The philosophical tradition in the West has always subjected
life to conceptual divisions and questions about meaning. In Vital
Nourishment, Francois Jullien contends that although this process
has given rise to a rich history of inquiry, it proceeds too fast.
In their anxiety about meaning, Western thinkers since Plato have
forgotten simply to experience life. In this installment of his
continuing project of plumbing the philosophical divide between
Eastern and Western thought, Jullien slows down, and, using the
third and fourth century B.C.E. Chinese thinker Zhuanghi as a foil,
begins to think about life from a point outside of Western
inquiry.The question of how to "feed life," or nourish it, is the
point of departure for the Chinese tradition that Jullien locates
in Zhuanghi. Life passes through each of us, and we have a duty to
become amenable to its ebbs and flows. We must cultivate a sense of
being adequate to it so that we can house it. Exploring notions of
breath, energy, and immanence, Jullien reopens a vibrant space of
intellectual exchange between East and West. In doing so, he
refuses to commit to a rigid framework of meaning, and his text
unfolds as an elegant process that mirrors the very type of thought
he explores. Pointing out that it seems intellectually and
politically imperative today to reinvigorate Western thought with
ideas from the East, Jullien seeks to create a space of mutual
inquiry that maintains the integrity of both Eastern and Western
thinking. Vital Nourishment is both a rich intellectual historical
journey and a text very much attuned to the philosophical politics
of the present.Francois Jullien is Professor at the Universite
Paris VII-Denis Diderot and director at the Institut de la Pensee
Contemporaine. He is the author of Detour and Access: Stratgies of
Meaning in Chna and Greece, The Propensity of Things: Toward a
History of Efficacy in China, and In Praise of Blandness:
Proceeding from Chinsese Thought and Aesthetics, all published by
Zone Books."
General
Imprint: |
Zone Books
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
Vital Nourishment |
Release date: |
December 2007 |
First published: |
2007 |
Authors: |
Francois Jullien
|
Translators: |
Arthur Goldhammer
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 18mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover
|
Pages: |
176 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-890951-80-1 |
Languages: |
English
|
Subtitles: |
French
|
Categories: |
Books >
Humanities >
Philosophy >
General
Books >
Philosophy >
General
|
LSN: |
1-890951-80-3 |
Barcode: |
9781890951801 |
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!