Buddhism Bibliography

Charles Muller writes…

Dear Colleagues,

Richard Smith’s kind offering of his bibliography made me think that it
might be worthwhile mentioning the H-Buddhism Zotero Bibliography (which
has a fair number of entries on Confucianism, not to mention China).

https://www.zotero.org/groups/h-buddhism_bibliography_project

Zotero provides useful tools on the web site, but of course, it is an
even much more powerful tool if you figure out how to run Zotero locally
in Firefox. If anyone was ever motivated to start a similar project for
Confucianism, he or she could go a long way in seeding it by simply
exporting the Confucianism entries from our project. Smith’s
bibliography could also be converted and imported fairly easily.

We presently have it set up so that anyone can view it, but only members
can edit, because we want to keep the content scholarly. If you’d like
me to send you an invite to join, just write me.

Regards,

Charles

Am I Missing Your Favorite Book?

This semester I am teaching a seminar on Comparative Philosophy. As part of the class, each of the 15 students will choose a monograph the engages in comparative philosophy (related at least in part to Chinese philosophy), and write an extended review essay on their book. They will then present their findings, revise the essays, and I will then edit the final versions into an on-line book, tentatively titled “Comparative Philosophy: Reviewing the State of the Art.” I have never done this before, but the students and I are excited.

I have compiled a list from which the students will choose their books, but I am afraid I may have left of some excellent choices. It is important that the books be explicitly engaged in comparative philosophy, rather than works of scholarship solidly focused on a single thinker or tradition. Exactly what “explicitly engaged in comparative philosophy” means is, admittedly, not always so clear, and there are a few books on my list that may be marginal cases. That’s not the end of the world. More importantly, what are the good choices that I have left off? Apologies in advance to authors whom I have inadvertently neglected! Please let me know, either in the Comments below, or via email. Thanks! The list follows.

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Teaching Resources Editor Wanted

I’ve temporarily pulled the Teaching Resources page tab off the blog. It was sadly neglected and could use the touch of a motivated, volunteer page editor. If you feel such motivation welling up in your xin, please let me know (manyulim@bridgeport.edu). If more than one of you are interested, I might coordinate a collaboration. Send me a note with your background, experience, and any ideas you have for making the page useful for our readers.

Joshua Mason – Columbia Society for Comparative Philosophy Lecture: “Cognitive Linguistics and Cultural Gulfs: From Embodied Metaphors to Responsible Generalizations”, Feb. 26 @5:30pm

THE COLUMBIA SOCIETY FOR COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY

Welcomes: JOSHUA MASON (West Chester University of Pennsylvania)
With responses from: DEREK SKILLINGS (CUNY Graduate Center)

Please join us at Columbia University’s Religion Department on FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26th at 5:30PM for his lecture entitled:

“Cognitive Linguistics and Cultural Gulfs: From Embodied Metaphors to Responsible Generalizations”

ABSTRACT: An ongoing debate in comparative research is about whether we should see cultural diversities as manifestations of essential differences or as superficial variations on a universal blueprint. Edward Slingerland has pointed to cognitive linguistics and the use of embodied metaphors to emphasize the universality of concept formation and cognition across cultures. He suggests that this should quiet the “cultural essentialists” who take fundamental differences in eastern and western thinking as their starting points. Michael Puett has also leveled a critique of cultural essentialism in support of a presuppositionless approach, and Slingerland’s conclusions seem to offer him support. However, I will argue that even if all modern humans are broadly similar in metaphor use and cognitive processes, research in the humanities must continue to account for the differences implied by the particular metaphors employed and emphasized in diverse traditions. I contend that responsible hermeneutic practice does this through provisional, yet indispensable, generalizations. A starting point which recognizes the existence of cultural gulfs will facilitate, not vitiate, future advances in cross-cultural understanding. Continue reading →