David L. Hall & Roger T. Ames 
Thinking from the Han [PDF ebook] 
Self, Truth, and Transcendence in Chinese and Western Culture

This book continues a comparative project begun with the authors’ Thinking Through Confucius and Anticipating China. It continues the comparative discussions by focusing upon three concepts–self, truth, transcendence–which best illuminate the distinctive characters of the two cultures. ‘Self’ specifies the meaning of the human subject, ‘truth’ considers that subject’s manner of relating to the world of which it is a part, and ‘transcendence’ raises the issue as to whether the self/world relationship is grounded in something other than the elements resourced immediately in self and world. Considered together, the discussions of these concepts advertise in a most dramatic fashion the intellectual barriers currently existing between Chinese and Western thinkers. More importantly, these discussions reformulate Chinese and Western vocabularies in a manner that will enhance the possibilities of intercultural communication.

İçerik tablosu

Prologue




Part I Metaphors of Identity




1. The Problematic of Self in Western Thought



Self, History, and Culture



The Modern Self



Mixing Metaphors: The Vagueness of the Self




2. The Focus-Field Self in Classical Confucianism



The ‘Selfless’ Self



The Mindless Self



The Bodiless Self



The Aimless Self



The Nonwilling Self



Self as Field and Focus




3. The Focus-Field Self in Classical Daoism



The Tripartite Psyche and the Wu -Forms of Daoism



Dao and De :Difference and Deference



Self, Humor, and the Transformation of Things




4. Chinese Sexism



The Gender of Thinking



Dualistic Sexism



Correlative Sexism




Part II ‘Truth’ as a Test Case of Cultural Comparison




5. Excursus on Method



The Way and the Truth



Ars Contextualis



What Has Athens to Do with Alexandria?



Some Ironies of the Search for Truth




6. Cultural Requisites for a Theory of Truth in China



Coherence and World Order



Reality and Appearance



Theory and Practice



Rational Arguments



Logic and Rhetoric



Sensibility Matrices: China and the West




7. A Pragmatic Understanding of the Way (Dao)



Plotting a Course (Dao)



One Way or Many?



Becoming an Exemplary Person (Junzi)



Living Up to One’s Word (Xin) and Having Integrity (Cheng)



Becoming a Genuine Person (Zhenren)



Confucianism and Daoism: Convergences and Divergences



Truth and the Harmony of the Way




Part III Transcendence and Immanence as Cultural Clues




8. The Decline of Transcendence in the West



What is ‘Transcendence’?



The Collapse of the Western Gods



Theology and Mysticism



The Waning of Transcendence in Science and Society




9. Tian and Dao as Nontranscendent Fields



The ‘Transcendence Debate’ in Contemporary China



Tian



Dao




10. The Chinese Community without Transcendence



Could Socrates and Confucius Be Friends?



Rites and Rights




Notes




Works Cited




Index

Yazar hakkında

David L. Hall is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at El Paso. He is the author of
The Civilization of Experience: A Whiteheadian Theory of Culture; The Uncertain Phoenix: Adventures Toward a Post-Cultural Sensibility; and
Eros and Irony: A Prelude to Philosophical Anarchism. With SUNY Press, Professor Hall is coauthor of
Thinking Through Confucius (with Roger T. Ames); and
Anticipating China (with Roger T. Ames); author of
The Arimaspian Eye and
Richard Rorty: Prophet and Poet of the New Pragmatism.
Roger T. Ames is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hawaii and editor of
Philosophy East and West. He is the author of
The Art of Rulership: A Study in Ancient Chinese Political Thought and coeditor of
Nature in Asian Traditions of Thought: Essays in Environmental Philosophy (with J. Baird Callicott);
Self and Deception: A Cross-Cultural Philosophical Enquiry (with Wimal Dissanayake);
Self as Body in Asian Theory and Practice; and
Self as Person in Asian Theory and Practice (both with Wimal Dissanayake and Thomas Kasulis), all published by SUNY Press. He is also the translator of
Sun-tzu: The Art of Warfare; and
Sun Pin: The Art of Warfare (with D. C. Lau).