Philip J. Ivanhoe, currently Chair Professor of East Asian and Comparative Philosophy and Religion at City University of Hong Kong, has accepted the position of Distinguished Chair Professor in the College of Confucian Studies and Eastern Philosophy at Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea. He will assume this post on 15 November 2018. Among Professor Ivanhoe’s duties will be to serve as editor in chief of the Journal of Confucian Philosophy and Culture at the Institute of Confucian Philosophy and Cultures and director of a new research center within the College of Confucian Studies and Eastern Philosophy tentatively named the Confucian Institute for East Asian Philosophy (CIEAP).
Daily Archives: May 8, 2018
Song Reviews Ivanhoe, Oneness
Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
2018.05.05 View this Review Online View Other NDPR Reviews
Philip J. Ivanhoe, Oneness: East Asian Conceptions of Virtue, Happiness, and How We are All Connected, Oxford University Press, 2017, 188 pp., $39.95, ISBN 9780190840518.
Reviewed by Bin Song, Washington College
At the center of East Asian philosophical traditions lies a conception of oneness signifying that “we — and in particular our personal welfare or happiness — are inextricably intertwined with other people, creatures, and things,” which Ivanhoe calls the “oneness hypothesis.” (1) While drawing upon the writings of East Asian, especially neo-Confucian, thinkers to elucidate the conception of oneness, this book aims to show how these traditional views “can guide us in constructing contemporary versions of the oneness hypothesis.” (3) In an era when human civilization is constantly alarmed by ecological crisis and societal disintegration, this book has great appeal particularly to those who are willing to employ comparative philosophy to tackle these menacing issues.
