiracy, cruelty, the terror of the outside, and the shame of being human. Ultimately, he rekindles opposition to what is intolerable about this world. Forerunners is a thought-in-process series of breakthrough digital works. Written between fresh ideas and finished books, Forerunners draws on scholarly work initiated in notable blogs, social media, conference plenaries, journal articles, and the synergy of academic exchange. This is gray literature publishing: where intense thinking, change, and speculation take place in scholarship.

The Professor of Philosophy at the University of Ibadan addresses the controversial question as to whether or not there is something distinctive which can be described as African philosophy. He goes beyond this and lays out a foundation for an emerging indigenous African philosophy. Based on his belief that a modern African philosophical tradition can be nourished within the context of African culture, history and experience, he conducts a philosophical analysis of the conceptual implications of major issues, beliefs and thought systems that are particular to Africa. His thesis illustrates the need for a new orientation of thinking amongst African scholars, both those in search of an African philosophical tradition and those in search of a new order.

This collection of writings is from authors who are either Indians who have tried to make themselves heard, or whites who have tried to hear Indians. The first part of the book emphasizes the practical and includes Isaac Tens's "Career of the Medicine Man." The second section concentrates on the theoretical and contains Benjamin Lee Whorf's "American Indian Model of the Universe" and chapters on Indian metaphysics, among other things. In addition to an introductory essay on the Indian's stance towards reality, the editors have contributed chapters entitled "The Clown's Way" and "An American Indian View of Death."

In this original work of systematic philosophy, David Dilworth places the major texts of Western and Oriental philosophy and religion, both ancient and modern, into one comparative framework. His study reveals affinities between thinkers who lived centuries and continents apart and produces numerous insights by bringing great philosophical texts together into a single purview. "This is a provocative and challenging book: far-reaching in scope and implication, worldwide in its vision, yet inescapably Aristotelian in its grounding. It is to be hoped that it will acquaint more Western readers with Chinese philosophy, while spurring Asian thinkers to offer counterproposals about the crucial issues of philosophy in their respective traditions and the best methods to compare them."-Carl Becker, Journal of Asian Studies "The work opens new interpretive possibilities for intra- and inter-textual reflection on a grand scale."-Edith Wyschogrod, Queens College "Philosophers East or West should buy and read this book."-Robert Magnolia, Tamkang University and National Taiwan University, Taiwan

Students and teachers of Chinese history and philosophy will not want to miss Daniel Gardner's accessible translation of the teachings of Chu Hsi (1130-1200)--a luminary of the Confucian tradition who dominated Chinese intellectual life for centuries. Homing in on a primary concern of our own time, Gardner focuses on Chu Hsi's passionate interest in education and its importance to individual development. For hundreds of years, every literate person in China was familiar with Chu Hsi's teachings. They informed the curricula of private academies and public schools and became the basis of the state's prestigious civil service examinations. Nor was Chu's influence limited to China. In Korea and Japan as well, his teachings defined the terms of scholarly debate and served as the foundation for state ideology. Chu Hsi was convinced that through education anyone could learn to be fully moral and thus travel the road to sagehood. Throughout his life, he struggled with the philosophical questions underlying education: What should people learn? How should they go about learning? What enables them to learn? What are the aims and the effects of learning? Part One of Learning to Be a Sage examines Chu Hsi's views on learning and how he arrived at them. Part Two presents a translation of the chapters devoted to learning in the Conversations of Master Chu.

**Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2021** Coping with the climate crisis is the greatest challenge we face as a species. We know the main task is to reduce our emissions as rapidly as possible to minimise the harm to the world’s population now and for generations to come. What on earth can philosophy offer us? In this compelling account of a problem we think we know inside out, the philosopher Graham Parkes outlines the climatic predicament we are in and how we got here, and explains how we can think about it anew by considering the relevant history, science, economics, politics and, for the first time, the philosophies underpinning them. Introducing the reality of global warming and its increasingly dire consequences, he identifies the immediate obstructions to coping with the problem, outlines the libertarian ideology behind them and shows how they can be circumvented. Drawing on the wisdom of the ancients in both the East-Asian and Western traditions (as embodied in such figures as Confucius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Dogen, Plato, Epicurus, Marcus Aurelius and Nietzsche), Parkes shows how a greater awareness of non-Western philosophies, and especially the Confucian political philosophy advocated by China, can help us deal effectively with climate change and thrive in a greener future. If some dominant Western philosophical ideas and their instantiation in politics and modern technology got us into our current crisis, Parkes demonstrates persuasively that expanding our philosophical horizons will surely help get us out.

Yi Hwang (1501-1570), better known by his pen name T'oegye, is generally considered Korea's preeminent Neo-Confucian scholar. The Ten Diagrams on Sage Learning is his final masterpiece, a distillation of the learning and practice of a lifetime, and one of the most important works of Korean Neo-Confucianism. In it he crystallized the essence of Neo-Confucian philosophy and spiritual practice in ten brief chapters that begin with the grand vision of the universe and conclude with a description of a well-lived day. In To Become a Sage, Michael Kalton supplements a superb translation of this pivotal text with useful commentary that will greatly enhance its value and interest to the lay reader. The Ten Diagrams is the first complete primary text of Korean Neo-Confucianism to be translated into English. Korea's Yi Dynasty (1392-1910), the only East Asian regime founded exclusively under Neo-Confucian auspices, was unique in its allegiance to the orthodox Ch'eng Chu school, predominant in China, Korea, and Japan. Although the Ten Diagrams is a relatively short work, it fully presents the entire vision of Neo-Confucianism as framed in that school. Kalton provides a brief history of Neo-Confucianism in China and Korea as well as commentary that includes extensive passages from T'oegye's voluminous personal correspondence. These annotations expand the meaning distilled in each chapter. They help the uninitiated reader understand the basic elements of the complex Ch'eng Chu school of Neo-Confucianism, while enabling the scholar to distinguish characteristic aspects of Korean Neo-Confucianism as presented in the thought of the nation's leading philosopher of the time.

"Essays in Ancient Philosophy " was first published in 1987. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

To understand ancient philosophy "in its concrete, complex detail," Michael Frede says, "one has also to look at all the other histories to which it is tied by an intricate web of casual connections which run both ways." Frede's distinctive approach to the history of ancient philosophy is closely tied to his specific interests within the field - the Hellenistic philosophers and those of late antiquity, who are the primary subjects of this book. Long ignored or even maligned, the Stoics and Skeptics, medical philosophers, and grammarians are extremely interesting once their actual views are reconstructed and it is possible to recognize their ties to earlier and later philosophical thought. Refusing to study them as paradigms of achievement, or to seek purely philosophical explanations for their views, Frede draws instead upon those "other histories"--of religion, social structure, law and politics--to illuminate their work and to show how it was interpreted and transformed by succeeding generations.

Investigating connections between philosophical hermeneutics and neighbouring traditions of thought, this volume considers the question of how post-Heideggerian hermeneutics, as represented by Gadamer, Ricoeur and recent scholars following in their wake, relate to these traditions, both in general terms and bearing upon specific questions. The traditions covered in this volume-existentialism, pragmatism, poststructuralism, Eastern philosophy, and hermeneutics itself-are all characterized by significant internal diversity, adding to the difficulty in reaching an interpretation that is at once comparative and critical. None of these traditions represent a unified system of belief; all are umbrella terms which are at once useful and imprecise, and the differences internal to each must not to be understated. An innovative work of comparative philosophy, this volume avoids oversimplification and offers specific analyses that treat hermeneutics in relation to particular themes and key figures in each of these traditions of thought. Philosophical hermeneutics is explicitly dialogical, and it is in this spirit that the authors of this book approach their subjects, revealing the important affinities and opportunities for mutually enriching conversations which have until now been overlooked.

The philosophy of Lao-Tze is consciously paradoxical and poetic: therapeutic and deconstructional rather than analytic. It offers a guide to practical action which verges on mysticism: how to exercise strength without needing to be strong, how to win by yielding. Lao-Tze's exhortation to act while not-acting or 'doing nothing' has astonished and fascinated Chinese and Westerners alike.

Indian Epistemology and Metaphysics introduces the reader to new perspectives on Indian philosophy based on philological research within the last twenty years. Concentrating on topics such as perception, inference, skepticism, consciousness, self, mind, and universals, some of the most notable scholars working in classical Indian philosophy today examine core epistemological and metaphysical issues. Philosophical theories and arguments from a comprehensive range of Indian philosophical traditions (including the Nyaya, Mimamsa, Saiva, Vedanta, Samkhya, Jain, Buddhist, materialist and skeptical traditions, as well as some 20th century thought) are covered. The contributors to this volume approach the topics from both a philosophical and a philological perspective. They demonstrate the importance of the subject matter for an understanding of Indian thought in general and they highlight its wider philosophical significance. By developing an appreciation of classical Indian philosophy in its own terms, set against the background of its unique assumptions and historical and cultural development, Indian Epistemology and Metaphysics is an invaluable guide to the current state of scholarship on Indian philosophy. It is a timely and much-needed reference resource, the first of its kind.

A new and complete translation in English of this controversial and provocative modern text, with substantive notes -- educating readers to the sources and traditions of the words employed -- a glossary of terms, various indices, selected biography, and an interpretative essay.

Western Christians often despair of finding meaning in the paradoxical statement that God is both "One" and "Three". The problem, says Jung Young Lee, is not with the doctrine of the Trinity itself; rather, it is with the Western conceptual tendency to view reality in exclusive, "either/or" terms. The Trinity is at its heart an inclusive doctrine of one God who is nonetheless three distinct persons. In order to grasp this fact, we need different conceptual categories, not only with which to view God, but all of reality. The Asian philosophical construct of yin and yang can offer a way out of this problem, with its inherently "both/and" way of thinking. Drawing on a variety of East Asian religious traditions, Lee offers a creative reinterpretation of this central Christian doctrine. He shows how a global perspective can illuminate Western theological constructs as he establishes the necessity of a contextual approach to the doctrine of the Trinity.

The present compilation is an attempt to bring together in one volume the manifold teachings pertaining to the psychic being which are to be found in the numerous works of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. The selections deal with the nature of the psychic being, shedding the light of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother on the inner constitution of the human being and on various related questions such as the process of inner growth, the afterlife, and rebirth.

Is the tick a machine or a machine operator? Is it a mere object or a subject? With these questions, the pioneering biophilosopher Jakob von Uexkull embarks on a remarkable exploration of the unique social and physical environments that individual animal species, as well as individuals within species, build and inhabit. This concept of the umwelt has become enormously important within posthumanist philosophy, influencing such figures as Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Deleuze and Guattari, and, most recently, Giorgio Agamben, who has called Uexkull "a high point of modern antihumanism." A key document in the genealogy of posthumanist thought, A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans advances Uexkull's revolutionary belief that nonhuman perceptions must be accounted for in any biology worth its name; it also contains his arguments against natural selection as an adequate explanation for the present orientation of a species' morphology and behavior. A Theory of Meaning extends his thinking on the umwelt, while also identifying an overarching and perceptible unity in nature. Those coming to Uexkull's work for the first time will find that his concept of the umwelt holds out new possibilities for the terms of animality, life, and the whole framework of biopolitics itself.

The book addresses provocative questions such as: did the majority of Jews before Maimonides believe that God has a body? Why did Maimonides and many rabbis disparage women? Why did Maimonides extol intelligent non-Jews? Why don't Jews say a prayer before such activities as having sexual relations or giving charity? Why does not the Torah condemn the five suicides committed in its pages? Why were Jacob and David passive when their daughters were raped? should rational Jews observe mystical Jewish practices and say mystical prayers? This volume contains surprising facts, such as: not all Jews believe that people have souls. Rabbis know that we do not possess the original Torah text. Rabbis suggest that Moses staff had unusual magical powers. Jewish judges do not adjudicate cases according to Torah law. Many rabbis recognise that the ten plagues were not miracles. The Torah records how innocent people are killed for the misdeeds of their ancestors. dipping bread in salt is based on a superstitious fear of demons.

This engaging and informative book reveals unknown but true facts about the prophetical books of the Bible. Rabbis have avoided many questions raised by the seemingly improbable events in these volumes. This book addresses these questions and takes an open and rational look at the episodes. The book addresses provocative questions such as: What is the proper way to interpret the Torah? How does Maimonides understand the episodes of the Prophets? Did miracles such as the splitting of the Red Sea, the falling of the walls at Jericho, and the sun standing still for Joshua really occur? What assumptions cause us to misunderstand the Bible? Is there a biblical mandate prohibiting suicide? Does the Bible forbid ceding parts of the land of Israel for peace? Can children be punished for their parents misdeeds, and, if not, why does the Torah say that they are punished? Why does Shabbat begin at different times for men and women? Why did significant biblical leaders violate rabbinical laws? What really caused the adding of a day to holidays shortly after the time of Moses? Why does the Bible not always mean what it appears to say? Is it true that Judaism does not know what happens after death?

With meticulous scholarship and an accurate, highly readable translation, this volume sheds light not only on Spinoza's debt to Descartes but also on the development of Spinoza's own thought. Appearing for the first time in English translation, Lodewijk Meyer's inaugural dissertation on matter (1683)--relevant for its comments on Descartes, Spinoza, and other thinkers of the time--is appended with notes and a short commentary. Cross-references to Descartes's Principles of Philosophy are provided in an index, and there is an extensive bibliography.