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

John Schroeder, general editor

The Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy (SACP) Monograph Series was started in 1974. Works are published in the series that deal with any area of Asian philosophy, or in any other field of philosophy examined from a comparative perspective. The aim of the series is to make available scholarly works that exceed article length, but may be too specialized for the general reading public, and to make these works available in inexpensive editions without sacrificing the orthography of non-Western languages.

#21, Tao Jiang, Contexts and Dialogue: Yogacara Buddhism and the Modern Psychology on the Subliminal Mind (2006)

#20, Harold D. Roth, A Companion to Angus C. Graham’s Chuang Tzu (2003)

#19, Jane Geaney, On the Epistemology of the Senses in Early Chinese Thought (2002)

#18, John W. Schroeder, Skillful Means: The Heart of Compassionate Buddhism (2001)

#17, Roy Perrett, Hindu Ethics: A Philosophical Study (1998; out of print)

#16, Srinivasa Rao, Perceptual Error: The Indian Theories (1998; out of print)

#15, Leo S. Chang and Yu Feng, The Four Political Treatises of the Yellow Emperor: Original Mawangdui Texts with Complete English Translations and an Introduction (1998; out of print)

#14, Michael W. Myers, Let the Cow Wander: Modeling Metaphors in Veda and Vedanta (1996; out of print)

#13, Kisor Kumar Chakrabarti, Definition and Induction: A Historical and Comparative Study (1995; out of print)

#12, Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Ch’en Liang on Public Interest and the Law (1994; out of print)

#11, Thomas E. Wood, Nāgārjunian Disputations: A Philosophical Journey through an Indian Looking-Glass (1994; out of print)

#10, Anantanand Rambachan, Accomplishing the Accomplished: The Vedas as a Source of Valid Knowledge in Śaṇkara (1991)

Nos. 1-9 are not available.

ARTICLES

Heidegger’s Comportment toward East-West Dialogue
Lin Ma and Jaap van Brakel, 519

The primary purpose here is to ascertain what Heidegger’s comportment toward East-West dialogue is most plausibly like in the light of his philosophical concerns and orientations. Considering that one should not uncritically take at face value occasional remarks by Heidegger that seem to suggest that he is preparing an East-West dialogue, we will proceed from Heidegger’s own path of thinking and bring to light fundamental presuppositions in his thought and the response he may accordingly give to the issue of East-West dialogue.

Sakya Pandita and the Status of Concepts
Jonathan Stoltz, 567

The thirteenth-century Tibetan thinker Sakya Pandita was a diehard supporter of nominalism with respect to abstract entities. Here, two arguments given by Sakya Pandita against the robust existence of concepts (don spyi) are analyzed and elucidated. The first argument is rooted in the Buddhist idea that conceptual thought is unsound, where as the second argument arises from considerations of intersubjectivity and verification. By presenting these arguments we gain both a fuller picture of the central role played by concepts within the Tibetan tradition of philosophy of mind and a better appreciation of the philosophical acuity of the Tibetan polymath Sakya Pandita.

The Confucian Ideal of Harmony
Chenyang Li, 583

This is a study of the Confucian ideal of harmony and harmonization (he 和). First, through an investigation of the early development of he in ancient China, the meaning of this concept is explored. Second, a philosophical analysis of he and a discussion of the relation between harmony, sameness, and strife are offered. Also offered are reasons why this notion is so important to Confucian philosophy. Finally, on the basis of value pluralism, a case is made for the Confucian approach of he to the politics of today’s world culture.

The Desire You Are Required to Get Rid of: A Functionalist Analysis of Desire in the Bhagavadgītā
Christopher G. Framarin, 604

Niskāmakarma is generally understood nonliterally as action done without desire of a certain sort. It is argued here that all desires are prohibited by niskāmakarma. Two objections are considered: (1) desire is a necessary condition of action, and (2) the Indian tradition as a whole accepts desire as a necessary condition o faction. A distinction is drawn here between a goal and a desire, and it is argued that goals—not desires—are entailed by action, and that the Indian tradition accepts goals—not desires—as a necessary condition of action.

COMMENT AND DISCUSSION

Philosophies versus Philosophy: In Defense of a Flexible Definition
Rein Raud, 618

Is “Chinese Philosophy” a Proper Name? A Response to Rein Raud
Carine Defoort, 625

Traditions and Tendencies: A Reply to Carine Defoort
Rein Raud, 661

An Introduction to Mādhva Vedānta, by Deepak Sarma
Robert Zydenbos, 665

Response to Robert Zydenbos’ Review of An Introduction to Mādhva Vedānta
Deepak Sarma, 670

BOOK REVIEWS

“The Veil of Maya”: Schopenhauer’s System and Early Indian Thought, by Douglas Berger
Reviewed by Stephan Atzert, 675

Japan Unbound: A Volatile Nation’s Quest for Pride and Purpose, by John Nathan
Reviewed by Daniel A. Metraux, 678

Reconciling Yogas: Haribhadra’s Collection of Views on Yoga, by Christopher Key Chapple
Reviewed by Fujinaga Sin, 681

Under Confucian Eyes: Writings on Gender in Chinese History, edited by Susan Mann and Yu-yin Cheng, and Women in Daoism, by Catherine Despeux and Livia Kohn
Reviewed by Zhou Yiqun, 684

Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy, edited by Philip J. Ivanhoe and Bryan Van Norden, and Classic Asian Philosophy: A Guide to the Essential Texts, by Joel J. Kupperman
Reviewed by Ronnie Littlejohn, 687

Material Virtue: Ethics and the Body in Early China, by Mark Csikszentmihalyi
Reviewed by Edward Slingerland, 694

Japan, France, and East-West Aesthetics: French Literature, 1867–2000, by Jan Walsh Hokenson
Reviewed by Carol S. Gould, 699

Healing Powers and Modernity: Traditional Medicine, Shamanism, and Science in Asian Societies, edited by Linda H. Connor and Geoffrey Samuel
Reviewed by E. N. Anderson, 702

REMEMBERING REV. DR. LEROY STEPHENS ROUNER

Rev. Dr. Leroy Stephens Rouner (August 5, 1930–February 11, 2006)
367

A Memorial Tribute to Leroy Rouner
Eliot Deutsch, 369

ARTICLES

Zhuangzi and the Nature of Metaphor
Kim-chong Chong, 370

While it is well known that Zhuangzi uses metaphor extensively, there is much less appreciation of the role that it plays in his thought—a topic that is investigated in this essay. At the same time, this investigation is closely concerned with questions about the nature of metaphor. Comparisons are made between a central metaphorical structure in the Zhuangzi on the one hand and contemporary views of the nature of metaphor by Donald Davidson and by Lakoff and Johnson on the other. It is hoped that these comparisons will help to illuminate the central metaphorical structure and its role in the philosophy of the Zhuangzi.

The Crow and the Coconut: Accident, Coincidence, and Causation in the Yogavāsistha
Nicholas Buxton, 392

This article explores the way in which the Yogavāsistha’s account of causation as coincidence relates to its soteriological agenda and the view that the ‘existence’of the world—deemed to be an illusion anyway—is a mere accident. Comparison is made to similar ideas about causality articulated by David Hume,who nonetheless stops short of drawing quite such radical metaphysical conclusions, in spite of his epistemological skepticism concerning the existence of external objects.

Saying the Unsayable
Chien-hsing Ho, 409

A number of traditional philosophers and religious thinkers advocated an ineffability thesis to the effect that the ultimate reality cannot be expressed as it truly is by human concepts and words.But this thesis has been criticized and dismissed by some modern scholars. This article intends to show the consistency of this thesis. After introducing certain criticisms set forth by the critics and examining the disputable solution offered by John Hick, the author attends to Bhartrhari’s solution to tackle the main problem here. This fifth-century Indian grammarian-philosopher’s strategy, based on the imposition-cum-negation method, is then enlarged and supplemented to deal with the criticisms and related issues.

The Tiantai Roots of Dōgen’s Philosophy of Language and Thought
John Spackman, 428

Many recent studies of Dōgen have rightly emphasized that for Dōgen language and thought are capable of expressing the buddha dharma. But they have not recognized that this positive assessment of language rests on an underlying critique of the prevalent commonsense view that language functions by representing an independent reality. Focusing on Dōgen’s use of apparently paradoxical language, it is suggested that in order to understand this critique we need to trace it back to its roots in the interpretation of Madhyamaka given by the Tiantai thinker Zhiyi.

Two Chariots: The Justification of the Best Life in the Katha Upanishad and Plato’s Phaedrus
Elizabeth Schiltz, 451

The philosophical import of the chariot images found in the Katha Upanishad and the Phaedrus is considered here. It is claimed that the resemblance in the accounts provided in these disparate texts is not merely incidental. Rather, each chariot-image should be read as contributing to a careful answer to the same thorny philosophical problem: the identification and justification of the best life for the individual. It is argued that each serves to illuminate an internal and complex account of the self, which grounds and supports an effective rejection of the life spent in pursuit of the satisfaction of bodily desires in favor of the life spent in pursuit of wisdom.

FEATURE REVIEWS

What Does It Mean to ‘‘Speak Truth to Power’’?—a review of Political Philosophy in Japan: Nishida, the Kyoto School, and Co-Prosperity, by Christopher S. Goto-Jones
Christian Uhl, 469

Going to Our Happy Place: Idealism, Realism, and Nishida’s Eutopia: A Response to Christian Uhl
Christopher S. Goto-Jones, 482

The Ways of Interpreting Dao
Ruiqi Ma, 487

BOOK REVIEWS

Anime: From Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation, by Susan Napier
Reviewed by Joseph Murphy, 493

Islam: Religion, History, and Civilization, by Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Reviewed by Zain Ali, 495

Theorizing Chinese Masculinity: Society and Gender in China, by Kam Louie
Reviewed by Kwai-Cheung Lo, 497

The Origins of Buddhist Monastic Codes in China: An Annotated Translation and Study of the Chanyuan Qinggui, by Yifa
Reviewed by Mario Poceski, 499

Islamic Aesthetics: An Introduction, by Oliver Leaman
Reviewedby Sulejman Bosto, 502

Practical Pursuits: Religion, Politics, and Personal Cultivation in Nineteenth-Century Japan, by Janine Tasca Sawada
Reviewed by Stephen G. Covell, 512

BOOK NOTES

Introducing Aesthetics, by David E. W. Fenner, 515

ARTICLES

The Conventional Status of Reflexive Awareness: What’s at Stake in a Tibetan Debate?
Jay L. Garfield, 201

rJe Tsong khapa argues that consciousness is not intrinsically reflexive even conventionally, and reads Candrakīrti and Śantideva as endorsing this view. ‘Ju Mipham Rinpoche (1846–1912) criticizes Tsong khapa’s argument and his reading of Candrakīrti, arguing that while ultimately consciousness is not intrinsically reflexive, conventionally it is. This article defends Tsong khapa’s philosophy of mind and his hermeneutical strategy and shows that this debate is important both philosophically and doxographically.

The Confucian Notion of Jing 敬 (Respect)
Sin Yee Chan, 229

Jing (respect) in ancient Confucianism can be seen as referring to either a frame of mind or an intentional state that includes the elements of singlemindedness, concentration, seriousness, caution, and a strong sense of responsibility. Hence, it can be seen as a due regard based on the perception of the worth of its object. It is the central element and the germ of li (ritual). A critical comparison is made between jing and the ideas of appraisal respect, recognition respect, and identification respect as discussed in Western ethics.

Between Principle and Situation: Contrasting Styles in the Japanese and Korean Traditions of Moral Culture
Chai-sik Chung, 253

We may better understand the development of the Neo-Confucian religious-ethical tradition in East Asia if we can discern the different ways that the scholars of Japan and Korea reacted to and adjusted the discourse of the tradition. Focusing on the optimistic concept of human nature and an ethic of situation developed by the Kogakuha scholars in Japan, we will contrast them with the more rigoristic philosophy of kyŏng (reverential seriousness) and an ethic of principle emphasized by the Korean Neo-Confucian thinkers Yi T’oegye and Yi Yulgok. By doing so, we attempt to delineate the salient characteristics of the Japanese and Korean traditions of moral culture.

Right Words Seem Wrong: Neglected Paradoxes in Early Chinese Philosophical Texts
Wim De Reu, 281

This article presents and interprets a number of neglected paradoxes in early Chinese philosophical texts (ca. 500–100 B.C.). Looking beyond well-known paradoxes put forward by masters such as Hui Shi and Gongsun Long, it intends to complement our picture of Warring States and early Western Han paradoxical statements. The first section contrasts the neglected paradoxes with the well-known ones. It is contended here that our understanding of these latter paradoxes is hampered by a lack of context and that the neglected paradoxes possess an interpretative advantage by virtue of their being context-embedded. The second section presents an overview of three groups of neglected paradoxes, showing that the paradoxical effect of these paradoxes results from a challenge to the semantics of their central terms. The third section discusses the distribution of the paradoxes throughout the early literature and concludes that they typically appear in ‘‘Daoist’’ writings. The final section proposes a semantic-rhetorical interpretation. Placing the paradoxes against the background of the features and use of important terms, it is argued that they constitute unorthodox redefinitions and are formulated to influence the behavior and values of their intended audience.

Zhuangzi’s Dao as Background Noise
Frank W. Stevenson, 301

This interpretation of Zhuangzi’s Dao, particularly in the ‘‘Qi Wu Lun,’’ as ‘‘background noise’’ begins from Zhuangzi’s question as to whether any human statements—and human language itself—can ultimately be distinguished from the ‘‘peeps of baby birds.’’ The essay explores a tentative model of Dao that sees it as neither fully ‘‘linguistic’’ nor ‘‘non-linguistic’’ but as ‘‘pre-linguistic,’’ the potential ground of emergence of words, statements, and meanings. To develop this model we turn to the notion of background noise in physics, especially as discussed by Michel Serres in his discussion of chaos and information theory. A crucial feature of the Serresian chaos-theory model and also, it is suggested here, of Zhuangzi’s Dao is the tendency of hyper-order to return (or switch) back to the initial state of disorder.

COMMENT AND DISCUSSION

Yet Another Attempt to Salvage Pristine Perceptions!
Monima Chadha, 333

BOOK REVIEWS

Living Zen, Loving God, by Ruben L. F. Habito
Reviewed by Robert E. Carter, 343

Zen War Stories, by Brian Daizen Victoria
Reviewed by Steven Heine, 345

A Treatise on Efficacy: Between Western and Chinese Thinking, by François Jullien, translated by Janet Lloyd
Reviewed by Jeremy E. Henkel, 347

Imagining Japan: The Japanese Tradition and Its Modern Interpretation, by Robert N. Bellah
Reviewed by Ian Reader, 351

Seeing Through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism, by John R. McRae
Reviewed by Albert Welter, 355

Shinto: The Way Home: Dimensions of Asian Spirituality, by Thomas P. Kasulis
Reviewed by Jason M. Wirth, 358

Political Philosophy in Japan: Nishida, the Kyoto School, and Co-Prosperity, by Christopher S. Goto-Jones
Reviewed by Michiko Yusa, 361