This original work focuses on the rational principles of Indian philosophical theory, rather than the mysticism more usually associated with it. Ganeri explores the philosophical projects of a number of major Indian philosophers and looks into the methods of rational inquiry deployed within these projects. In so doing, he illuminates a network of mutual reference, criticism, influence and response, in which reason is used to call itself into question. This fresh perspective on classical Indian thought unravels new philosophical paradigms, and points towards new applications for the concept of reason.

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This is Volume VIII of sixteen in a collection on Buddhism. Originally published in 1923, this volume looks at cosmology. All forms of Buddhism, however divergent, claim to have but three objects of worship: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.. The first is the founder of the faith, the second the teaching which he gave, and the third the order which he founded. Regarding each of the Ratnas or jewels, as they are called, an enormous amount of speculation has grown up, with many different opinions concerning the proper method of interpretation.

First Published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 2000. This is Volume III of ten of the Oriental series looking at Indian Religion and Philosophy. It was written around 1884 and includes the translation from Sanskrit of the 'Manava-dharma-castra' by the late Dr. Burnell which was completed by the editor.

How was the post-modernist project contested, subverted and assimilated in India? This book offers a personal account and an intellectual history of its reception and response. Tracing independent India's engagement with Western critical theory, Paranjape outlines both its past and 'post'. The book explores the discursive trajectories of post-modernism, post-colonialism, post-Marxism, post-nationalism, post-feminism, post-secularism - the relations that mediate them - as well as interprets, in the light of these discussions, core tenets of Indian philosophical thought. Paranjape argues that India's response to the modernist project is neither submission, willing or reluctant, nor repudiation, intentional or forced; rather India's 'modernity' is 'unauthorized', different, subversive, alter-native and alter-modern. The book makes the case for a new integrative hermeneutics, the idea of the indigenous 'critical vernacular', and presents a radical shift in the understanding of svaraj (beyond decolonisation and nationalism) to express transformations at both personal and political levels. A key intervention in Indian critical theory, this volume will interest researchers and scholars of literature, philosophy, political theory, culture studies and postcolonial studies.

In this book, J.J. Clarke shows us how Taoist texts, ideas and practices have been assimilated within a whole range of Western ideas and agendas. We see how Chinese thinkers such as Lao-tzu and Chuang tzu, along with practices such as Feng Shui and Tai Chi, have been used as a key Western inspiration in religion, philosophy, ethics, politics, ecology and health.
The Tao of the West not only provides a fascinating introduction to Taoism, it also offers a timely insight into the history of the West's encounter with this ancient tradition, and into the issues arising from inter-cultural dialogue. Anyone interested in understanding the key influence Taoism has had on the West will welcome and embrace this book.

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In recent years in the "West," scholars have attempted to unravel old constructs of interpretation and understanding, using the discipline of hermeneutics, or the scientific study of textual interpretation. Borrowed from students of the ever growing body of biblical interpretive literature that originated in the early Christian era, theoretical hermeneutics has given many contemporary scholars potent tools of textual interpretation. "Classics and Interpretations" applies this method to Chinese culture. Several essays focus on hermeneutic traditions of Neo-Confucianism. Others move outside of these traditions to attempt an understanding of the role of hermeneutics in Taoist and Buddhist textual interpretation, in Chinese poetics and painting, and in contemporary Chinese culture. This volume makes a concerted effort to remedy our ignorance of the Chinese hermeneutical tradition. Part 1, ""The Great Learning" and Hermeneutics," demonstrates the use of commentary to define how the individual creates his social self, and discusses differing interpretations of the "Ta-hsueh" text and its treatment as either canonical or heterodox. Part 2, "Canonicity and Orthodoxy," considers the philosophical touchstones employed by Neo-Confucian canonical exegetes and polemicists, and discusses the Han canonization of the scriptural Five Classics, while illuminating a double standard that existed in the hermeneutical regime of late imperial China. Part 3, "Hermeneutics as Politics," discusses the transformation of both the classics and scholars, and explores the dominant hermeneutic tradition in Chinese historiography, the scriptural tradition and reinterpretation of the "Ch'un-ch'iu," and reveals the pragmatism of Chinese hermeneutics through comparison of the Sung debates over the "Mencius." The concluding sections include essays on "Chu Hsi and Interpretation of Chinese Classics," "Hermeneutic Traditions in Chinese Poetics and Non-Confucian Contexts," "Reinterpretation of Confucian Texts in the Ming-Ch'ing Period," and "Contemporary Interpretations of Confucian Culture." Through these literate and brilliantly written essays the reader witnesses not merely the great breadth and depth of Chinese hermeneutics but also its continuity and evolutionary vigor. This volume will excite scholars of the Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist systems of thought and belief as well as students of history and hermeneutics.

Through key readings from primary and secondary sources this book communicates at first hand the principal features of a remarkable range of eastern thought - from Buddhism, Confucianism, and Hinduism to Islam, Shinto and Zoroastrianism. Passages from key texts guide the reader through over 90 major terms, from abhidharma to Zen.
Material is drawn not only from such cornerstone texts as the Bhagavad-gita and the Lao-tzu, but also from modern writings on Eastern philosophy and religion.

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Close analysis of the work of fifty major thinkers in the field of Eastern philosophy make this an excellent introduction to a fascinating area of study. The authors have drawn together thinkers from all the major Eastern philosophical traditions from the earliest times to the present day. The philosophers covered range from founder figures such as Zoroaster and Confucius to modern thinkers such as Fung Youlan and the present Dalai Lama. Introductions to major traditions and a glossary of key philosophical terms make this a comprehensive and accessible reference resource.

The intellectual history of the last quarter of the 20th century has been marked by the growing influence of Africana thought - an area of philosophy that focuses on issues raised by the struggle over ideas in African cultures and their hybrid forms in Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean. This book presents an introduction to the field of Africana philosophy and aims to help define this rapidly growing field. Lewis R. Gordon introduces and discusses Africana existential thought for a general audience, covering a range of both classic and contemporary thinkers - from Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. DuBois to Frantz Fanon, Angela Davis and Naomi Zack.

Empowering Bernard Lonergan's Legacy offers an interdisciplinary approach to Lonergan's work. It presents a series of five "feedback matrices" to situate his work within a historical context. The matrices also serve to establish foundations for an interdisciplinary ethics and a method for interreligious dialogue. "Feedback" and "matrix" are key, but previously unstressed, notions in Lonergan's work. The book's final two collaborative feedback matrices could best be implemented in a proposed international Lonergan association. Raymaker argues that without such an association, Lonergan's breakthrough method cannot reach its interdisciplinary and collaborative potential. One of Lonergan's most important achievements was his development of foundations for the sciences, ethics, and interreligious dialogue. One can best empower Lonergan's legacy through a correct understanding and implementation of how the data of human consciousness affects all human knowledge and activities.

This book provides an analysis of the complex philosophy of Liang Shuming. This twentieth-century thinker opened up a number of paths that were to become central components of modern Chinese philosophy. For the first time, experts are brought together to analyze the complexity of his philosophy, which continues to exert a considerable influence today. This edited volume covers Liang's multifaceted thought as informed by his many identities as a Buddhist, a Confucian, a Bergsonian, a rural reformer, and a philosopher. The volume will appeal to students, scholars, and general-interest readers.

Emptiness means that all entities are empty of, or lack, inherent existence - entities have a merely conceptual, constructed existence. Though Nagarjuna advocates the Middle Way, his philosophy of emptiness nevertheless entails nihilism, and his critiques of the Nyaya theory of knowledge are shown to be unconvincing.

The aphorisms collected in this book, first published in 1953, were composed by Patanjali, a great Indian sage, over 1,500 years ago, and here translated into clear English prose. The accompanying commentary interprets the sayings for the modern world, and in doing so gives a full picture of what yoga is, what its aims are, and how it can be practised.

This nine-volume set reprints valuable early works introducing the philosophy and practices of Yoga to a Western audience, and provides key analysis by some of its leading practitioners. Indian, Taoist and Buddhist yogas are examined, and their relation to the West, including Christianity.

This book, first published in 1935, is an early western study of the practice of yoga. It examines the theories of yoga, and attempts to understand and explain its philosophy and beliefs.

Close analysis of the work of fifty major thinkers in the field of Eastern philosophy make this an excellent introduction to a fascinating area of study. The authors have drawn together thinkers from all the major Eastern philosophical traditions from the earliest times to the present day. The philosophers covered range from founder figures such as Zoroaster and Confucius to modern thinkers such as Fung Youlan and the present Dalai Lama. Introductions to major traditions and a glossary of key philosophical terms make this a comprehensive and accessible reference resource.

This is the second volume in a new series of classic readings in philosophy and collects together the central texts in the history of moral philosophy thus representing many of the most important topics in the field. It will serve as an invaluable resource for students of all levels taking courses in ethics or moral theory.

The texts selected range from Plato to Stevenson, and include the classics of western moral philosophy such as Aristotle's remarks on man's proper "function," Kant's discussion of "the good will" and Nietzsche's notorious "genealogy" of our moral concepts. The volume also includes some classics from other traditions such as the debate between the two Confucians, Mencius and Hsun Tzu, and the early chapters from "The Bhagavad Gita."

The editor provides guidance to both the field and to each reading by including a substantial general introduction on the nature and history of philosophical ethics. There are also informative short introductions to the individual texts.

This volume focuses on Ibn Sina - the Avicenna of the Latin West - and the enormous impact of his philosophy in both the Islamic and Christian worlds. Jules Janssens opens with a new introductory article, surveying the position of work in the field. The next studies look at Ibn Sina's work and thought, inspired by Alexandrian Neoplatonism on the one hand, and the Qur'an on the other, notably his views on the relationship between God and the world, within the context of Islam. There follow explorations of Ibn Sina's influence on later philosophers, first within the Islamic world and with particular reference to al-Ghazzali, but also, once translated into Latin, in the scholastic world of the West, on figures such as Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, and above all Henry of Ghent.

This user-friendly guide will help students of the 'Star' to be able to discuss at a basic level what, at least conceptually, Rosenzweig intended to say and how all that he says is interrelated.

Why would the work of the 17th century philosopher Benedict de Spinoza concern us today? How can Spinoza shed any light on contemporary thought?
In this intriguing book, Moira Gatens and Genevieve Lloyd show us that in spite ofor rather because ofSpinozas apparent strangeness, his philosophy can be a rich resource for cultural self-understanding in the present.
Collective Imaginings draws on recent re-assessments of the philosophy of Spinoza to develop new ways of conceptualising issues of freedom and difference. We can apply these newly contextualised theories to contemporary issues such as environmental debates, issues of feminism, our conception of democracy, and the idea of the individual and the community.
This ground-breaking study will be invaluable reading to students and professors wishing to gain a fresh perspective on Spinozas thought.

In this intriguing book, Moira Gatens and Genevieve Lloyd show us that in spite of-or rather because of-Spinoza's apparent strangeness, his philosophy can be a rich source for cultural self-understanding in the present. "Collective Imaginings" draws on recent reassessments of the philosophy of Spinoza and develops new ways of conceptualizing issues of freedom and difference. These newly contextualized theories are easily applied to contemporary issues, such as environmental debates, issues of feminism, the conception of democracy, and the idea of the individual and community, providing relevance to our everyday lives.
A fine counter to the 'read and raid' and the 'read and destroy' schools of history of philosophy . . . a careful interpretation of Spinoza that helps resolve contemporary problems about the relation between (what we think of as) the individual and the conflicts and harmony that form social life. -- Amelie Rorty, Brandeis University
A fresh look at Spinoza andhow his thought is applicable today

Translated, edited, and introduced by Edward Y. J. Chung, The Great Synthesis of Wang Yangming Neo-Confucianism in Korea: The Chonon (Testament) by Chong Chedu (Hagok), is the first study in a Western language of Chong Chedu (Hagok, 1649-1736) and Korean Wang Yangming Neo-Confucianism. Hagok was an eminent philosopher who established the unorthodox Yangming school (Yangmyonghak) in Korea. This book includes an annotated scholarly translation of the Chonon (Testament), Hagok's most important and interesting work on Confucian self-cultivation. Chung also provides a comprehensive introduction to Hagok's life, scholarship, and thought, especially his great synthesis of Wang's philosophy of mind cultivation and moral practice in relation to the classical teaching of Confucius and Mencius and his critical analysis of Zhu Xi Neo-Confucianism and its Songnihak tradition. Chung concludes that Hagok was an original scholar in the Songnihak school, a great transmitter and interpreter of Yangming Neo-Confucianism in Korea, and a creative thinker whose integration of these two traditions inaugurated a distinctively Korean system of ethics and spirituality. This book sheds new light on the breadth and depth of Korean Neo-Confucianism and serves as a primary source for philosophy and East Asian studies in general and Confucian studies and Korean religion and philosophy in particular.