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Overview
The West has long had an ambivalent attitude toward the philosophical traditions of the East. Voltaire claimed that the East is the civilization "to which the West owes everything", yet C.S. Peirce was contemptuous of the "monstrous mysticism of the East". And despite the current trend toward globalizations, there is still a reluctance to take seriously the intellectual inheritance of South and East Asia.Oriental Enlightenment challenges this Eurocentric prejudice.J. J. Clarke examines the role played by the ideas of Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism in the intellectual life of the West and how these ideas, far more than exotic distractions, or even instruments of colonial domination, have been the means towards serious self-questioning and self-renewal, used to dispute and even to undermine Western orthodoxies.
Synopsis
The West has long had an ambivalent attitude toward the philosophical traditions of the East. Voltaire claimed that the East is the civilization "to which the West owes everything", yet C.S. Peirce was contemptuous of the "monstrous mysticism of the East". And despite the current trend toward globalizations, there is still a reluctance to take seriously the intellectual inheritance of South and East Asia.
Oriental Enlightenment challenges this Eurocentric prejudice.J. J. Clarke examines the role played by the ideas of Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism in the intellectual life of the West and how these ideas, far more than exotic distractions, or even instruments of colonial domination, have been the means towards serious self-questioning and self-renewal, used to dispute and even to undermine Western orthodoxies.
Library Journal
Clarke (history of ideas, Kingston Univ., UK) notes that for hundreds of years the West has sought out the tradition of the East's philosophies. The search has been one-sided, however; the East generally has not reached out to the West for philosophical ideas. Further, despite a so-called shrinking globe, the West is still reluctant to acknowledge that it may have borrowed anything of significance from the East. So why does the West remain fascinated with the East? One insightful observation by Clarke: "It is Europe's collective day-dream, symptomatic of a certain weariness that from time to time bests European culture." Clarke here offers a solid academic survey of how ideas from India, China, and Japan have been drawn into the West's thinking since at least the 17th century. Thoughtful but scholarly; recommended for academic libraries.Dennis L. Noble, Sequim, Wash.