One Corner of the Square: Essays on the Philosophy of Roger T. Ames

Description

In a historical moment when cross-cultural communication proves both necessary and difficult, the work of comparative philosophy is timely. Philosophical resources for building a shared future marked by vitality and collaborative meaning-making are in high demand. Taking note of the present global philosophical situation, this collection of essays critically engages the scholarship of Roger T. Ames, who for decades has had a central role in the evolution of comparative and nonwestern philosophy. With a reflective methodology that has produced creative translations of key Chinese philosophical texts, Ames—in conjunction with notable collaborators such as D.C. Lau, David Hall, and Henry Rosemont Jr.—has brought China's philosophical traditions into constructive cross-cultural dialogue on numerous ethical and social issues that we face today. The volume opens with two parts that share overlapping concerns about interpretation and translation of nonwestern texts and traditions. Parts III and IV--"Process Cosmology" and "Epistemological Considerations"--mark the shift in comparative projects from the metaphilosophical and translational stage to the more traditionally philosophical stage. Parts V and VI--"Confucian Role Ethics" and "Classical Daoism"--might best be read as Chinese contributions to philosophical inquiry into living well or "ethics" broadly construed. Lastly, Part VII takes Amesian comparative philosophy in "Critical Social and Political Directions," explicitly drawing out the broader dimensions of social constitution and the ideal of harmony. The contributors--scholars working in philosophy, religious studies, and Asian studies--pursue lines of inquiry opened up by the work of Roger Ames, and their chapters both clarify his ideas and push them in new directions. They survey the field of Chinese philosophy as it is taking shape in the wake of Ames's contributions and as it carries forward a global conversation on the future of humanity. Contents Foreword Introduction Abbreviations Part I Comparative Methodologies 1 Sameness, Difference, and the Post-Comparative Turn 2 Mining the Emotions, Deepening Ars Contextualis: A Personal Reflection on the Power of Sensitive Reading 3 Confucianism as a Tradition of Reconstruction: Returning to the “Way of Heaven”? 4 The Development of the Amesian Methodology for Comparative Philosophy Part II Issues in Translation 5 Philosophical Ames: On Teaching Chinese Thought as Philosophy 6 To Render Ren: Saving Authoritativeness 7 Philosophy as Hermeneutics: Reflections on Roger Ames, Translation, and Comparative Methodology 8 The Attitude of the Junzi toward Wealth, Social Eminence, Poverty, and Humbleness in Light of Analects 4.5 Part III Process Cosmology 9 Reflections on David L. Hall and Roger T. Ames’s Understanding of Classical Confucian Cosmology 10 Locating the “Numinous” in a Human-Centered Religiousness 11 On the Demystification of the Numinous and Mystical in Classical Ruism: Contemporary Musings on the Zhongyong 12 Many Confucianisms: From Roger Ames to Jiang Qing on the Interpretive Possibilities of Ruist Traditions 13 Seeing Through the Aesthetic Worldview Part IV Epistemological Considerations 14 How Do Teachers “Realize” Their Students? Reflections on Zhi in the Analects 15 Strategic Imagination in Chinese Philosophy 16 Extending Ars Contextualis to Zhu Xi: Using Gewu as an Example 17 Truth Bound and Unbound: A Deeper Look at the Western and Chinese Paradigms 18 Exploring an Alternative Pre-Qin Logic Part V Confucian Role Ethics 19 Role Modeling in Confucian Role Ethics: Appreciating an Amesian Education 20 Who’s Afraid of Village Worthies? 21 Doubts and Anxiety on a Way without Crossroads 22 Applying Amesian Ethics Part VI Classical Daoism 23 Making Way for Nothing 24 Field, Focus, and Focused Field: A Classical Daoist Worldview 25 The Temporality of Dao: Permanence and Transience 26 Whence Do You Know the Fish Are Happy?: Knowing Well and Living Well Part VII Critical Social and Political Directions 27 Confucianism as Transformative Practice: Ethical Impact and Political Pitfalls 28 The Promise and Problem of Creativity and Li 29 Men Tell Me Paternalism Is Good 30 Confucianism Reimagined: A Feminist Project Afterword: The Amesian Square in the Perfect Storm Contributors Index