McLeod Reviews Berruz and Kalmanson (eds.), Comparative Studies in Asian and Latin American Philosophies

Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

2018.11.01 View this Review Online   View Other NDPR Reviews

Stephanie Rivera Berruz and Leah Kalmanson (eds.), Comparative Studies in Asian and Latin American Philosophies: Cross-Cultural Theories and Methodologies, Bloomsbury, 2018, 248pp., $114.00 (hbk), ISBN 9781350007888.

Reviewed by Alexus McLeod, University of Connecticut

This excellent new collection represents a bold step forward in comparative philosophy. I hope that it will find wide readership and have an influence on the development of the field. As the editors point out in their introduction, comparative philosophy (especially done within the discipline of philosophy) has long been almost exclusively concerned with study of some Non-Western tradition alongside a Western tradition. Comparative philosophy as such has constantly had the West as a frame. Berruz and Kalmanson’s praiseworthy aim in this volume is to “disrupt this trajectory . . . to ‘provincialize’ the West within comparative philosophy and to focus explicit attention on conversations across Latin America and Asia” (1). The essays in this volume present interesting ways of doing this, even while the West remains a more-or-less shadowy presence in many of the essays and an explicit player in some.

Continue reading →

Job: Pre-Qin Philosophy, National Taiwan University

The philosophy department at National Taiwan University is searching for a position as follows:

AOS: Pre-Qin Confucian philosophy (certain familiarity with excavated texts is preferable)

Position: Assistant Professor

Applicants must be competent in teaching in Mandarin and prepared to offer mandatory courses. National Taiwan University (http://www.ntu.edu.tw/english/index.html) is the best university in Taiwan, and the philosophy department (http://www.philo.ntu.edu.tw/en/faculty/) is ranked 51~100 by QS World University Rankings 2018.

For more information, see here: http://www.philo.ntu.edu.tw/en/ann/view.php?ID=66

CFP: Notre Dame / Mellon Philosophy as a Way of Life Project

Many traditions in philosophy have aimed at helping individuals think more deeply and rigorously about the good life. Notre Dame and the Andrew Mellon Foundation are partnering with universities across the country to imagine new and higher impact ways to introduce students to these traditions. Please see https://philife.nd.edu/ for information about applying to take part in this new project. (As part of the project, there will soon be a robust website, including blog and resources; stay tuned here for more information.)

Erica Brindley – Columbia Society for Comparative Philosophy Lecture: “Spontaneous Arising and an Ethics of Creativity in Early Daoism” Friday Nov 2 at 5:30pm

THE COLUMBIA SOCIETY FOR COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY

Welcomes: Erica Brindley (Penn State University)
With a response from: Christopher Gowans (Fordham University)

Please join on us at Columbia University’s Religion Department on FRIDAY, November 2nd at 5:30 PM for her lecture entitled:

Spontaneous Arising and an Ethics of Creativity in Early Daoism

ABSTRACT: In the early part of the 20th century, Joseph Needham formulated a substantial claim concerning the Chinese predilection for self-generated creation rather than creator gods and myths. Half a century later, scholars working in the West like Frederick Mote, Derk Bodde, and Chang Kwang-chih picked up on Needham’s insight to discuss the so-called lack of a “creation myth” in early Chinese culture, basing their arguments on what they called the “inner necessity” or “spontaneously self-generating” nature of things in the cosmos. While the claim that there are no creator gods or myths in early China is false and has since been convincingly refuted by many scholars, there may indeed be a way in which Bodde and company were onto something. In this talk, I will show how the notions of “inner necessity” and “spontaneity” are close but not the best fit for understanding certain early Chinese accounts of creation and the creative process. Continue reading →