Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - Tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage. In China, in the eighth century, it entered the realm of poetry as one of the polite amusements. The fifteenth century saw Japan ennoble it into a religion of aestheticism - Teaism. Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order. It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life. The Philosophy of Tea is not mere aestheticism in the ordinary acceptance of the term, for it expresses conjointly with ethics and religion our whole point of view about man and nature. It is hygiene, for it enforces cleanliness; it is economics, for it shows comfort in simplicity rather than in the complex and costly; it is moral geometry, inasmuch as it defines our sense of proportion to the universe. It represents the true spirit of Eastern democracy by making all its votaries aristocrats in taste.

Asoka Bandarage provides an integrated analysis of the twin challenges of environmental sustainability and human well-being by investigating them as interconnected phenomena requiring a paradigmatic psychosocial transformation. She presents an incisive social science analysis and an alternative philosophical perspective on the needed transition from a worldview of domination to one of partnership.

In tenth-century Baghdad, the Mu'tazila theologians believed good and evil could be distinguished through human reason, while in the Indian subcontinent in the sixteenth century, rationalism served to express both the connections and boundaries of Islam in a sphere of religious pluralism. Universality in Islamic Thought discusses specific applications of rationalism in Islamic thought - from the Mu'tazila of Iraq and the Hanafi school of Islamic Law to the Chishti mystics of Mughal India - to explore the boundaries, morality and utility of the universalist principle as conceived by Islamic scientists, scholars, theologians and mystics across half a millennium. Providing a long-overdue and groundbreaking study of rationalism in Islam, this is the first methodological examination of how rationalism served - or did not serve - as a bridge between Muslims and non-Muslims during one of the most vital periods of Islamic intellectual activity. Bringing together contributions from leading academics such as Wilferd Madelung and Carl W Ernst, this is essential reading for scholars and students of intellectual history and Islamic studies.

This volume brings together diverse Asian religious perspectives to address critical issues in the encounter between tradition and modern western evolutionary thought. Such thought encompasses the biological theories of Charles Darwin, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Earnest Haeckel, Thomas Huxley, and later "neo-Darwinians," as well as the more sociological evolutionary theories of thinkers such as Herbert Spencer, Pyotr Kropotkin, and Henri Bergson. The essays in this volume cover responses from Hindu, Jain, Buddhist (Chinese, Japanese, and Indo-Tibetan), Confucian, Daoist, and Muslim traditions. These responses come from the decades immediately after publication of The Origin of Species up to the present, with attention being paid to earlier perspectives and teachings within a tradition that have affected responses to Darwinism and western evolutionary thought in general. The book focuses on three critical issues: the struggle for survival and the moral implications read into it; genetic variation and its seeming randomness as related to the problems of meaning and purpose; and the nature of humankind and human exceptionalism. Each essay deals with one or more of the three issues within the context of a specific tradition.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in Nature, "The moral law lies at the centre of nature and radiates to the circumference." The great Chinese synthesizer of Neo-Confucian philosophy Zhu Xi expressed a similar idea in the twelfth century: "In the realm of Heaven and Earth it is this moral principle alone that flows everywhere." Though living in different ages and cultures, these two thinkers have uncanny overlap in their work. A comparative investigation of Emerson's Transcendental thought and Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism, this book shows how both thinkers traced the human morality to the same source in the ultimately moral nature of the universe and developed theories of the interrelation of universal law and the human mind.

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.

Sun-Tzu's Art of War is Perhaps the most important book ever written about warfare. It can be used and adapted in every facet of your life. This book explains when and how to go to war, as well as when not to. The wisdom of the ages is distilled here, and no one has ever written a book about war that has become more important or replaced or topped the knowledge in this book. Niccolo Machiavelli considered his Art of War to be his greatest achievement. Here you will learn how to recruit, train, motivate, and discipline an army. You will learn the difference between strategy and tactics. Machiavelli does a masterful job of breaking down and analyzing historic battles. These two books of military knowledge belong side by side on every book shelf, and now you can have them in one volume as East meets West.

This is the most important book ever written about warfare and conflict. Lionel Giles' translation is the definitive edition. The Art of War can be used and adapted in every facet of your life. This book explains when and how to go to war, as well as when not to. Learn how to win any conflict whether it be on the battlefield or in the boardroom. This deluxe edition contains two versions of The Art of War. The first has no commentary so that you can immerse yourself directly in Sun Tzu's work. The second version includes Lionel Giles' indispensable commentary.

An unabridged edition to include: Wherein I Bow to the Reader - A Prelude to the Quest - A Magician Out of Egypt - I Meet A Messiah - The Anchorite of the Adyar River - The Yoga Which Conquers Death - The Sage Who Never Speaks - With The Spiritual Head of South India - The Hill of the Holy Beacon - Among The Magicians And Holy Men - The Wonder-Worker of Benares - Written in the Stars - The Garden of the Lord - At the Parsee Messiah's Headquarters - A Strange Encounter - In a Jungle Hermitage - Tablets of Forgotten Truth

Although George Lukacs's work has been widely read and reviewed, and has exerted a significant influence on recent international discussions of literature, philosophy, and Marxism, no comprehensive and up-to-date bibliography of the wide range of critical response to his writings has appeared in book form to date. This bibliography contains in Part I books devoted to Lukacs, including all available reviews, and the books are classified by language. Part II lists dissertations and theses, and reproduces the text in Dissertation Abstracts International when available. Part III includes essays and articles devoted to Lukacs, and these also are classified by language. Part IV lists items by proper names. It includes material in which Lukacs is being compared, or contrasted with other major figures in philosophy, literary theory and criticism, aesthetics and Marxism. Late entries are included in the addendum, and author and editor indexes also are included.

To the horrors of war and genocide in the twentieth century there were witnesses, among them Hermann Cohen, Emmanuel Levinas, Ernst Bloch, Leo Strauss, Franz Rosenzweig, Gershom Scholem, Walter Benjamin, Martin Buber, and Hans Jonas. All defined themselves as Jews and philosophers. Their intellectual concerns and worldviews often in conflict, they nevertheless engaged in fruitful conversation: through the dialogue between Zionist activism and heterodox forms of Marxism, in the rediscovery of hidden traditions of Jewish history, at the intersection of ethics and metaphysics. They shared a common hope for a better, messianic future and a deep interest in and reliance on the cultural sources of the Jewish tradition.

In this magisterial work, Pierre Bouretz explores the thought of these great Jewish philosophers, taking a long view of the tenuous survival of German-Jewish metaphysical, religious, and social thought during the crises and catastrophes of the twentieth century. With deep passion and sound scholarship, Bouretz demonstrates the universal significance of this struggle in understanding the present human condition. The substantial and established influence of the book's subjects only serves to confirm this theory.

Profoundly learned and amply documented, "Witnesses for the Future" explains how these important philosophers came to understand the promise of a Messiah. Its significant bearing on a number of fields--including religious studies, literary criticism, philosophy of history, political theory, and Jewish studies--encourages scholars to rethink and reassess the intellectual developments of the past 100 years.

The Moon Points Back comprises essays by both established scholars in Buddhist and Western philosophy and young scholars contributing to cross-cultural philosophy. It continues the program of Pointing at the Moon (Oxford University Press, 2009), integrating the approaches and insights of contemporary logic and analytic philosophy and those of Buddhist Studies to engage with Buddhist ideas in a contemporary voice. This volume demonstrates convincingly that integration of Buddhist philosophy with contemporary analytic philosophy and logic allows for novel understandings of and insights into Buddhist philosophical thought. It also shows how Buddhist philosophers can contribute to debates in contemporary Western philosophy and how contemporary philosophers and logicians can engage with Buddhist material. The essays in the volume focus on the Buddhist notion of emptiness (sunyata), exploring its relationship to core philosophical issues concerning the self, the nature of reality, logic, and epistemology. The volume closes with reflections on methodological issues raised by bringing together traditional Buddhist philosophy and contemporary analytic philosophy. This volume will be of interest to anyone interested in Buddhist philosophy or contemporary analytic philosophy and logic. But it will also be of interest to those who wish to learn how to bring together the insights and techniques of different philosophical traditions.

This Key Concept pivot explores the trajectory of the semantic generation and evolution of two core concepts of ancient Chinese Confucianism, 'Zhong' (middle) and 'Zhongyong' (golden mean). In the pre-Qin period, Confucius advocated 'middle line' and 'golden mean' as the highest standards for gentlemanly behaviour and culture. In The Doctrine of the Mean the Confucian classic of the late Warring States Period, 'middle' obtained the ontological meaning of 'great fundamental virtues of the world', due to the influence of Taoism and Yinyang School. It became not only the norm of human behaviours, but also the law governing the operation of heaven and earth. Since then, idealist Confucian scholars of the Song and Ming dynasties have developed the meaning of 'middle' from the perspective of the relationships between heaven and man, a fundamental norm of Confucian ethics.

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.

The Upanishads are among the source books of the Hindu faith, being the concluding portion of the Hindu scriptures, the Vedas, also the Vedanta. This selection of translations by Swami Nikhilananda contains the Svetasvatara, Prasna and Mandukya Upanishads together with a special contribution to Western understanding of these important books in the form of a noteworthy essay on Hindu Ethics. Translated from the Sanskrit with an Introduction embodying a study of Hindu Ethics, and with Notes and Explantions based on the Commentary of Sri Sankaracharya, the great Eighth-Century Philosopher and Saint of India. Contents Include: Svetasvatara Upanishad - Prasna Upanishad - Mandukya Upanishad

This study is the first comprehensive analysis of the physical theory of the Islamic philosopher Avicenna (d. 1037). It seeks to understand his contribution against the developments within the preceding Greek and Arabic intellectual milieus, and to appreciate his philosophy as such by emphasising his independence as a critical and systematic thinker. Exploring Avicenna's method of "teaching and learning," it investigates the implications of his account of the natural body as a three-dimensionally extended composite of matter and form, and examines his views on nature as a principle of motion and his analysis of its relation to soul. Moreover, it demonstrates how Avicenna defends the Aristotelian conception of place against the strident criticism of his predecessors, among other things, by disproving the existence of void and space. Finally, it sheds new light on Avicenna's account of the essence and the existence of time. For the first time taking into account the entire range of Avicenna's major writings, this study fills a gap in our understanding both of the history of natural philosophy in general and of the philosophy of Avicenna in particular. This monograph has been awarded the annual BRAIS - De Gruyter Prize (Kulturpreis Bayern) in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World and the Iran World Award for Book of the Year (2020).

This book argues that a general understanding of traditional Chinese philosophy can be achieved by a concise elaboration of its truth, goodness and beauty; that goodness and beauty in Chinese philosophy, combined with the integration of man and heaven, knowledge and practice, scenery and feeling, reflect a pursuit of an ideal goal in traditional Chinese philosophy characterized by the thought mode uniting man and nature.This book also discusses the anti-traditionalism of the May Fourth Movement, explaining that the true value of "sagacity theory" in traditional Chinese philosophy, especially in Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming dynasties, lies in its insights into universal life. In addition, existing ideas, issues, terminologies, concepts, and logic of Chinese philosophical thought were actually shaped by Western philosophy. It is necessary to be alienated from traditional status for the creation of a viable "Chinese philosophy." "Modern Chinese philosophy" in the 1930s and 1940s was comprised of scholarly work that characteristically continued rather than followed the traditional discourse of Chinese philosophy. That is to say, in the process of studying and adapting Western philosophy, Chinese philosophers transformed Chinese philosophy from traditional to modern.In the end of the book, the author puts forward the idea of a "New Axial Age." He emphasizes that the rejuvenation of Chinese culture we endeavor to pursue has to be deeply rooted in our mainstream culture with universal values incorporating cultures of other nations, especially the cultural essence of the West.