ARTICLES

Literal Means and Hidden Meanings: A New Analysis of Skillful Means
Asaf Federman, 125

The Buddhist concept of skillful means, as introduced in Mahāyāna sūtras, exposes a new awareness of the gap between text and meaning. Although the term is sometimes taken to point to the Buddha’s pedagogical skills, this interpretation ignores the provocative use of the term in Mahāyāna texts. Treating skillful means as a universal Buddhist concept also fails to explain why and for what purpose it first became predominant in the Mahāyāna. Looking at the use of skillful means in the Lotus Sūtra and in the Skill in Means Sūtra reveals a hermeneutic device aimed at criticizing an existing corpus of Buddhist literature. As such, skillful means is used to demonstrate that the old doctrine and the life of the Buddha contained fictitious features and were nothing but skillful means. This indicates a growing awareness of a gap between literal expressions and their hidden meaning that can only arise after some kind of religious corpus has been established.

The Authority of the Master in the Analects
David Elstein, 142

This article takes issue with the stereotype of “Confucianism” as authoritarian, a view common in discussions of modern China as well as in scholarship on early China. By studying the roles of master and students and the relationship between them in the Analects, it attempts to show that according to this text the master did not occupy a position of complete dominance over the student. Masters are not generally considered to be like fathers, and students have more room to dispute with their master than previously recognized. In contrast to later depictions of Kongzi, he is not presented as infallible in the Analects, and his students do not always accept his opinions. Questioning the master is often a good quality in a disciple. The master-student relationship, while undoubtedly hierarchical, did not involve complete submission by the student. It is argued here that there is little basis for concluding that the Analects is fundamentally authoritarian in its depiction of teaching. It further suggests a need for a distinct understanding of teaching authority that is not modeled on political authority.

A Paradox of Virtue: The Daodejing on Virtue and Moral Philosophy
Hektor K. T. Yan, 173

Based on a reading of chapter 38 of the Daodejing, this article examines the relationship between the virtues and moral motivation. Laozi puts forward a view which might be termed a “paradox of virtue”—the phenomenon that a conscious pursuit of virtue can lead to a diminishing of virtue. It aims to show that Laozi’s criticisms on the focus on the virtues and characters of agents, and his overall view on morality, pose challenges to a way of moral thinking that is common in modern moral philosophy, including virtue ethics.

Bowing to Your Enemies: Courtesy, Budō, and Japan
Damon A. Young, 188

Courtesy seems to be an essential part of budō, the Japanese martial ways. Yet there is no prima facie relationship between fighting and courtesy. Indeed, we might think that violence and aggression are antithetical to etiquette and care. By situating budō within the three great Japanese traditions of Shintō, Confucianism, and Zen Buddhism, this article reveals the intimate relationship between courtesy and the martial arts. It suggests that courtesy cultivates, and is cultivated by, purity of work and deed, mutually beneficial cooperation, and loving brutality. These individual and social virtues are not only complementary but also essential to budō.

Reflections on Time and Related Ideas in the Yijing
Wonsuk Chang, 216

This article reflects on important terms and concepts that constitute the cosmology of the Yijing: ji, tian, yin-yang, and the correlative aspects of temporality. These are familiar terms from the Yijing as well as other philosophical texts from ancient China. It begins with a comparative inquiry into Chinese and Greek attitudes toward time and then explores the related philosophical consequences. Although the ancient Chinese view of the world as temporal, processual, and relational may be found to be in contrast with Greek substance-oriented philosophy, it is argued here that we should revise some commonly accepted interpretations of Chinese terms. Without adequate reflection on temporality and process, many important terms may be misconstrued as atemporal and substance-oriented, which would be alien to the sensibilities of East Asian traditions. Thus, it is attempted here to gauge the adequacy of the prominent existing interpretations of these terms and ideas while giving an account of how such interpretations may be revised to better recognize the role of temporality and process. Specifically, it is proposed that the interpretations given here accord best with a conception of time as a spiral trajectory, as opposed to either the cyclic or linear conceptions of time usually considered dominant in the Yijing and ancient Chinese philosophy.

BOOK REVIEWS

Remastering Morals with Aristotle and Confucius, by May Sim
Reviewed by Christine Swanton, 230

Te-ch’uan Jih-ben Lun-yü ch’üan-shih shih-lun, by Huang Chun-chieh
Reviewed by John A. Tucker, 233

Buddhist Inclusivism: Attitudes Towards Religious Others, by Kristin Beise Kiblinger
Reviewed by Robert C. Gordon, 238

The Impossible Nude: Chinese Art and Western Aesthetics, by François Jullien, translated by Maev de la Guardia
Reviewed by Christian Helmut Wenzel, 240

The Concealed Art of the Soul: Theories of the Self and Practices of Truth in Indian Ethics and Epistemology, by Jonardon Ganeri
Reviewed by Melanie Mader, 243

BOOKS RECEIVED, 247

ARTICLES

God and Nothingness
Robert E. Carter, 1

The idea of nothingness has been viewed as neither a vital nor a positive element in Western philosophy or theology. With the exception of a handful of mystics, nothingness has been taken to refer to the negation of being, or to some theoretical void. By contrast, the Japanese philosopher Nishida Kitarō gave nothingness a central role in philosophy. The strategy of this essay is to use the German mystic Meister Eckhart as a more familiar thinker who did take nothingness seriously, and then to look closely at Nishida’s philosophy, and at the work of his contemporary Ueda Shizuteru, in exploring the central importance of nothingness in Zen Buddhist thought. Eckhart writes of the nothingness of the godhead, whereas Nishida and Ueda speak of nothingness ‘‘pure and simple.’’ Eckhart remains within the being of the godhead and theology. Nishida moves directly to nothingness. Some have claimed that Nishida is not a mystic, and Nishida himself concurred, yet it is Ueda who explains why Nishida can rightly be read as a mystic and as not a mystic. He argues that Zen includes mysticism, but then goes beyond it to a
‘‘non-mysticism.’’ Mystic or non-mystic, the guidance that Nishida and Ueda offer leads to a compelling outlook on life.

From Yuanqi (Primal Energy) to Wenqi (Literary Pneuma): A Philosophical Study of a Chinese Aesthetic
Ming Dong Gu, 22

Wenqi 文氣 (literary pneuma) is a foundational idea in Chinese aesthetics. It has remained elusive since its initial formulation, however. This is so largely because previous scholars did not examine its ontological and epistemological conditions in analytic terms, still less explore its implications in a conceptual framework of artistic creation. Here, it is proposed to explore its general as well as specific implications against the larger background of Chinese intellectual thought and in relation to contemporary theories of literature and aesthetics. Through a philosophical inquiry, wenqi is here reconceived as an integration of the primal energy of the universe, the creative energy of human beings, and the totalizing force that animates an artistic work. Wenqi is viewed not as a substance or a product but as a creative and shaping force that flows from the writer into his writing, gives it a distinct shape, and makes it different from any other writing. The theory of wenqi is a system of aesthetic principles that govern the creative and shaping force operating in the space of three intertwined entities: the macrocosm of the universe including human society, the microcosm of the writer, and the microcosm of his writing.

‘‘Why Use an Ox-Cleaver to Carve a Chicken?’’ The Sociology of the Junzi Ideal in the Lunyu
Erica Brindley, 47

Central to Confucian teachings in the Analects is the ideal of self-cultivation—in particular that of the junzi 君子(‘‘gentleman’’ ‘‘nobleman’’) ideal. At the same time that Confucius recommends that individuals follow such an ideal, he also places limits on who actually might attain it. By examining statements involving such terms as the junzi, the ‘‘petty man’’ (xiao ren 小人), and the ‘‘masses’’ (min 民, or zhong 眾), or common people, this essay highlights the sociopolitical and gender restrictions informing one of the most basic, yet lofty, ethical goals of the text. A new means is also offered of discussing these socially delimited discrepancies in moral cultivation by referring to leading, or self-determining agency in association with junzi on the one hand, and to conformist agency for women and common people on the other.

The Coming Time ‘‘Between’’ Being and Daoist Emptiness: An Analysis of Heidegger’s Article Inquiring into the Uniqueness of the Poet via the Lao Zi
Xianglong Zhang, 71

In volume 75 of Heidegger’s Complete Works, there is an article written in 1943 in which Heidegger cited the whole of chapter 11 of the Lao Zi to illustrate his view of the uniqueness of the poet. This essay attempts to expose Heidegger’s rendering and interpretation of that chapter. They contain both a deepened exegesis of his doctrine of ‘‘Being’’ and ‘‘time’’ in his earlier writing, and a methodological revealing of the guiding word
‘‘appropriation’’ in his late works.

Comparing Phases of Skepticism in al-Ghazālī and Descartes: Some First Meditations on Deliverance from Error
Omar Edward Moad, 88

Abū Hāmid al-Ghazālī (1058–1111 C.E.) is well known, among other things, for his account, in al-Munqidh min al-dalāl (Deliverance from error), of a struggle with philosophical skepticism that bears a striking resemblance to that described by Descartes in the Meditations. This essay aims to give a close comparative analysis of these respective accounts, and will concentrate solely on the processes of invoking or entertaining doubt that al-Ghazālī and Descartes describe, respectively. In the process some subtle differences between them in this regard will be brought to light that are relevant to the comparative issue of the respective solutions at which they arrive. The latter issue will not be touched upon here, although the present discussion is intended as a prelude to a future treatment of that topic.

FEATURE REVIEW

Parallels of the All Base Consciousness?, a review of Contexts and Dialogue: Yogācāra Buddhism and Modern Psychology on the Subliminal Mind, by Tao Jiang
Paul Brownell, 102

BOOK REVIEWS

Maestros de Occidente: Estudios sobre el pensamiento andalusí, by A. Martínez Lorca
Reviewed by Massimo Campanini, 107

Indian Buddhist Theories of Persons: Vasubandhu’s ‘‘Refutation of the Theory of a Self,’’ by James Duerlinger
Reviewed by N. H. Samtani, 108

Islamic Humanism, by Lenn E. Goodman
Reviewed by Ali Çaksu, 112

Death, Contemplation and Schopenhauer, by R. Raj Singh
Reviewed by Douglas L. Berger, 115

Ordinary Mind as the Way: The Hongzhou School and the Growth of Chan Buddhism, by Mario Poceski
Reviewed by Jinhua Jia, 118

BOOKS RECEIVED, 122

REMEMBERING DAYA KRISHNA (1924–2007)

Knowledge as a Way of Living: In Dialogue with Daya Krishna
Daniel Raveh, 431

Daya Krishna: A Philosopher and Much More
Shail Mayaram, 439

A Memorial Tribute to Daya Krishna
Eliot Deutsch, 445

ARTICLES

Candrakīrti on the Theories of Persons of the Sāṃmitīyas and Āryasāṃmitīyas
James Duerlinger, 446

Here it is argued, with the help of Tsongkhapa’s interpretation of Candrakīrti’s theory of persons, and on the basis of the character of Vasubandhu’s encounter with the Pudgalavādins in the “Refutation of the Theory of Self,” that in his Madhyamakāvatārabhāṣya Candrakīrti most likely identifies the theory of persons he attributes to the Sāṃmitīyas with the theory of persons Vasubandhu presents in the “Refutation,” and the theory of persons he attributes to the Āryasāṃmitiyas with the Pudgalavādins’ theory of persons, to which Vasubandhu objects in that same work. He interprets Vasubandhu’s thesis, that persons exist as their aggregates, as the thesis of the Sāṃmitīyas, that persons possess the essence of the aggregates, and interprets the Pudgalavādins’ thesis, that persons exist apart from their aggregates as their identity-free substratum, as the thesis of the Āryasāmmitiyas, that persons possess an essence of something that is neither other than nor the same as the aggregates. It is explained that Candrakīrti’s interpretations both rest on the assumption that existence is the possession of an essence and mirror the assumptions upon which Vasubandhu and the Pudgalavādins object to one another’s thesis.

The Purloined Philosopher: Youzi on Learning by Virtue
William A. Haines, 470

This essay is the first general study of the work of You Ruo or Youzi (fl. 470 B.C.E.). It also defends his views and argues that he was an important independent figure in the origins of Confucianism. Youzi is thought to have been a disciple of Confucius, and his work is studied mainly for its insight into Confucius. Hence, his work is seriously misunderstood. In fact Youzi’s main views were not shared by Confucius, and the evidence suggests that Youzi did not study with Confucius. Youzi’s surviving writings form a tightly coherent whole in style and substance. Together they sketch a powerful general vision of the psychology of the virtues and use it to generate parallel solutions to four basic moral dilemmas. Youzi’s thought is highly plausible and directly relevant to current issues in moral theory and practice.

The Postulate of Immortality in Kant: To What Extent Is It Culturally Conditioned?
Edward A. Beach, 492

Kant’s noncognitive argument based on practical reason claims that moral considerations alone suffice to justify the idea of personal immortality as a postulate. Some recent objections are considered here that have charged him with overstepping his own distinction between phenomenon and noumenon. After examining the arguments, Kant is exonerated of having violated his own principles. More troubling, however, is the peculiarity involved in postulating an infinite progression toward a goal whose attainment, by hypothesis, would undermine the very foundations of morality (which for Kant always requires the agonistic condition of struggling to improve one’s lower nature). It is argued that this paradox necessitates a reexamination of some tacit cultural presuppositions underlying Kant’s conception of the soul. Finally, an examination is made of the thought of Kitarō Nishida, whose Zen Buddhist–inspired dialectic of the basho (logical “place”) provides an alternative perspective from which to reconsider the postulate of immortality. Nishida, like Kant, rigorously maintains the phenomenon-noumenon distinction, yet his examination of ethics leads him to postulate an eventual sublation of the “soul” principle. It is concluded that Kant’s postulate of immortality, while plausible enough on its own terms, is limited by a Western cultural bias and therefore fails in the end to be compelling.

Deconstructing Deconstruction: Zhuang Zi as Butterfly, Nietzsche as Gadfly
Sandra A. Wawrytko, 524

Deconstruction and destruction tend to be viewed as a continuum, on the assumption that to deconstruct is to destroy. Deconstruction certainly seems intent on the death of definitive meaning, absolute truth, theoretical flights, and universal values. Versions of the deconstructive task have been addressed and applied by philosophers throughout history and across cultures. By examining such approaches we may learn whether deconstruction must bring destruction in its wake, or whether another outcome might be possible. To test this hypothesis the philosophy of Zhuang Zi is compared with that of Friedrich Nietzsche. Their unique approaches to the deconstructive task point to a deeper issue of contrasting cultural assumptions and grounding principles, allowing a better understanding of what lies at the heart of the philosophical divide between “East” and “West.” Each embraces a strategy of fruitful opposition: gadfly Nietzsche approaches his predecessors with wariness and righteous wrath; butterfly Zhuang Zi co-opts Kong Zi, and confounds Hui Zi. The distinction between opponent and competitor parallels that between wu-wei effortlessness and wei aggression. Despite an intuitive grasp of the child’s ‘yes’ to life, wu-wei, Nietzsche remains mired in a defective wei strategy, while Zhuang Zi’s Daoist deconstruction takes the form of wu-wei philosophical play.

The Way of Poetic Influence: Revisioning the “Syncretist Chapters” of the Zhuangzi
Jung H. Lee , 552

This essay examines the intra-poetic relationship between the “Inner Chapters” and the “Syncretist Chapters” of the Zhuangzi, exploring the affinities and tensions between the two competing works by analyzing not only how the Syncretist authors deliberately displace and recast the precursor poem by engaging in an act of creative revisionism, but also how the “Syncretist Chapters” unconsciously reveal a hidden debt to the “Inner Chapters,” especially in regard to the practices of inner cultivation and a cosmology of the Dao. As will be argued, the sociopolitical dimensions of syncretic Daoist thought, most pointedly in regard to the art of rulership, seem to be premised on the kind of inner cultivation that we find in the “Inner Chapters.” Indeed, for the Syncretist it is precisely the sovereign’s ability to be “inwardly a sage, outwardly a king” (nei shang wai wang), to coordinate the cosmological and the political, that permits her to “adjust and attune the empire and be in harmony with men.” The “Syncretist Chapters” can thus be viewed as a corrective movement within the history of early Daoism that, in an act of creative revisionism, completes and reconstitutes the “tradition of the Way.”

COMMENT AND DISCUSSION

Karma, Rebirth, and the Problem of Evil: An Interjection in the Debate between Whitley Kaufman and Monima Chadha and Nick Trakakis
Arvind Sharma, 573

Rethinking Global Philosophy of Religion, a review of Philosophy of Religion, by Gwen Griffith-Dickson
Eliot Deutsch, 577

Accounting for Evil—Justification or Explanation? A Response to Eliot Deutsch
Gwen Griffith-Dickson, 579

FEATURE REVIEW

In Search of Affinities: Knowledge and Action in Indian Thought, a review of Indian Philosophy and the Consequences of Knowledge: Themes in Ethics, Metaphysics and Soteriology, by Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad
Douglas L. Berger, 585

BOOK REVIEWS

Buddhisms and Deconstructions, edited by Jin Y. Park
Reviewed by Steven Heine, 596

The Gleam of Light: Moral Perfectionism and Education in Dewey and Emerson, by Naoko Saito
Reviewed by Steve Odin, 598

Bashō and the Dao: The Zhuangzi and the Transformation of Haikai, by Peipei Qiu
Reviewed by W. Puck Brecher, 607

Foundations of Dharmakīrti’s Philosophy, by John D. Dunne
Reviewed by James Duerlinger , 610

BOOKS RECEIVED, 617

INDEX, 619

ARTICLES

Philosophy in the Ten Directions: Global Sensibility and the Imaginary
Ann Pirruccello, 301

The emerging contours of global philosophy are being shaped by worldwide exchanges, diverse methods and approaches, the diminution of cultural hegemony, and expanded access to philosophical discussion. But globally intentioned scholars whose formative intellectual preparation is Anglo-European may be unaware of the role played by the imaginary in suppressing ideas and values that differ from one’s root tradition. This essay uses a model of the Western philosophical imaginary taken from French researcher Michèle Le Doeuff, and draws connections between Le Doeuff’s attempts to expose and interrupt the Western imaginary and the efforts of philosophers who wish to cross geographical and cultural boundaries. It is argued that Le Doeuff’s critical approach has much to offer those who wish to cultivate a more receptive and supple philosophical sensibility—a global sensibility—and that this approach can be complemented by a horizontal practice adapted from Mahāyāna Buddhist sources. The purpose of this essay is to promote continuing dialogue about how best to realize the promise of globalization in philosophical practice.

Hearts in Agreement: Zhuangzi on Dao Adept Friendship
Donald N. Blakeley, 318

This essay examines two stories in Zhuangzi chapter 6 that provide details about the formal, substantive, and applied features of friendship between dao adepts. Using a template of seven characteristics, dao adept friendship is then compared with ren adept friendship, described in the Analects and the Mencius. It is argued that dao living contains features of friendship that are comparably robust. As unconventional as dao adept living may be, friendship is not lacking but integral to such a life.

Mirrors, Minds, and Metaphors
Erin M. Cline, 337

The metaphor of the heart or mind as a mirror appears not only in the work of Zhuangzi and Xunzi but also in the work of Western philosophers such as Kierkegaard and Rorty. This essay shows how a properly contextualized comparison of the mirror metaphor in the work of these four philosophers highlights the different ways in which they use it, helping us to understand more clearly critical differences between their views. The significance of the mirror metaphor in the work of each thinker is studied in detail. Distinctively Chinese and Western understandings of mirrors, hearts, and minds are explored, and the importance of studying different cultural and philosophical understandings of metaphors is defended. The essay ends by assessing Edward Slingerland’s claim that shared metaphors point toward deeper similarities between different views, in light of the foregoing analysis.

Guarding What Is Essential: Critiques of Material Culture in Thoreau and Yang Zhu
Alan Fox, 358

In his book Walden, Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) describes an experiment intended to determine what is essential in life. His analysis includes a critique of the excesses of material culture, concluding that the most important concerns for human beings revolve around the retention of what he calls “heat.” I suggest that there are a number of interesting parallels between this analysis and a cluster of ideas generally describable as “proto-daoist” and often attributed to the legendary and obscure figure known as Yang Zhu or Yangzi. In particular, both of these models can be seen to relate one’s efficient preservation of life force to the accomplishment of what I am calling one’s “natural destiny,” and both include a concomitant critique of material culture. In this essay I will define the concept of natural destiny and articulate and compare the two models’ common concern with achieving it through properly economizing one’s resources in the face of the diversion provoked by material attachments.

Why Zhuangzi’s Real Discovery Is One that Lets Him Stop Doing Philosophy When He Wants to
James Peterman, 372

Recent interest in the Zhuangzi by Western philosophers arises from the sense that Zhuangzi offers a form of philosophical theory, such as perspectivism. A key issue for this line of interpretation is how best to resolve alleged contradictions between the central philosophical claims of the “Qiwulun” with other claims made in the text. A more radical reading of this chapter will avoid these problems if it can find some way to understand this chapter as philosophically interesting because it scrupulously avoids and rejects making any philosophical claims. This reading will be developed by focusing on Zhuangzi’s assertion: “The person who understands does not use the inflexible ‘that’s it’ (wei shi), but dwells in the ordinary (yu zhu yong).” I will argue that, understood in context, this assertion takes Zhuangzi out of the philosophical game. According to this interpretation, Zhuangzi’s writings have a philosophical significance similar to that of Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations as expressed in his dictum “The real discovery is the one that lets me stop doing philosophy when I want to.”

COMMENT AND DISCUSSION

The Way of the Dialetheist: Contradictions in Buddhism
Yasuo Deguchi, Jay Garfield, and Graham Priest, 395

BOOK REVIEWS

The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political, and Global, by Virginia Held
Reviewed by Li-Hsiang Lisa Rosenlee, 403

Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed: Science and Salvation, by Donald McCallum
Reviewed by Jonathan Jacobs, 407

Ethics and the History of Indian Philosophy, by Shyam Ranganathan
Reviewed by Sundar Sarukkai, 410

Maimonides’ Confrontation with Mysticism, by Menachem Kellner
Reviewed by Aryeh Botwinick, 415

A Cloud across the Pacific: Essays on the Clash between Chinese and Western Political Theories Today, by Thomas A. Metzger
Reviewed by Sor-hoon Tan, 420

Visions of Awakening Space and Time: Dōgen and the Lotus Sūtra, by Taigen Dan Leighton
Reviewed by Pamela D. Winfield, 425

BOOKS RECEIVED, 428

NEWS AND NOTES, 430

ARTICLES

Hiroshi Kojima’s Phenomenological Ontology
Marina Paola Banchetti-Robino, 163

In his book Monad and Thou: Phenomenological Ontology of the Human Being, Japanese philosopher Hiroshi Kojima proposes to redefine the I-Thou relation, first extensively investigated by Martin Buber, and to reconcile the notions of ‘individuality’ and ‘community’ in terms of his new phenomenological ontology of the human being as monad. In this essay, Kojima’s ideas are examined concerning the monad and intersubjectivity, and it is shown how these ideas can be extended and brought to bear on issues concerning human encounters with the environment and, in particular, to nonhuman animals.

Mengzi, Strategic Language, and the Shaping of Behavior
Steven F. Geisz, 190

This essay introduces a way of reading the Mengzi (Mencius) that complicates how we understand what Mengzi is recorded as saying. A pragmatic-strategic reading of the Mengzi is developed here, according to which Mengzi attends to and operates under important pragmatic constraints on speech. Based on a close reading of key passages, it is argued that truth-telling and descriptive accuracy are less important to Mengzi than guiding people along the Confucian path. This reading has implications for our understanding of Mengzi’s philosophical positions and his methods of argumentation, as well as for our understanding of philosophical activity in general.

Awareness Bound and Unbound: Realizing the Nature of Attention
David R. Loy, 223

This essay takes seriously the many Buddhist admonitions about “not settling down in things” and the importance of wandering freely “without a place to rest.” The basic thesis is that delusion (saṃsāra, ignorance) is awareness trapped (stuck), and liberation (nirvāṇa, enlightenment) is awareness freed from grasping. The familiar words “attention” and “awareness” are used to emphasize that the distinction being drawn refers not to some abstract metaphysical entity but simply to how our everyday awareness functions. This way of distinguishing between delusion and enlightenment is not only consistent with basic Buddhist teachings but gives us insight into some of the more difficult ones, such as the way karma works and the Mahāyāna claim that “form is not other than emptiness, emptiness not other than form.” Moreover, this perspective illuminates some aspects of our contemporary life-world, including the particular challenges of modern technology and economics. It is important to see the implications for some of the social issues that concern us today. The constriction or liberation of awareness is not only a personal matter. What do societies do to encourage or discourage its emancipation?

Nothingness and the Work of Art: A Comparative Approach to Existential Phenomenology and the Ontological Foundation of Aesthetics
Roberto Pinheiro Machado, 244

This essay analyzes the relation between nothingness and the work of art, where negation appears as a fundamental element of art. Starting at a discussion of the concept of nothingness in existential phenomenology, it points to the limitations of Heidegger’s notion of nullity and negation, which spring from the denial of the dimension of consciousness to his Dasein. Although Sartre recovers that dimension in his portrayal of the pour-soi, now the idea of nothingness is not taken to its ultimate consequence, where art would appear as a product of consciousness that is entrenched in nothingness. Only through an enlarged notion of consciousness, one that allows the perception of negative experience as intrinsically related to poiesis, will the work of art appear ontologically grounded in a form of Being that searches for its own contradiction. Such an enlarged notion of consciousness appears in the thought of Japanese philosopher Nishida Kitarō, where concepts such as “the place of nothingness” and “pure experience” can serve as ground to an analysis of the relation between nothingness and the work of art.

Being and Value: From the Perspective of Chinese-Western Comparative Philosophy
Yang Guorong, 267

Things as concrete beings contain the dimension of value. Value achieves a conceptual realization in evaluation and transforms itself into actual being by virtue of practice, which in turn imparts a new significance to value, namely value as a human creation. Therefore, being and value are in an interactive dynamic unity, which constitutes the reality of the world and accordingly provides a ground for metaphysics to go beyond interpretation of the world to changing the world.

BOOK REVIEWS

The Existence of God: Mulla Sadra’s Seddiqin Argument versus Criticisms of Kant and Hume, by Hamidreza Ayatollahy
Reviewed by Nazif Muhtaroğlu, 283

Did Dōgen Go to China? What He Wrote and When He Wrote It, by Steven Heine
Reviewed by William Harmless, SJ, 286

The Philosophy of Qi: The Record of Great Doubts, translation and introduction by Mary Evelyn Tucker
Reviewed by Jung-Yeup Kim, 289

Islamisches Bilderverbot vom Mittel- bis ins Digitalzeitalter, by A. Ibrić
Reviewed by Richard McGregor, 292

God and Humans in Islamic Thought: ‘Abd al-Jabbar, Ibn Sina and al-Ghazali, by Maha Elkaisy-Friemuth
Reviewed by Patrick Quinn, 293

BOOKS RECEIVED
297

REMEMBERING PROFESSOR YEGANE SHAYEGAN

A Memorial Tribute to Yegane Shayegan
Tamara Albertini, 1

ARTICLES

Moderation or the Middle Way: Two Approaches to Anger
Peter J. Vernezze, 2

Most of us tend to be Aristotelians when it comes to anger. While admitting that uncontrolled anger is harmful and ought to be avoided, we reject as undesirable a state of being that would not allow us to express legitimate outrage. Hence, we seem to find a compelling moral attitude in Aristotle’s belief that we should get angry at the right time and for the right reasons and in the right way. Buddhism and Stoicism, however, carve out a position on the issue of anger that stands in marked contrast to the Aristotelian conception. This article considers the similarities between these two views of anger, contrasts the Buddhist with the much more common (at least in the West) Aristotelian one, and, finally, considers the objections of a prominent Western scholar to this shared Buddhist/Stoic conception.

Consequentialism, Agent-Neutrality, and Mahāyāna Ethics
Charles Goodman, 17

What kinds of comparisons can legitimately be made between Mahāyāna Buddhism and Western ethical theories? Mahāyānists aspire to alleviate the suffering, promote the happiness, and advance the moral perfection of all sentient beings. This aspiration is best understood as expressing a form of universalist consequentialism. Many Indian Mahāyāna texts seem committed to claims about agent-neutrality that imply consequentialism and are not compatible with virtue ethics. Within the Mahāyāna tradition, there is some diversity of views: Asaṅga seems to hold a complex and interesting version of rule consequentialism, whereas Śāntideva is closer to act consequentialism.

Activity and Communal Authority: Localist Lessons from Puritan and Confucian Communities
Russell Arben Fox, 36

Puritanism and Confucianism have little in common in terms of their substantive teachings, but they do share an emphasis on bounded, authoritative, localized human arrangements, and this profoundly challenges the dominant presumptions of contemporary globalization. It is not enough to say that these worldviews are “communitarian” alternatives to globalism, for that defines away what needs to be explained. This article compares the ontology of certain elements of the Puritan and Confucian worldviews, and, by focusing on the role of both authority and activity in these systems, assesses (with the assistance of Max Weber) the theories of harmony that each invoke. It concludes by identifying the distinct options that these two modes of human existence suggest for those who wish to defend the relevance of boundedness and authority, and thus the very possibility of a human-scaled politics, in today’s world.

On Dōgen and Derrida
Garrett Zantow Bredeson, 60

Are Derrida’s critique of presence and Dōgen’s emphasis on presence incompatible? I argue that they are not—and, in fact, that there is a deep connection between the projects of the two thinkers. In showing this I hope to combat some serious misconceptions about essential aspects of both Zen Buddhism and deconstruction.

From the “Topos of Nothingness” to the “Space of Transparency”: Kitarō Nishida’s Notion of Shintai and Its Influence on Art and Architecture (Part 1)
Jin Baek, 83

In his philosophy of nothingness, Kitarō Nishida illuminates the matrix of transformation of the world “from the Created to the Creating” (tsukuru mono kara tsukurareta mono e) through shintai, or the body. In this matrix, shintai enters into the stage of an action-sensation continuum and emerges as the immaculate iconic tool of nothingness to create new figures as extended self. This idea of shintai has resonance with the development of postwar art in Japan. The “Space of Transparency” put forth by Ufan Lee, the leader of Monoha, is the principal example. This essay investigates Nishida’s notion of shintai and its influence on Lee’s theory of art.

Cosmogony as Political Philosophy
Youngmin Kim, 108

This essay examines the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate and its shifting interpretations—those of Zhu Xi (1130–1200) and Wang Tingxiang (1474–1544) in particular—and by doing so explores the significance of “cosmogony” in the Confucian tradition and its significance for the change of political philosophy from the Song dynasty through the Ming. First, through a close reading of Zhu Xi’s commentaries on the Diagram, it is argued that they should be interpreted primarily as a statement of political philosophy rather than a mere textual study of Zhou Dunyi’s metaphysics. Wang Tingxiang’s reworking of the Diagram is examined in order to explore the transformation of its worldview through the shifted focus from li to qi. Then, by connecting the fundamental structures of the two cosmogonies to other aspects of their systems of thought, the moral and political implications that develop from the cosmogonies are unraveled. This examination of shifting interpretations of the Diagram will shed light on the cosmogonies as crucial expressions of political philosophy in the Confucian tradition without losing sight of their historical contexts.

FEATURE REVIEW

From Art of War to Attila the Hun: A Critical Survey of Recent Works on Philosophy/Spirituality and Business Leadership
Steven Heine, 126

BOOK REVIEWS

Buddhism in the Public Sphere: Reorienting Global Interdependence, by Peter D. Hershock
Reviewed by David R. Loy, 144

The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore, by Kalyan Sen Gupta
Reviewed by Matthew S. Lopresti, 147

Zen in Brazil: The Quest for Cosmopolitan Modernity, by Cristina Rocha
Reviewed by Ronan A. Pereira, 152

The Book of Rinzai Roku, translated by Eido Shimano
Reviewed by Joan Stambaugh, 156

Samādhi: The Numinous and Cessative in Indo-Tibetan Yoga, by Stuart Ray Sarbacker
Reviewed by Andrew J. Nicholson, 157

BOOKS RECEIVED, 160

ARTICLES

Al-Ghazālī and Schopenhauer on Knowledge and Suffering
Zain Imtiaz Ali, 409

The “major Islamic philosophers,” writes Deborah Black, “produced no works dedicated to aesthetics, although their writings do address issues that contemporary philosophers might study under that heading.” The emergent theme in this essay is that classical Islamic philosophy may be studied within a framework of aesthetics. To achieve this goal, the metaphysics of Abu Hamid al-Ghazālī (1058–1111) and the aesthetics of Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) will be brought together.

Language and Ontology in Early Chinese Thought
Chris Fraser, 420

This essay critiques Chad Hansen’s “mass noun hypothesis,” arguing that though most Classical Chinese nouns do function as mass nouns, this fact does not support the claim that pre-Qin thinkers treat the extensions of common nouns as mereological wholes, nor does it explain why they adopt nominalist semantic theories. The essay shows that early texts explain the use of common nouns by appeal to similarity relations, not mereological relations. However, it further argues that some early texts do characterize the relation between individuals and collections as a mereological relation.

The Significance of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity in Nishida’s “Logic of Field”
Hashi Hisaki, 457

This essay presents aspects of the philosophy of nature of Nishida Kitarō (1870–1945) (Kyoto School) and its relation to the physics of his day. Which aspects of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity are treated in Nishida’s Logic of Field? Through exact explanations of the fundamental differences between physics and philosophy this essay aims to clarify the construction of logic in philosophy and physics while considering interdisciplinary aspects.

Pyrrhonism and the Mādhyamaka
Adrian Kuzminski, 482

The question of possible Indian influence on Pyrrhonist skepticism was raised long ago by Diogenes Laertius in his biography of Pyrrho. Diogenes tells us that Pyrrho adopted his “most noble philosophy” as a result of his contacts with Indian sages when he accompanied Alexander the Great on his expedition in the fourth century B.C.E. Most modern Western scholars have downplayed Diogenes’ claim as unsubstantiated, but the striking parallels to be found in subsequent ancient Pyrrhonist and Mādhyamaka texts suggest its continued plausibility. In both the Pyrrhonist texts of Sextus Empiricus and the Mādhyamaka texts of Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti, we are repeatedly counseled above all to suspend our various non-evident beliefs, that is, our judgments about or attachments to evident things, if we wish to be liberated from the anxiety that such beliefs create and gain some kind of tranquillity, bliss, or enlightenment. A comparative analysis of these Pyrrhonist and Mādhyamaka texts finds that what differences exist are entirely compatible with, and equally in the service of, this common, and indeed virtually identical, therapeutic purpose. It is perhaps not too much to say that Pyrrhonism and the Mādhyamaka are nearly indistinguishable from one another, an intriguing conclusion to contemplate.

Four-Dimensional Time in Dzogchen and Heidegger
Zhihua Yao, 512

Concerning time, we have many puzzles, such as what eternity is, how it is related to the passage of time, whether the passage of time is irreversible, whether things past are no longer, whether the future is non-predictable, whether or not the present exists, and so on. This article is an attempt to discuss such experiences of the passage of time. First, a Buddhist practice in the Dzogchen tradition that deals with the experience of the passage of time will be introduced, then Longchenpa’s concept of four times (dus-bzhi) will be analyzed and its significance to the history of Buddhism discussed. Next, Heidegger’s concept of four-dimensional time and its elaboration by later philosophers will be discussed. It will conclude with the similarities and differences between the four-dimensional time theories as found in these two diverse traditions, and the possible reasons for their striking similarities.

COMMENT AND DISCUSSION

Karma and the Problem of Evil: A Response to Kaufman
Monima Chadha and Nick Trakakis, 533

Karma, Rebirth, and the Problem of Evil: A Reply to Critics
Whitley Kaufman, 556

A Response to Shyam Ranganathan’s Review of The Virtue of Non-Violence: From Gautama to Gandhi
Nicholas F. Gier, 561

Reply to Nicholas Gier
Shyam Ranganathan, 564

Consciousness across Cultures: A Response to Bina Gupta’s CIT: Consciousness
Rajesh Kasturirangan, 567

FEATURE REVIEW

A Critical Survey of Works on Zen since Yampolsky
Steven Heine, 577

BOOK REVIEWS

Buddhism, Knowledge and Liberation: A Philosophical Study, by David Burton
Reviewed by Ethan Mills, 593

Mencius on Becoming Human, by James Behuniak Jr.
Reviewed by Franklin Perkins, 596

The Other Side of Zen: A Social History of Sōtō Zen Buddhism in Tokugawa Japan, by Duncan Ryūken Williams
Reviewed by Cristina Rocha, 599

Contemporary Japanese Thought, edited by Richard F. Calichman
Reviewed by Michael K. Bourdaghs, 601

Relativism and Beyond, edited by Yoav Ariel, Shlomo Biderman, and Ornan Rotem
Reviewed by Sor-hoon Tan, 603

BOOKS RECEIVED, 608

NEWS AND NOTES, 611

INDEX, 612

SPECIAL ISSUE: NINTH EAST-WEST PHILOSOPHERS’ CONFERENCE
Guest Editor: Jay Garfield

Educating for Virtuoso Living: Papers from the Ninth East-West Philosophers’ Conference
Jay Garfield, 285

ARTICLES

Mahatma Gandhi on Violence and Peace Education
Douglas Allen, 290

Gandhi can serve as a valuable catalyst allowing us to rethink our philosophical positions on violence, nonviolence, and education. Especially insightful are Gandhi’s formulations of the multidimensionality of violence, including educational violence, and the violence of the status quo. His peace education offers many possibilities for dealing with short-term violence, but its greatest strength is its long-term preventative education and socialization. Key to Gandhi’s peace education are his ethical and ontological formulations of means-ends relations; the need to uncover root causes and causal determinants and to free oneself from entrapment in escalating cycles of violence; and the dynamic complex relation between relative and absolute truth that includes analysis of situated embodied consciousness, tolerant diversity and inclusiveness, and an approach to unavoidable violence.

Li as Cultural Grammar: On the Relation between Li and Ren in Confucius’ Analects
Chenyang Li, 311

A major controversy in the study of the Analects has been over the relation between two central concepts, ren (humanity, human excellence) and li (rites, rituals of propriety). Confucius seems to have said inconsistent things about this relation. Some passages appear to suggest that ren is more fundamental than li, while others seem to imply the contrary. It is therefore not surprising that there have been different interpretations and characterizations of this relation. Using the analogy of language grammar and mastery of a language, it is proposed here that we should understand li as a cultural grammar and ren as the mastery of a culture. In this account, society cultivates its members through li toward the goal of ren, and persons of ren manifest their human excellence through their practice of li.

The Archery of “Wisdom” in the Stream of Life: “Wisdom” in the Four Books with Zhu Xi’s Reflections
Kirill O. Thompson, 330

Confucian wisdom is commonly assumed to consist in the Confucian value perspective as humanism in a naturalistic outlook. In fact, Confucius and Mencius sketched out a far more interesting notion of wisdom (zhi) as rooted in cognizance and flexibility and expressed in sensitive discernment and the ability to read and respond to complex, changing circumstances—to read (and respond to) the writing on the wall. Whereas the notions of tradition and the Way are thought to weigh heavily in the Confucian perspective, the deeper insight and innovative action of the “wise” can transform everything and recast tradition and the Way on a more adequate basis. In his commentaries and discourses on the Four Books, Zhu Xi grasped this notion of “wisdom” and explicated its connection to several related notions, including chung (hitting the mark), yi (appropriateness), quan (weighing, discretion), and chongyong (hitting the utmost propriety in the common situation). This inquiry reveals an innovative, critical spirit in classical Confucianism that has largely lain dormant since the rise and persistence of a bureaucratic, authoritarian China after the Qin-Han period.

The Moral Significance of the Music of the Black Atlantic
Albert Mosley, 345

It is argued here that part of the attraction of African music in the Atlantic Diaspora is its roots in an oral tradition in which agency is often more important than words. This makes it possible for the music to have a moral significance, not merely with respect to the verbal content of the words of songs but also with respect to the manner in which it is composed and performed. As such, a performance may be liberating, even when the words used in the performance are not. By reinforcing elements of the oral tradition in a culture based on notational literacy, the music of the Black Atlantic exemplifies an alternative to ideals embodied in a technological culture.

The Educative Function of Personal Style in the Analects
Amy Olberding, 357

One of the central pedagogical strategies employed in the Analects consists in the suggestion of models worthy of emulation. The text’s most robust models, the dramatic personae of the text, emerge as colorful figures with distinctive personal styles of action and behavior. This is especially so in the case of Confucius himself. In this essay, two particularly notable features of Confucius’ style are considered. The first, what is termed “everyday” style, consists in Confucius’ unusual command of conventional norms in ordinary circumstances; the second, termed “deviant” style, consists in Confucius’ occasional and sometimes puzzling departures from conventional norms. The combined effect of these two aspects of Confucius’ personal style is shown to yield a productive pedagogical tension for the moral learner who would emulate, but cannot imitate, Confucius.

FEATURE REVIEW

Chinese Thought from an Evolutionary Perspective, a review of A Chinese Ethics for the New Century: The Ch’ien Mu Lectures in History and Culture, and Other Essays on Science and Confucian Ethics, by Donald J. Munro
Edward Slingerland, 375

BOOK REVIEWS

Taoism: The Enduring Tradition, by Russell Kirkland
Reviewed by Ronnie Littlejohn, 389

Going Forth: Visions of the Buddhist Vinaya, edited by William M. Bodiford
Reviewed by Mario Poceski, 392

Confucian Democracy: A Deweyan Reconstruction, by Sor-hoon Tan
Reviewed by Joseph Grange, 397

Judaism and Environmental Ethics: A Reader, edited by Martin D. Yaffe
Reviewed by Patrick S. O’Donnell, 400

BOOKS RECEIVED, 406

ARTICLES

Dharmamegha-samādhi in the Yogasūtras of Patañjali: A Critique
T. S. Rukmani, 131

The concept of dharmamegha-samādhi that occurs in Patañjali’s Yogasūtras, in the path to kaivalya, has not been easy to comprehend. Scholars working in the field of Yoga have explained the concept in many different ways. This essay tries to reach an understanding of dharmamegha-samādhi based on a careful reading of the Yogasūtras along with Vyāsa’s commentary on it and the later well-known commentaries on Vyāsa’s own commentary such as the Tattvavaiśāradī, the Yogavārttika, and so on. Whether dharmamegha-samādhi is in any way connected with the concept of jīvanmukti or liberation while embodied, and whether jīvanmukti can be reasonably understood as being part of Yoga philosophy also comes in for discussion toward the end of this essay.

Nous and Nirvāṇa: Conversations with Plotinus—An Essay in Buddhist Cosmology
W. Randolph Kloetzli, 140

In the Classical world, the language of cosmology was a means for framing philosophical concerns. Among these were issues of time, motion, and soul; concepts of the limited and the unlimited; and the nature and basis of number. This is no less true of Indian thought—Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and Ājivika—where the prestige of the cosmological idiom for organizing philosophical and theological thought cannot be overstated. This essay focuses on the structural similarities in the thought of Plotinus and Buddhist cosmological/philosophical speculation. It builds on research concerning the Buddha-field (buddhakṣetra), which identified two discrete numerologies central to this speculation: the thousands of worlds (sāhasralokadhātu) comprising the field of a single Buddha (buddhakṣetra), characteristic of the Hīnayāna, and the innumerable or incalculable (asaṃkhyeya) Buddha-fields filling the ten regions of space, characteristic of the Mahāyāna. The Enneads of Plotinus serve as a lens through which to view in a fresh way a broad range of difficult issues associated with Buddhist cosmology in three general areas. First, it asks whether Plotinus’ understanding of Intellect and his treatment of infinite and essential number afford an understanding of the innumerables and thousands central to the concept of the Buddha-field. This analysis involves a consideration of the Hindu creator god, Brahmā, as ‘demiurge.’ Second, it suggests analogies between the One, Intellect, and Soul of Plotinus and the three Buddhist Realms—the Formless Realm, the Realm of Form, and the Realm of Desire. Finally, it explores the possibility that an understanding of the Enneads can provide a model for relating the cosmologies of the Hīnayāna and the Mahāyāna.

Vidyā and Avidyā: Simultaneous and Coterminous?—A Holographic Model to Illuminate the Advaita Debate
Stephen Kaplan, 178

The Advaita Vedānta notion of ātman/Brahman presents a serious philosophical challenge to this school—namely, it demands that they explain how all (reality) can be undivided, unchanging, and pure consciousness, yet appear to be everything but nondual, unchanging, and pure consciousness. The Advaita answer is avidyā, ajñāna (ignorance). This answer tells us that Brahman does not really change; it is only ignorance that makes it appear to change. This answer has engendered as many questions as it has resolved, and it is possible that they can be boiled down to the following: how can vidyā and avidyā be simultaneous and coterminous? After reviewing the Advaita responses to the debates regarding avidyā, which arose within Advaita and between Advaitins and their opponents, a traditional Advaita path will be followed by offering an analogy to illuminate this quandary. The strength of this contemporary analogy, based on holography, lies in its ability to illuminate the nature of Brahman as being without parts, without duality, without change; yet holography presents us with images that appear to change and be with parts.

On Ge Wu: Recovering the Way of the Great Learning< /b>
Huaiyu Wang, 204

By rethinking the meaning of a central idiom in the Great Learning, this essay intends to open up a new horizon for the hermeneutics of early Confucian thinking, which has little to do with metaphysics. Through a careful etymological study of ge wu and a dialogue between the Great Learning and Heidegger’s phenomenology of human affection, I demonstrate the critical position of the human heart in early Chinese thinking. This new interpretation of early Confucian moral teachings also recovers an invigorating possibility for contemporary discourse on the question of ethics.

Perpetual Unease or Being at Ease?—Derrida, Daoism, and the ‘Metaphysics of Presence’
Robert J. Shepherd, 227

Interesting work has been done on the striking similarities between the key arguments of the late Jacques Derrida and Daoism. While named otherwise, such Derridean signposts as the metaphysics of presence, the duality of language, and logocentrism are found in Daoist views of the relationship between reality, speech, writing, and knowledge. However, where the limits of language lead Derrida is different from where they take the authors of the Zhuangzi and the Daodejing, in particular regarding the question of action for and responsibility toward others.

COMMENT AND DISCUSSION

Dharmakīrti and Priest on an Inconsistent Theory of Change—A Comment to Mortensen
Koji Tanaka, 244

In Defense of Dharmakīrti—A Response to Tanaka
Chris Mortensen, 253

In Defense of Priest—A Reply to Mortensen
Koji Tanaka, 257

FEATURE REVIEWS

A Lucid Journey through Varieties of Asian Philosophy, a review of Eastern Philosophy, by Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad
Joseph Grange, 260

Indian and Cross-Cultural Philosophy in the Works of Ramakrishna Puligandla, a review of Breaking Barriers: Essays on Asian and Comparative Philosophy in Honor of Ramakrishna Puligandla, edited by Frank J. Hoffman and Godabarisha Mishra; That Thou Art: Wisdom of the Upanishads, by R. Puligandla; and Sprache und Wirklichkeit: Eine interkulturelle Perspektive, by Xianglong Zhang and Ramakrishna Puligandla and translated by Christian Dick
Douglas L. Berger, 263

BOOK REVIEWS

Dōgen’s Extensive Record: A Translation of the Eihei Kōroku, translated by Taigen Dan Leighton and Shohaku Okumura, edited by Taigen Dan Leighton
Reviewed by Christopher Ives, 269

Islamic Aesthetics: An Introduction, by Oliver Leaman
Reviewed by Patrick S. O’Donnell, 271

Masterpieces of Kabuki: Eighteen Plays on Stage, edited by James R. Brandon and Samuel L. Leiter
Reviewed by Cheryl Crowley, 275

Approaching the Land of Bliss: Religious Praxis in the Cult of Amitābha, edited by Richard K. Payne and Kenneth K. Tanaka
Reviewed by James L. Ford, 277

Shingon Refractions: Myōe and the Mantra of Light, by Mark Unno
Reviewed by Richard K. Payne, 280

ARTICLES

Al-Ghazali on Power, Causation, and ‘Acquisition’
Edward Omar Moad, 1

In Al-Iqtişād fi al-I’tiqād (Moderation in belief), at the end of his chapter on divine power, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali writes, “No created thing comes about through another [created thing]. Rather, all come about through [divine] power.” A precise understanding of what al-Ghazali means by this statement requires an understanding of his conception of power. Here, we will articulate this conception of power and show how it renders a distinctive occasionalist thesis that follows from al-Ghazali’s doctrine of the pervasiveness of divine power. Second, we will review an argument by al-Ghazali against natural necessity and show that the argument turns on the clear implication that, on empirical grounds, al-Ghazali’s conception of power is the only understanding of causation that we have. This follows from an epistemology of power held by al-Ghazali that bears basic similarities to that of John Locke. Third, we will address the tension between such an epistemology of power and the implications of occasionalism with a look at al-Ghazali’s discussion of the theory of kash, or ‘acquisition.’

Rewalking Thoreau and Asia: ‘Light from the East’ for ‘a Very Yankee Sort of Oriental’
David Scott, 14

Thoreau’s engagement with and perspectives on the Orient are considered here. Within Thoreau’s Hindu appropriations, the ‘practical’ importance for Thoreau of yogic practices is reemphasized. Thoreau’s often-cited Buddhist links are questioned. Instead, it is Thoreau’s explicit use of Confucian and Persian Sufi materials that deserve reemphasis, as do, in retrospect, some striking thematic convergences with Taoism. Thoreau’s ‘Light from the East’ focuses on ethical and mystical techniques, infused with lessons from Nature for ‘a very Yankee sort of Oriental.’

The Illumination of Consciousness: Approaches to Self-Awareness in the Indian and Western Traditions
Matthew D. MacKenzie, 40

Philosophers in the Indian and Western traditions have developed and defended a range of sophisticated accounts of self-awareness. Here, four of these accounts are examined, and the arguments for them are assessed. Theories of self-awareness developed in the two traditions under consideration fall into two broad categories: reflectionist or other-illumination theories and reflexivist or self-illumination theories. Having assessed the main arguments for these theories, it is argued here that while neither reflectionist nor reflexivist theories are adequate as traditionally formulated and defended, the approaches examined here give important insights for the development of a more adequate contemporary account of self-awareness.

Negativity and Dialectical Materialism: Zhang Shiying’s Reading of Hegel’s Dialectical Logic
Peter Button, 63

Studies of Chinese dialectical materialism have long neglected the important philosophical dimension of Hegelian thought and its influence on Chinese Marxism. This essay examines the work of Zhang Shiying of Beijing University, whose studies of Hegel’s works on dialectical logic in the 1950s sought to clarify the nature of Hegel’s speculative dialectic and its relation to dialectical materialism. Like Lenin before him, Zhang believed that Hegel’s works on logic offered a more profound reflection on materialism than had previously been recognized by Marxist critics of German idealism. Zhang’s sensitive reading of both Hegel’s Science of Logic and the Encyclopedia Logic highlights the problem of the speculative dialectic and negativity. Examined here is Zhang’s analysis of the Hegelian dialectic in light of contemporary accounts of the role of Hegelian negativity in poststructuralist thought.

Confucian Ethics and “the Age of Biological Control”
A. T. Nuyen, 83

Ronald Dworkin claims that if we are able to control our own biology, “our most settled convictions will … be undermined [and] we will be in a kind of moral free-fall.” This is so because he takes moral convictions to be determined by the choices we make against a fixed biological background. It would seem that if Confucian ethics is grounded in ren xing (human nature) and if ren xing refers to a fixed biological background, then the Confucian moral agent will be in a state of moral free-fall in the age of biological control—that is, if Dworkin is right. We can try to read ren xing as a creative process rather than a fixed nature, but any such reading inevitably grounds ren xing in something else that is biological. There is a way out for Confucians: the Dworkinian choice/chance distinction that is crucial for morality can be relocated away from the boundary between free choice and fixed biology to the boundary between the choices that we make and the fixed background of tradition.

FEATURE REVIEW

On Wu-wei as a Unifying Metaphor, a review of Effortless Action: Wu-wei as Conceptual Metaphor and Spiritual Ideal in Early China, by Edward Slingerland
Chris Fraser, 97

BOOK REVIEWS

Studies in Advaita Vedanta: Towards an Advaita Theory of Consciousness, by Sukharanjan Saha
Reviewed by Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, 107

Leibniz and China: A Commerce of Light, by Franklin Perkins
Reviewed by Robin R. Wang, 111

The Virtue of Nonviolence, by Nicholas F. Gier
Reviewed by Shyam Ranganathan, 115

Epistemology in Pracīna and Navya Nyāya, by Sukharanjan Saha
Reviewed by Jonardon Ganeri, 120

White Collar Zen: Using Zen Principles to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Your Career Goals, by Steven Heine
Reviewed by Carol S. Gould, 123

Epistemologies and the Limitations of Philosophical Enquiry: Doctrine in Madhva Vedanta, by Deepak Sarma
Reviewed by Christopher Bartley, 126