Mind and Body in Early China: Beyond Orientalism and the Myth of Holism

Description

Mind and Body in Early China critiques Orientalist accounts of early China as the radical, holistic other. The idea that the early Chinese held the strong holist view, seeing no qualitative difference between mind and body, has long been contradicted by traditional archeological and qualitative textual evidence. New digital humanities methods, along with basic knowledge about human cognition, now make this position untenable. A large body of empirical evidence suggests that weak mind-body dualism is a psychological universal, and that human sociality would be fundamentally impossible without it. Edward Slingerland argues that the humanities need to move beyond social constructivist views of culture, and embrace instead a view of human cognition and culture that integrates the sciences and the humanities. Our interpretation of texts and artifacts from the past and from other cultures should be constrained by what we know about the species-specific, embodied commonalities shared by all humans. This book also attempts to broaden the scope of humanistic methodologies by employing team-based qualitative coding and computer-aided distant reading of texts, while also drawing upon our current best understanding of human cognition to transform our basic starting point. It has implications for anyone interested in comparative religion, early China, cultural studies, digital humanities, or science-humanities integration. Cover Mind and Body in Early China Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Notes on Translations Introduction 1. The Myth of Holism in Early China Neo-​Orientalist Conceptions of Chinese Holism Ideograph versus Logograph Concrete versus Abstract Immanent versus Transcendent Cause versus Resonance Reality versus Appearance Essence versus Process Strong Mind-​Body Holism Lack of Psychological Interiority No Conception of the Individual No Conception of the Soul, Afterlife, or “Other World” Internal Evidence against the General Myth of Holism External Evidence against the General Myth of Holism A Preview of the Case against Strong Mind-​Body Holism Part I 2. Soul and Body: Traditional Archaeological and Textual Evidence for Soul-​Body Dualism Afterlife Beliefs in the Archaeological Record Textual Accounts of the Afterlife and Soul-​Body Dualism Soul-​Body Dualism The Otherworldly Nature of the Soul(s): “Spirit” (shen 神), Hun 魂 and Po 魄 This World and The Next: The Sacred and the Transcendent in Early China 3. Mind-​Body Dualism in the Textual Record The Metaphysical Xin 心 Xin 心 versus the Body (xing 形, shen 身, ti 體) Xin versus the Physical Organs Xin and the Soul: Consciousness, Free Will, and Personal Identity Xin as Ruler of the Self Xin as Immaterial Mover Xin as Locus of Reflection, Free Will, and Moral Responsibility Xin and Psychological Interiority From Qualitative to Quantitative Part II 4. Embracing the Digital Humanities: New Methods for Analyzing Texts and Sharing Scholarly Knowledge Basic Quantitative Methods: Keyword Lists and Team-​Based Coding Simple Surveys: Online Concordances (We Have Them, Let’s Use Them) More Elaborate Techniques: Team-​Based Qualitative Coding New Ways of “Reading” Texts: Semi-​ and Fully Automated Textual Analysis Collocation Analysis Collocation Analysis, Step 1: Semantic Benchmarking Collocation Analysis, Step 2: Applying the Benchmarks to Xin versus Other Organs Hierarchical Cluster Analysis Topic Modeling New Modes of Scholarly Dissemination: Large-​Scale Databases Digital Humanities: Methodological and Theoretical Reflections Dumb Machines versus Smart People The Tyranny of Categories, Questionnaires, and Click-​Boxes Embracing the Digital Humanities From Internal to External Evidence Part III 5. Hermeneutical Constraints: Minds in Our Bodies and Our Feet on the Ground Shared Folk Cognition as Hermeneutical Starting Point Theory of Mind (ToM) The Folk Are Not Cartesians: “Weak” Mind-​Body Dualism Inner and Outer: The Container Self and the Role of Metaphor Theory of Mind and Religious Belief Supernatural Agents Afterlife and Soul Beliefs Promiscuous Teleology Religiosity and the Theory of Mind Spectrum Embodied Cognition and the Comparative Project A Naturalistic Hermeneutic 6. Hermeneutical Excesses: Interpretive Missteps and the Essentialist Trap Interpretive Missteps The Slide from Difference to Différance Caricature versus Caricature: Ancient Chinese Essence and The Western Strawman Theological Incorrectness Mistaking Argument for Assumption Fallacy of the Single Meaning and Persuasive Translation Keeping Scholarship and Theology Separate Learning From, Without Essentializing Individual versus Society Mind versus Body Reason versus Emotion, Knowing How versus Knowing That Comparative Thought and Psychic Unity Conclusion: Naturalistic Hermeneutics and the End of Orientalism Enough of Gavagai: We Are All Homo sapiens Taking the Sciences Seriously: Regaining Our Status as a Wissenschaft Taking the Humanities Seriously: Becoming Full Partners in Academic Debates Beyond Neo-​Orientalism References Index