Great Minds of the Eastern Intellectual Tradition(s) First Semester Fall 2012

The Course

D'OÙ VENONS NOUS / QUE SOMMES NOUS / OÙ ALLONS NOUS Where Do We Come From?

What Are We? Where Are We Going?

Religious and Philosophical Questions

‘Religious’

!   Who?

!   Why?

Philosophical

!   What?

!   How?

Nuances

Philosophy Love of wisdom

zhé xué 哲学 Wise study (coined)

Darśana दश#न Vision (of ultimate reality)

Basic questions

  What’s what? (Nature of reality.)

  What’s good? (Value)

  What do we know (or what’s true)?

Reality Western Indian Chinese

Why is there something rather than nothing?

✔

Is there anything that does not change?

✔ ✔ ✔

Which is more basic, Being or Non-Being?

✔

Does God exist? If so, why evil?

✔ ✔

Value Western Indian Chinese

What is art and other questions in aesthetics

✔

What are the basic standards of morality (ethics)?

✔ ✔ ✔

What is the purpose of government? What is the relationship of the individual and the state?

✔ ✔ ✔

Knowledge (epistemology) Western Indian Chinese

What are the scope & limits of knowledge? ✔ ✔ ✔

Can the truth be known at all? ✔ ✔ ✔

Methods Western Indian Chinese

Perception ✔ ✔ ✔

Inference ✔ ✔ ✔

Intuition

✔ ✔

Authority

✔ ✔

Some General Differences

West East

Analysis Synthesis

Plurality of things Unity of things

Differences Harmony

Logic Language – aphorisms

Individual Family, society

Seeks the TRUTH Recognizes many views

Language Differences Are they influential?

!   Inflection or not

!   Writing systems

!   Categories

Stages

Hellenic India China Religion to philosophy

Hesiod Pre-Socratics

Vedas

Founders Socrates Plato

Aristotle

Vedas (Upanishads)

Confucius Laozi

Reactions - Expansions First stages

Neoplatonists Stoics

Jainism Buddhism

“Hundred schools” Mencius

Sunzi

How do you think?

!   Which two of these words are most closely related?   Panda, monkey, banana

!   Cultural differences in student responses   Americans favored common categories –

panda and monkey   Chinese favored relationships – monkey

and banana