Synopses & Reviews
This is a true cross-cultural anthology which presents philosophers from different cultures in dialogue with one another. The text includes selections from both traditional and contemporary Western and non-Western philosophy: African American, Latin American, and feminist philosophers as well as Asian, African, Native American, and Islamic philosophers. The reader is organized by topic, and highlights the similarities and differences between Western and Non-Western philosophers -- it arranges selections so that authors speak to one another across cultures. Chapter introductions and section introductions within chapters guide students. The second edition includes new sections on non-Western epistemology, the question of life after death, Rawls and criticism, and understanding others' experience and points of view. The authors have revised the more difficult sections of chapter 1 and have included more African, African American, and female philosophers, and more variety in the sections on social philosophy.
About the Author
Gail M. Presbey is Assistant Professor at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. She earned her doctorate at Fordham University, concentrating in the field of social and political philosophy. She has pursued postgraduate studies and independent research at Gandhigram Rural University in Tamil Nadu, India, and at University of Nairobi, Kenya. She has authored several articles in publications such as Acorn: Journal of the Gahndhi-King Society, and the book, NONVIOLENCE: Social and Psychological Issues. She is active in Concerned Philosophers for Peace and the Radical Philosophy Association. She is a participant in the yearly Institute for Global Cultural Studies conferences.Karsten J. Struhl teaches philosophy and political theory in adult education programs (B.A. programs) at Adelphia University the New School for Social Research, Iona College, and the College of New Rochelle. He has also taught at Long Island University, La Guardia Community College, the Queens House of Detention, Harlem Hospital, and several senior citizen centers. His articles have appeared in philosophical, psychological, educational, and political journals and anthologies. He is the coeditor of PHILOSOPHY NOW: An Introductory Reader (Random House) and ETHICS IN PERSPECTIVE (McGraw-Hill). He has recently coauthored the entry on human nature for the forthcoming edition of THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOETHICS (Macmillan). He is a member of the American Philosophical Association, the Radical Philosophy Association, and Educators for Social Responsibility.Richard E. Olsen is Professor of Philosophy at Adelphi University and chair of that university's philosophy department. He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Brown University. He is the author of several journal articles and a book, KARL MARX (1979). He has also participated in National Endowment for the Humanities and Mellon Foundation grant projects. Professor Olsen has been a scholar of both Western and Asian philosophy for over twenty years and lived for a time as an ordained Buddhist monk in Thailand while pursuing his studies of Buddhism in that country. He is a member of the American Philosophical Association, the Phi Beta Kappa Society and the Sigma Xi Honorary Science Fraternity.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: APPEARANCE AND REALITYThe World of FormsPlato: The SymposiumPlato: Parable of the CaveBlack Elk: Crazy Horses Vision*Hannah Arendt: The Value of the SurfaceIdealism: Western and AsianGeorge Berkeley: Subjective IdealismThe Upanishads: Thou Art That*Sri Ramana Maharshi: A Commentary on the UpanishadsArthur Schopenhauer: The World as Will and Idea*Hui Neng: The Sutra of Hui NengMaterialismWang Fu-Chih: Neo-Confucian MaterialismFriedrich Engels: Materialism and the Scientific World ViewChapter 2: KNOWLEDGE AND SCIENCEThe Problem of MethodCharles Sanders Peirce: The Fixation of BeliefPaul Feyerabend: Against Method*Sandra Harding: Is Science Multicultural?*Patricia Hill Collins: Afrocentric Feminist EpistemologyAyatullah Murtaza Mutahhari: Limits of ScienceThe Limits of Reason and the Limits of KnowledgeChaung Tzu: Knowledge and RelativityJorge Luis Borges: Averroes SearchDaisetz T. Suzuki: Zen KnowledgeChapter 3: PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGIONTheistic Arguments and Atheist ChallengesA.C. Ewing: Proofs of Gods ExistenceAnthony Flew: Theology and FalsificationSigmund Freud: A Philosophy of LifeThe Religious ExperienceSarvepalli Radhakrishnan: Personal Experience of GodBuddhassa: No ReligionVine Deloira: Tribal Religious RealitiesReligions, Society, and PoliticsKarl Marx and F. Engels: Critique of ReligionLeonardo and Clodovis Boff: Liberation Theology*Sulak Sivaraksa: Engaged Buddhism*Hassan Hanafi: Islam and RevolutionCarol P. Crhist: Why Women Need the GoddessChapter 4: HUMAN NATUREUniversal Human NatureIs Human Nature Good or Evil? A Chinese Debate:Mencius: Human Nature Is GoodHsun Tus: Human Nature Is EvilThomas Hobbes: Human Nature as CompetitivePetr Kropotkin: Mutual Aid*Ashley Montague: War and AggressionJean-Paul Sartre: There Is No Human Nature*Francisco Miro Quesada: Man Without TheoryGender NatureWomens Nature: Two Islamic ViewsAl-Ghazali: The Proper Role for WomenFatima Mernissi: Beyond the WallSimone de Beauvoir: The Second Sex*Ortega y Gasset: Woman as Body*Elizabeth V. Spelman: Gender and Race*Paula Guinn Allen: The Sacred HoopSexual Nature*Richard D. Mohr: Gay Basics*Ruth Hubbard: The Social Construction of SexualityChapter 5: SELF, MIND AND BODYA Controversy in the Modern Western TraditionRene Descartes: MeditationsDavid Hume: Personal IdentityHinduism and Buddhism: A Similar ControversyBhagavad-Gita: Samkhya DualismThe Upanishads: The True SelfQuestions of King Melinda: No SelfT.R.V. Murti: The Middle WayToshiko Izutsu: Ego-less Consciousness: A Zen ViewA Defense of Hume and Buddha Based on Modern PsychologyDerek Parfit: Divided Minds and the “Bundle” Theory of SelfSelf as ActivityRisieri Frondizi: Dynamic Unity of the SelfThe Self Beyond Death*The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Death and Rebirth*Innocent Onyweunyi: Africa and Reincarnation: A ReappraisalPlato: The PhaedoAristotle: On the SoulThe Carvaka School: Ancient Indian MaterialismBertrand Russell: Persons, Death, and the BodyChapter 6: DESTINY, DETERMINISM, AND FREEDOMDestiny and FreedomSarvepalli Radhakrishanan: Karma and Freedom*Kwame Gyekye: Destiny and Free Will: An African ViewRadical FreedomFyodor Dostoevsky: Notes from the UndergroundJean Paul Sartre: Freedom and ActionReconciling Freedom and DeterminismMortiz Schlick: Freedom and Responsibility*John Hospers: Free Will and PsychoanalysisNancy Holmstrom: Firming Up Soft DeterminismKitaro Nishida: Freedom of the WillChapter 7: ETHICSThe Ethics of Duty and Its CriticsThe Bhagavad-Gita: Right ActionImmanual Kant: Moral DutyJohn Stuart Mill: UtilitarianismVirginia Held: Feminist Transformation of Moral TheoryUniversal Concern for Others: Altruism vs. Egoism*Motse: Universal LoveAyn Rand: The Virtue of SelfishnessGunapala Dharmasiri: Buddhist Ethics*Carlo Filice: On the Obligation to Stay Informed About Distant AtrocitiesSubjectivism and the Problem of RelativisimAlejandro Korn: Values Are Subjective*Alain Locke: A Functional View of Value Ultimates*David Wong: RelativismChapter 8: THE MEANING OF LIFE AND DEATHHappiness and the Good LifeAristotle: The Rational LifeTabatabai: Islam is the Road to Happiness*Joan Chittister: Living The Rule of St. Benedict Today*H. Sadddahtissa: The Four Noble Truths*Herbert John Benally: Navajo Ways of KnowingAlbert Camus: The Myth of SisyphusTaoist and Confucian ViewsLao Tus: Living in the TaoChuang Tsu: Lost in the TaoRaymond M. Smullyan: Whichever the Way*Fung Yu-Lan: The Spheres of LivingFacing Death*Ancient Egyptian: The Dispute of a Man with his Soul*Native Mesoamerican: Thought of the Sages*The Dalai Lama: Living and Dying in PeaceGregory Baum: Social Conceptions of DeathEttty Hillesum: Facing DeathChapter 9: SOCIAL JUSTICEPerspectives, Difference and Moral Respect*Peggy McIntosh: White Privilege and Male Privilege*Laurence Thomas: Moral Deference*Paula M.L. Moya: Chicana Woman Identity*Karen Fiser: Philosophy and DisabilitySocial Equality*Satyavrata Siddhantalankar: Defense of Varna (Caste)*John Rawls: A Theory of Justice*H. Odera Oruka: Critique of RawlsSocial Change: Violence or NonviolenceKarl Marx and Friedrich EngelsMohandas K. Gandhi: Nonviolent Resistance*Martin Luther King: Non-Violence and Social ChangeMalcolm X: By Any Means Necessary*Enrique Dussel: Revolution and Violence*Indicates New Reading