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Chinese Metaphysics and its Problems

Chinese Metaphysics and its Problems

Chinese Metaphysics and its Problems

Chenyang Li, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Franklin Perkins, DePaul University, Chicago
April 2015
Hardback
9781107093508

    This volume of new essays is the first English-language anthology devoted to Chinese metaphysics. The essays explore the key themes of Chinese philosophy, from pre-Qin to modern times, starting with important concepts such as yin-yang and qi and taking the reader through the major periods in Chinese thought - from the Classical period, through Chinese Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism, into the twentieth-century philosophy of Xiong Shili. They explore the major traditions within Chinese philosophy, including Daoism and Mohism, and a broad range of metaphysical topics, including monism, theories of individuation, and the relationship between reality and falsehood. The volume will be a valuable resource for upper-level students and scholars of metaphysics, Chinese philosophy, or comparative philosophy, and with its rich insights into the ethical, social and political dimensions of Chinese society, it will also interest students of Asian studies and Chinese intellectual history.

    • The first English-language anthology focused exclusively on Chinese metaphysics
    • Written by a team of leading scholars in the field, providing the most up-to-date perspectives
    • Uses a comparative perspective and a broad coverage of topics making Chinese metaphysics accessible to readers with a Western philosophical background

    Reviews & endorsements

    'As the publisher's blurb states, this is 'the first English-language anthology devoted to Chinese metaphysics'. With its twelve meaty chapters and a helpful introduction it is an extremely solid and welcome addition to the rapidly growing body of literature on comparative philosophy … Anyone with an interest in Chinese or comparative philosophy, with or without prior exposure to the Chinese side, will learn much from it.' Joseph A. Adler, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

    See more reviews

    Product details

    April 2015
    Hardback
    9781107093508
    254 pages
    237 × 160 × 21 mm
    0.52kg
    7 b/w illus. 3 tables
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • Introduction Chenyang Li and Franklin Perkins
    • 1. Yinyang narrative of reality: Chinese metaphysical thinking Robin R. Wang
    • 2. In defense of Chinese qi-naturalism JeeLoo Liu
    • 3. What is a thing (wu 物)? The problem of individuation in early Chinese metaphysics Franklin Perkins
    • 4. The Mohist conception of reality Chris Fraser
    • 5. Reading the Zhongyong 'metaphysically' Roger T. Ames
    • 6. Logos and Dao: conceptions of reality in Heraclitus and Laozi Jiyuan Yu
    • 7. Constructions of reality: metaphysics in the ritual traditions of classical China Michael Puett
    • 8. Concepts of reality in Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhism Hans-Rudolf Kantor
    • 9. Being and events: Huayan Buddhism's concept of event and Whitehead's ontological principle Vincent Shen
    • 10. Harmony as substance: Zhang Zai's metaphysics of polar relations Brook Ziporyn
    • 11. A lexicography of Zhu Xi's metaphysics John Berthrong
    • 12. Xiong Shili's understanding of the relationship between the ontological and the phenomenal John Makeham
    • Works cited
    • Index.
      Contributors
    • Chenyang Li, Franklin Perkins, Robin R. Wang, JeeLoo Liu, Chris Fraser, Roger T. Ames, Jiyuan Yu, Michael Puett, Hans-Rudolf Kantor, Vincent Shen, Brook Ziporyn, John Berthrong, John Makeham