An article by Julian Baggini, the latest entry in the New York Times’ “Stone” column.
The relational self, and the value of comparative philosophy
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Author Archives: Tim Connolly
The most cross-cultural APA ever?
The upcoming 2016 APA Pacific will feature sessions on Chinese Philosophy of Language; Contemporary Latin American Philosophy; Jonardon Ganeri’s The Self: Naturalism, Consciousness, and the First-person Stance; The Moral Significance of Shame and Disgust: Chinese and Western Perspectives; Trends in Brazilian Epistemology; Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism; Comparing Chinese and Korean Philosophies; Contemporary Indigenous Philosophy; Paradox in Contradiction in East Asian Philosophy; Confucianism; Cultural Evolution; and Barry Allen’s Vanishing into Things . . .
. . . and that is just on the main program!
Tsai Chih Chung animated cartoons available on YouTube
New book: Doing Philosophy Comparatively
My new book introducing the basic concepts and problems of comparative philosophy is now available in paperback on Amazon. A while back, I wrote on this blog about some of the topics that are discussed in the book (here and here).
New study finds no significant difference in Gettier intuitions across cultures
Read about it here (via dailynous.com).
Genius of the Ancient World: Buddha, Socrates, Confucius
A new three-part series from BBC Four. The first two episodes, on Buddha and Socrates, are available online. Just from watching the first few minutes, it seems like there is a heavy influence of Jaspers’ “Axial Age” theory. If you’ve seen the full episodes already, let the rest of us know what you think!
Confucius on gay marriage
Bryan W. Van Norden comments here.
Confucius referenced in U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage
“The centrality of marriage to the human condition makes it unsurprising that the institution has existed for millennia and across civilizations. Since the dawn of history, marriage has transformed strangers into relatives, binding families and societies together. Confucius taught that marriage lies at the foundation of government. 2 Li Chi: Book of Rites 266 (C. Chai & W. Chai eds., J. Legge transl. 1967). This wisdom was echoed centuries later and half a world away by Cicero, who wrote, “The first bond of society is marriage; next, children; and then the family.” See De Officiis 57 (W. Miller transl. 1913). There are untold references to the beauty of marriage in religious and philosophical texts spanning time, cultures, and faiths, as well as in art and literature in all their forms.” [Read full opinion here.]
Articles on Asian Philosophy in General and Specialist Philosophy Journals, 1940-2014
Numbers and discussion here.
Rewriting the story of philosophy
Via Feminist Philosophers, I learned of this paper by Don Howard, entitled “The History That We Are: Philosophy as Discipline and the Multiculturalism Debate.” A couple of excerpts:
The hypothesis that I want to put forward here is that the conception of the “philosophical” underlying this state of affairs does not correspond to a timeless Platonic form, but that it is instead a construction undertaken in a specific cultural context, at a specific historical moment, for some very specific reasons, not all of which have to do with the love of wisdom. The time is the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century. The place is northern Europe, chiefly, though not exclusively, Prussia and Hanover.
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