Eastern philosophy: key readings PDF
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EASTERN PHILOSOPHY: KEY READINGS Eastern Philosophy: Key Readings draws together extracts from a wide range of primary and secondary sources, which cover the many branches of Eastern philosophy and religion. Quotations are arranged under concept headings, and open up the debates on topics such as zen, yin-yang and daoism, as well as offering an overview of Eastern philosophical perspectives on subjects such as happiness, war and imagination. Material is drawn not only from such cornerstone texts as the Bhagavad Gita and the Lao-tzu, but also from modern writings on Eastern philosophy and religion. Extracts are prefaced by Oliver Leaman’s succinct introductions, and supplemented by a glossary of terms, all of which make this a unique and accessible way into a fascinating discipline. Oliver Leaman is Professor of Philosophy at Liverpool John Moores University. He is the author of Key Concepts in Eastern Philosophy. ROUTLEDGE KEY GUIDES Ancient History: Key Themes and Approaches Neville Morley Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts (Second edition) Susan Hayward Eastern Philosophy: Key Readings Oliver Leaman Fifty Contemporary Choreographers edited by Martha Bremser Fifty Eastern Thinkers Diané Collinson, Kathryn Plant and Robert Wilkinson Fifty Key Contemporary Thinkers John Lechte Fifty Key Thinkers in International Relations Martin Griffiths Fifty Key Thinkers on History Marnie Hughes-Warrington Fifty Major Economists Steven Pressman Fifty Major Philosophers Diané Collinson Key Concepts in Communication and Cultural Studies (second edition) Tim O’Sullivan, John Hartley, Danny Saunders, Martin Montgomery and John Fiske Key Concepts in Cultural Theory edited by Andrew Edgar and Peter Sedgwick Key Concepts in Eastern Philosophy Oliver Leaman Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics R.L.Trask Key Concepts in the Philosophy of Education John Gingell and Christopher Winch Key Concepts in Popular Music Roy Shuker Key Concepts in Post-Colonial Studies Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin Post-Colonial Studies: The Key Concepts Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin Social and Cultural Anthropology: The Key Concepts Nigel Rapport and Joanna Overing EASTERN PHILOSOPHY: KEY READINGS Oliver Leaman London and New York First published 2000 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002. © 2000 Oliver Leaman All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-415-17357-4 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-17358-2 (pbk) ISBN 0-203-0-203-01095-7 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-17940-4 (Glassbook Format) In fond memory of Catherine Tanner CONTENTS Preface ix Acknowledgements xii List of Entries 1 List of Entries and their Sources 5 References 290 Glossary 294 Guide to Further Reading 305 PREFACE The whole concept of ‘Eastern’ philosophy is rather an artificial one, since there are difficult issues in defining where ‘East’ starts and ends. Some of the thinkers included here operated pretty far in the ‘West’ (ibn Rushd, for example, spent his life in Spain and North Africa). I decided to include Islamic philosophy since much of it took place and continues to be important in what is clearly the Asian world. On the other hand, a good deal of ‘Western’ philosophy is an important part of the philosophical curriculum in much of Asia today, and it could then be argued that this should also be classified as Eastern philosophy. I certainly would not want to argue that there is anything specifically different about Eastern as compared with Western philosophy, although there have been arguments which have gone in this direction. The cultural context in which different philosophical traditions arose clearly mark them in an important way, but many of the issues which different traditions discuss are remarkably similar to each other. I have taken Eastern philosophy to include Islamic, Zoroastrian, Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, Korean and Indian philosophies, and I have selected here a sample from all these traditions. Eastern philosophy, however that is defined, is a very substantial group of systems of thought, and we have only skimmed the surface here of its richness and diversity. Each of the terms which is given an entry is in itself a highly developed concept within a particular type of philosophy, or philosophies, and there are shelves in libraries on each such term. There is no way that this book could be anything more than indicative at best. I have had to exclude a lot of important terms because I wanted to allow those terms which do appear to have sufficient length to demonstrate a flavour of what they can do. The point of this book is to make available a sample of interesting arguments and claims by a variety of philosophical traditions which will be relatively unfamiliar to many readers. The book will not have ix
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