Culture And Self: Philosophical And Religious Perspectives, East And West

by Allen,Douglas B.

• ISBN13: 9780813326740
• ISBN10: 0813326745
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 1997-05-02
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Traditional scholars of philosophy and religion, both East and West, often place a major emphasis on analyzing the nature of "the self." In recent decades, there has been a renewed interest in analyzing self, but most scholars have not claimed knowledge of an ahistorical, objective, essential self free from all cultural determinants. The contributors to this volume recognize the need to contextualize specific views of self and to analyze such views in terms of the dynamic, dialectical relations between self and culture.An unusual feature of this book is that all of the chapters not only focus on traditions and individuals, East and West, but include as primary emphases comparative philosophy, religion, and culture, reinforcing individual and cultural creativity. Each chapter brings specific Eastern and Western perspectives into a dynamic, comparative relation. This comparative orientation emphasizes our growing sense of interrelatedness and interdependency.Culture and Selfincludes many Asian and Western philosophical, religious, and cultural perspectives. Chapters focus on Vedanta, Samkhya-Yoga, and other Hindu approaches, as well as Buddhist, Confucian, Taoist and other Indian, Chinese, and Japanese perspectives. Studies present Cartesian and other dominant Western perspectives, as well as Marx, Nietzsche, Sartre, feminism, and other Western challenges to the dominant Western interpretations of culture and self.This volume will appeal to students and readers of philosophy, religious studies, Asian studies, and cultural studies.

Author Biography

Douglas Allen is professor of philosophy at the University of Maine . He is the author of Structure and Creativity in Religion; Mircea Eliade: An Annotated Bibliography (with Dennis Doeing); Mircea Eliade et le phénomène religieux; Coming to Terms: Indochina, the United States, and the War (coedited with Ngo Vinh Long and published by WestviewPress); and Religion and Political Conflict in South Asia. He is also an editor of Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars and has received Fulbright and Smithsonian Institution grants to teach and study in India. Ashok K. Malhotra is professor of philosophy at the State University of New York at Oneonta . Douglas Allen is professor of philosophy at the University of Maine. He is the author of Structure and Creativity in Religion; Mircea Eliade: An Annotated Bibliography (with Dennis Doeing); Mircea Eliade et le phénomène religieux; Coming to Terms: Indochina, the United States, and the War (coedited with Ngo Vinh Long and published by WestviewPress); and Religion and Political Conflict in South Asia. He is also an editor of Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars and has received Fulbright and Smithsonian Institution grants to teach and study in India. Ashok K. Malhotra is professor of philosophy at the State University of New York at Oneonta.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Introduction	p. xi
Multiple Asian And Western Perspectives	p. 1
Social Constructions of Self Some Asian, Marxist, And Feminist Critiques Of Dominant Western Views of Self	p. 3
Social Constructions of Self Some Asian, Marxist, And Feminist Critiques Of Dominant Western Views of Self	p. 23
How Universal is Psychoanalysts? The Self in India, Japan, And The United States	p. 27
How Universal is Psychoanalysts? The Self in India, Japan, And The United States	p. 38
Chinese and Western Perspectives	p. 41
Ethics, Relativism, and the Self	p. 43
Classical Confucian And Contemporary Feminist Perspectives on the Self: Some Parallels and Their Implications	p. 63
Buddho-Taoist and Western Metaphysics of the Self	p. 83
Buddho-Taoist and Western Metaphysics of the Self	p. 92
Indian and Western Perspectives	p. 95
Reducing Concern with Self Parfit and The Ancient Buddhist Schools	p. 97
Reducing Concern with Self Parfit and The Ancient Buddhist Schools	p. 108
Sartre and Samkhya-Yoga On Self	p. 111
Sartre and Samkhya-Yoga On Self	p. 128
Japanese and Western Perspectives	p. 129
Nietzsche and Nishitani On Nihilism and Tradition	p. 131
Nietzsche and Nishitani On Nihilism and Tradition	p. 141
Views of Japanese Selfhood Japanese And Western Perspectives	p. 145
Views of Japanese Selfhood Japanese And Western Perspectives	p. 159
Bibliography	p. 163
About the Book and Editor	p. 173
About the Contributors	p. 175
Index	p. 177
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