Asian Texts — Asian Contexts

Encounters with Asian Philosophies and Religions

Edited by David Jones & E. R. Klein

Subjects: Asian Studies, Yoga, Confucianism, Chinese Religion And Philosophy, Chinese Studies
Series: SUNY series in Asian Studies Development
Paperback : 9781438426761, 295 pages, March 2010
Hardcover : 9781438426754, 295 pages, March 2010

Table of contents

Introduction
David Jones and Ellen Klein
Part I: Encountering Asian Philosophies and Religions
The Importance of Asian Philosophy in the Curriculum
John M. Koller
The Confucian Worldview: Uncommon Assumptions, Common Misconceptions
Roger T. Ames
Part II: Texts
India:
On the Battlefield of Dharma: The Moral Philosophy of the Bhagavad Gītā
Vrinda Dalmiya
Vimalakīrti’s Triumphant Silence: Bridging Indian and East Asian Buddhism
Jeffrey Dippmann
The Things of This World Are Masks the Infinite Assumes: Inroducing Samkhya and Yoga Philosophy
Tom Pynn
China:
Too Twisted to Fit a Carpenter’s Square: Using and Teaching the Daodejing
Ronnie Littlejohn
Performing the Meanings of Dao: A Possible Pedagogical Strategy for Teaching Chinese Philosophy
Robin R. Wang
Mengzi: Human Nature Is Good
Xinyan Jiang
Japan:
The Dilemma of Dōgen
Brian Schroeder
The Absolute Contradictory What: On How to Read the Philosophy of Nishida Kitarō?
Gereon Kopf
“The bottom of my soul has such depth that neither joy nor the waves of sorrow can reach it”: An Introduction to the Kyoto School
Jason Wirth
Part III: Contexts
Frameworks:
History as a Vehicle for the Universal
John A. Tucker
Asking the Right Questions
Francis Brassard
A Sketch of the Diamond Sutra’s Logic of Not
Shigenori Nagatomo
Art:
Nama-rupa: The Paradox of Embodiment in Indian Art
Harriette D. Grissom
Philosophical Reflection and Visual Art in Traditional China
Stephen J. Goldberg
Philosophy:
Teaching Chinese Philosophy from the Outside In
Mary I. Bockover
A Strategy for Integrating Confucius’s Analects into a Typical Introduction to Philosophy Course
James Peterman
Contributors
Index

Provides an overview of some of the great texts of Asian philosophy and religion along with an exploration of the contexts in which they arose.

Description

In an increasingly global society, non-Western thought can no longer be an afterthought for educators and their students. Asian Texts — Asian Contexts helps bring Asian philosophy and religion into wider classroom consideration by giving nonspecialists entrée to primary texts from India, China, and Japan and pedagogical strategies for presenting this material to Western students.

The texts section includes material on Buddhism, Daoism, the Bhagavad-Gita, and the Kyoto school of Japanese philosophy. In the contexts section, nonspecialists are presented with ways to think about the integration of Asian material that includes considerations of religion, philosophy, history, and art. These useful and accessible essays are written with the nonspecialist in mind, but provide a creative edge that will be of interest to specialists as well.

David Jones is Professor of Philosophy at Kennesaw State University and editor of Confucius Now: Contemporary Encounters with the Analects. E. R. Klein is an independent scholar. Her books include People First! Professional and Business Ethics without Ethics.