In the third episode of This Is the Way we explore the topic of oneness with our guest Philip J. Ivanhoe, a distinguished scholar and translator of East Asian philosophy. In part I, Justin gives a quick overview of Neo-Confucian philosophy and its connection to oneness. In part II, we talk with Ivanhoe about his book, Oneness: East Asian Conceptions of Virtue, Happiness, and How We Are All Connected. Some issues that we discuss include the following: the truth value of oneness (neither “strictly true” nor a groundless and pointless hallucination), the benefits of oneness (security, spontaneity, and metaphysical comfort), and the sense in which we are the minds of Heaven, Earth and the myriad things (Wang Yangming was right after all!).

Chapter markers

Key passages

“The Western Inscription” of Zhang Zai 張載 (1020-1077)

乾稱父，坤稱母。予茲藐焉，乃混然中處。故天地之塞，吾其體；天地之帥，吾其性。民，吾同胞；物，吾與也。大君者，吾父母宗子；其大臣，宗子之家相也。尊高年，所以長其長；慈孤弱，所以幼其幼。聖，其合德；賢，其秀也。凡天下疲癃、殘疾、煢獨、鰥寡，皆吾兄弟之顛連而無告者也。

Heaven is the father; Earth is the mother. And I, this tiny thing, dwell enfolded in Them. Hence, what fills Heaven and Earth is my body, and what rules Heaven and Earth is my nature. The people are my siblings, and all living things are my companions. My ruler is the eldest son of my parents, and his ministers are his retainers. To respect those great in years is the way to “treat your elders as elders.” To be kind to the orphaned and the weak is the way to “treat your young ones as young ones.” The sage harmonizes with Their Virtue; the worthy receive what is most excellent from Them. All under Heaven who are tired, crippled, exhausted, sick, brotherless, childless, widows or widowers—all are my siblings who are helpless and have no one else to appeal to. (Zhang Zai, “The Western Inscription,” translation by Bryan W. Van Norden and Justin Tiwald)

Other figures, movements, and texts mentioned

• Philip J. Ivanhoe, Oneness: East Asian Conceptions of Virtue, Happiness, and How We Are All Connected
• Justin Tiwald and Bryan W. Van Norden, Readings in Later Chinese Philosophy 
• Stephen C. Angle and Justin Tiwald, Neo-Confucianism: A Philosophical Introduction
• Chan Buddhism
• Zhang Zai
• Philip Kitcher, Preludes to Pragmatism: Toward a Reconstruction of Philosophy
• Philip Kitcher, Life After Faith: The Case for Secular Humanism
• John Dewey, A Common Faith
• Bertrand Russell
• Jeong Yak-yong (a.k.a. Dasan)
• St. Thomas Aquinas
• Zhu Xi
• Wang Yangming
• Owen Flanagan, “Hallucinating Oneness: Is Oneness True or Just a Positive Metaphysical Illusion?“
• William James, The Will to Believe
• Alasdair C. MacIntyre, Dependent Rational Animals
• Owen Flanagan, The Geography of Morals (footnote on p. 316)
• Martha C. Nussbaum, Anger and Forgiveness
• Philip J. Ivanhoe, “Précis of Oneness“
• Philip J. Ivanhoe, “The Values of Spontaneity“
• Joel J. Kupperman, Learning from Asian Philosophy
• E.O. Wilson, The Biophilia Hypothesis
• Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion (on the differences between errors, illusions, and delusions)
• Adam Grant on “The Altruism Debate” (summary of the debate about linkages between empathy and altruism, between C. Daniel Batson and Robert Cialdini)
• Jamil Zaki, The War for Kindness
• The U.S.-China Research Group on Cosmopolitanism (Georgetown University research group mentioned by Ivanhoe in the final segment)
• Philip J. Ivanhoe and Hwa Yeong Wang, Korean Women Philosophers and the Ideal of a Female Sage: Essential Writings of Im Yungjidang and Gang Jeongildang
• The Cheng brothers (Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, subjects of Ivanhoe’s next major translation project)
• In Ivanhoe’s answer to our question about the “one text” that he’d recommend to listeners, he suggested that the texts should vary according to the specific circumstances and interests of individual readers. In an addendum that he emailed to us later, he stood by his original answer but proposed that the The Doctrine of the Mean is nevertheless a good “one text” for many.

Note: This Is the Way is a podcast series on Chinese philosophy. Links to support pages for all published episodes can be found here.