Books in the Studies in Comparative Philosophy and Religion series

This study advances contemporary postmodern/poststructural critical theory, literary criticism in particular, with the help of Mahayanaespecially Ch'an/Seon (Chinese and Korean Zen)Buddhist thought. The quest for theinfinity of the Other (West) and Emptiness or the true I (East) contributes to the exploration of the contemporary critical issues of ethics and infinity. Such an approach will awaken our sense of unrepresented, genuine transcendence and immanence; The Buddhist Emptiness shows us the absolute Other illuminated on a vaster scale. The theory section explores and links Eastern and Western philosophies, switching between the two. While discussing in depth Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Derrida, Levinas, Lacan, Deleuze, and Nancy, this study gradually guides the reader from the contemporary Western thought on the Other and infinity to the Buddhist vision of Emptiness, the ultimate reality. To overcome the dualistic mode of thought inherent in tradition of Western metaphysics, this exploration follows the line that observes Nagarjuna and the imprint of Ch'an teachings that are most prevalent in South Korean Buddhism. The last three chapters demonstrate a Levinasian and Seon Buddhist approach to the book of Job, part of the Judeo-Christian Bible, as being a more literary than religious text, and the excess of the Gothic mood in the two most distinguished and widely celebrated novelsBram Stoker's Dracula and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The three texts compel readers to confront the infinity of the absolute Other or Emptiness.The Grand Prize Winner of the 7th Wonhyo Academic Awards from the Korean Buddhism Promotion Foundation.

Confucian and Stoic Perspectives on Forgiveness explores the absence of forgiveness in classical Confucianism and Roman Stoicism as well as the alternatives to forgiveness that these rich philosophical traditions offer. After discussing forgiveness as it is understood in contemporary philosophy, Sean McAleer explores Confucius' vocabulary for and attitude toward anger and resentment, arguing that Confucius does not object to anger but to its excesses. While Confucius does not make room for forgiveness, McAleer argues that Mencius cannot do so, given the distinctive twist he gives to self-examination in response to mistreatment. Xunzi, by contrast, leaves open a door to forgiveness that Mencius bolted shut. The book then proceeds to the Roman StoicsMusonius Rufus, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and Senecaarguing that their distinctive conceptions of value and wellbeing rule out forgiveness, though like the Confucians the Stoics offer alternatives to forgiveness well worth considering. The book ends by comparing the two traditions, arguing that while Stoicism helps us navigate many of the turbulent waters of everyday life, Confucianism enjoys advantages when we interact with those to whom we are bound by ties of affection and intimacy.

The ancient Confucians developed a particular notion of ritual and placed it at the center of their moral cultivation program. This book examines the Confucian ritual method through the lens of modern developmental theory and creates a theoretical framework for deploying ritual as an invaluable tool in contemporary moral education pursuits.

This book is a comparative study of the fundamental metaphysical assumptions and their epistemological implications in Chinese and Western philosophy. The author uses a topical comparison methodology based on responses to a central topical issue to argue for commensurability in Chinese and Western metaphysics.

Following Levinas' articulation that "truth is accessible only to the mind capable of experiencing an exile away from its preconceptions and prejudices," Exile and Otherness posits that Shinran, the founder True Pure Land Buddhism, and Maimonides, a Jewish philosopher and Torah scholar, exhibit sensitivity to the neglected and suffering others.

This book argues that the history of India contains a tradition of skepticism about philosophy represented most clearly by three figures: Nagarjuna, Jayarasi, and Sri Har?a. Furthermore, understanding this tradition ought to be an important part of our contemporary metaphilosophical reflections on the purposes and limits of philosophy.

This work provides an anthology of close textual readings and examinations of a wide range of topics by leading scholars in interreligious scholarship and Hindu-Jewish dialogue, offering innovative approaches to categories such as ritual, sacrifice, ethics, and theology while underscoring affinities between Hindu and Jewish philosophy and religion

Varieties of Ethical Reflection brings together new cultural and religious perspectives-drawn from non-Western, primarily Asian, philosophical sources-to globalize the contemporary discussion of theoretical and applied ethics.

This work explores issues in Gandhi scholarship, political theory, and religion. By applying core aspects of Gandhian philosophy to the present age it shows a harmony between commonly taken to be disparate aspects of social life that should interest anyone concerned about the future prospects for liberalism.

Baldwin and McNabb explore how non-Christian religious traditions can utilize Plantinga's epistemology. This book pays particular attention to the question, if there are believers from differing religious traditions that can rightfully utilize his epistemology, does this somehow prevent a Plantingian's creedal-specific belief from being warranted?

This book is a cross-cultural intervention in analytic epistemology that offers an alternative to the narrow conception of knowledge as justified true belief. It develops a framework for a comparative epistemology, illustrating the hermeneutic circularity of knowing to accurately and responsibly approach both Western and non-Western philosophy.

This book offers an interpretation of the philosophical thought of the ancient Maya, in the classic and postclassic periods. Alexus McLeod adopts philosophical methodology, comparative philosophy, and history of philosophy to reveal and understand the ancient Maya by engaging with Maya thought as philosophy.

Although there are various studies comparing Greek and Indian philosophy and religion, and Chinese and Western philosophy and religion, Brahman and Dao: Comparatives Studies in Indian and Chinese Philosophy and Religion is a first of its kind that brings together Indian and Chinese philosophies and religions. Brahman and Dao helps close the gap on a much needed examination on the rich history of Buddhist transmission to China, and the many generations of Indian Buddhist missionaries to China and Chinese Buddhist pilgrims to India, including the legendary Bodhidharma, and Faxian and Xuanzang.

Sarah A. Mattice explores contemporary philosophical activity and the way in which one aspect of languagemetaphorgives shape and boundary to the landscape of the discipline. The book examines metaphors of combat, play, and aesthetic experience and emphasizes how the choices we make in philosophical language are deeply intertwined with what we think philosophy is and how it should be practiced. Drawing on a broad range of resources, from cognitive linguistics and hermeneutics to aesthetics and Chinese philosophy, Mattices argument provides insight into the evolution and future of philosophy itself.

Suggests that the texts of both the Jewish and Confucian tradition talk in riddles of a special kind riddles, which are introduced-and answered-by religious forms of life. Using a dialogue of riddles, this book presents a comparative perspective of Confucianism and Judaism regarding the relatedness between contradictory expressions in texts.

Ranging in scope from ancient Biblical, Greek, Indian, and Chinese formulations to religious and philosophical positions, comparative philosophy and religion broaden and deepen our understanding of terror and present new possibilities for greater nonviolence, peace, and true security. This book talks about these studies.

Ethics of Compassion places central themes from Buddhist (primarily) and Christian moral teachings within the conceptual framework of Western normative ethics. What results is a viable alternative ethical theory to those offered by utilitarians, Kantian formalists, proponents of the natural law tradition, and advocates of virtue ethics. Ethics of Compassion bridges Eastern and Western cultures, philosophical ethics and religious moral discourse, and notions of acting rightly and of being virtuous. This book will be of interest to anyone who has been introduced to the discipline of ethics. It will be useful for undergraduate courses in philosophical and religious ethics.

Comparative philosophy and religion can help us to understand the violence and terror that often dominate our world. Presenting possibilities for nonviolence, peace, and true security, these creative studies are ranging from ancient Biblical, Greek, Indian, and Chinese formulations to religious and philosophical positions.

The problem of radical doubt has threatened the commitment to ultimate truth in many cultures and periods. In Reality, Religion, and Passion, Jessica Frazier compares two thinkers who sought to restore philosophy's passion for truth in cultures threatened by the dispassion of radical doubt. In these complementary but divergent philosophies from Europe and India, each grounded in a transcendental metaphysics that sees consciousness as the basis of reality, two different ethics of vitality and passion take shape. Frazier shows how Heidegger's heir, Hans-Georg Gadamer, uses metaphysical insights borrowed from Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, and Heidegger as the ground for an ethics of 'play' which casts a uniquely positive light on the finitude and flux of the postmodern world-view. Complementing this continental European position, the work of Rupa Gosvami, a poet-theologian of early modern India develops a similar analysis of phenomenal reality into a philosophy not of play, but of passion. From Gadamer's philosophers and poets, to Gosvami's amorous goddess Radha, both visions see salvation in a renewed passion for truth. This journey toward a viable philosophy of life touches on a range of debates in Western philosophy and Indian religion, including the nature of philosophical and religious truths, the perceived goals of philosophy, the history of emotion in reason and religion, and the development of phenomenological accounts of subjectivity. It establishes a model for comparative philosophical methodology, and aims to contribute to a multicultural history of religious and philosophical reasoning. Above all, this book addresses Badiou's challenge to rediscover 'the passion of the real' and Heidegger's injunction to all thinkers to 'seek the word that is able to call one to faith.'

In Nietzsche and Zen: Self-Overcoming Without a Self, Andre van der Braak engages Nietzsche in a dialogue with four representatives of the Buddhist Zen tradition: Nagarjuna (c. 150-250), Linji (d. 860), Dogen (1200-1253), and Nishitani (1900-1990). In doing so, he reveals Nietzsches thought as a philosophy of continuous self-overcoming, in which even the notion of self has been overcome. Van der Braak begins by analyzing Nietzsches relationship to Buddhism and status as a transcultural thinker, recalling research on Nietzsche and Zen to date and setting out the basic argument of the study. He continues by examining the practices of self-overcoming in Nietzsche and Zen, comparing Nietzsches radical skepticism with that of Nagarjuna and comparing Nietzsches approach to truth to Linjis. Nietzsches methods of self-overcoming are compared to Dogens zazen, or sitting meditation practice, and Dogens notion of forgetting the self. These comparisons and others build van der Braaks case for a criticism of Nietzsche informed by the ideas of Zen Buddhism and a criticism of Zen Buddhism seen through the Western lens of Nietzsche - coalescing into one world philosophy. This treatment, focusing on one of the most fruitful areas of research within contemporary comparative and intercultural philosophy, will be useful to Nietzsche scholars, continental philosophers, and comparative philosophers.

Religious world-views reserve a central and prominent place for human moral action, yet they must also contend with the reality of human moral failings. Is it possible to anchor moral knowledge and practice in the framework of a moral universe? If so, how do you explain why things go wrong? Must the religions appeal to faith alone, or can they develop a rational framework for their moral visions? The Metaphysics of Kindness: Comparative Studies in Religious Meta-ethics explores the attempted solutions of four pivotal philosophers from very different traditions: the Neo-Confucian Zhu Xi, the German Idealist Arthur Schopenhauer, the Mahayana Buddhist Santideva, and the progenitor of the Kyoto School, Nishida Kitaro. Each position is investigated sympathetically and independently, yet there is an underlying commonality weaving the different studies together: compassion. Each philosopher treats compassion not only as one virtue among others, but as a kind of meta-virtue, the one that is in some respect the logical and/or psychological basis for all the other virtues. It is also a trait that is both at the heart of human nature, and also somehow at the heart of nature itself.

Times of prolonged conflict spur great minds to seek a lasting peace. Thus was the case of Warring States China, which saw the rise of the Hundred Schools of Thought, including the Doadejing and the Han Feizi, and Renaissance Italy, which produced Niccol Machiavelli. Witnessing their respective societies fall prey to internal corruption and external aggression, all three thinkers sought ways to produce a strong, stable state that would allow both the leader and the populace to endure. Fortune and the Dao: A Comparative Study of Machiavelli, the Daodejing, and the Han Feizi demonstrates where the shortcomings of each theory lie, with emphasis on the similarities among Machiavelli, Laozi, and Han Feizi. Jason P. Blahuta ultimately argues that if Machiavelli's philosophy, the most comprehensive of the three theories, were supplemented by aspects of the Daodejing, the revision would potentially overcome the deficiencies of the original.

In Mysticism and Morality author Richard Jones explores an often neglected question of religious ethics: Is mysticism moral? Through a discussion of several religious traditions-including Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Tantrism, Daoism, and Christianity-Jones fills a major void in the scholarly literature by considering all relevant points pertaining to mysticism. Rather than looking at mysticism abstractly, the book focuses on such topics as ritual, practice, and the processes of mystical becoming. This work provides new perspectives for those interested in ethics and will prove essential to anyone interested in comparative philosophy and cross-cultural studies of religion.

Pyrrhonism is commonly confused with scepticism in Western philosophy. Unlike sceptics, who believe there are no true beliefs, Pyrrhonists suspend judgment about all beliefs, including the belief that there are no true beliefs. Pyrrhonism was developed by a line of ancient Greek philosophers, from its founder Pyrrho of Elis in the fourth century BCE through Sextus Empiricus in the second century CE. Pyrrhonists offer no view, theory, or knowledge about the world, but recommend instead a practice, a distinct way of life, designed to suspend beliefs and ease suffering. Adrian Kuzminski examines Pyrrhonism in terms of its striking similarity to some Eastern non-dogmatic soteriological traditions-particularly Madhyamaka Buddhism. He argues that its origin can plausibly be traced to the contacts between Pyrrho and the sages he encountered in India, where he traveled with Alexander the Great. Although Pyrrhonism has not been practiced in the West since ancient times, its insights have occasionally been independently recovered, most recently in the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein. Kuzminski shows that Pyrrhonism remains relevant perhaps more than ever as an antidote to today's cultures of belief.

This comprehensive Gandhi reader provides an essential new reference for scholars and students of his life and thought. It is the only text available that presents Gandhi's own writings, including excerpts from three of his books-An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Satyagraha in South Africa, Hind Swaraj (Indian Home Rule)-a major pamphlet, Constructive Programme: Its Meaning and Place, and many journal articles and letters, along with a biographical sketch of his life in historical context and recent essays by highly regarded scholars.