Environmental Philosophy and East Asia: Nature, Time, Responsibility

Description

This book explores the contributions of East Asian traditions, particularly Buddhism and Daoism, to environmental philosophy in dialogue with European philosophy. It critically examines the conceptions of human responsibility toward nature and across time presented within these traditions. The volume rethinks human relationships to the natural world by focusing on three main themes: Daoist and Eurodaoist perspectives on nature, human responsibility toward nature, and Buddhist perspectives on life and nature. By way of discussing East Asian traditions and European thinkers, this collection reveals that the impact of humanity on the environment is shaped not only by distinctive modes of economic production, but also by cultural beliefs and practices. Representing a unique constellation of environmental and intercultural philosophy, the contributions present systematic approaches to the global need for cultivating environmental responsibility across cultures and generations to address the political, ethical, and aesthetic challenges arising from humanity’s transformative impact on the natural world. Presenting a critical re-evaluation of human relationships to the natural world in dialogue with East Asian traditions, this will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Philosophy, Environmental Studies and Asian Studies. Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgements List of contributors List of figures Editors’ introduction Part 1 Daoist and Eurodaoist perspectives on nature, responsibility, and critique 1 The role of Nature in the Huang-Lao silk texts 2 Eurodaoism and the environment 3 Heidegger’s Dao and the sources of critique 4 How to inhabit the best of all possible worlds? Leibniz’s philosophical optimism in the age of environmental crises Part 2 Buddhist perspectives on freedom, life, and nature 5 What is oriental liberalism? 6 Emptying ecology: Chan Buddhist antinomianism and environmental ethics 7 Modification of life awareness and its poetic expressions in Japanese literature Part 3 Rethinking time and human responsibility towards nature 8 In spite of nature and with time: Freedom and responsibility. Two Kantian spells and their possible refutation 9 The Person-Affecting Claim, Non-Identity Problem, and future generations 10 The deep layers of responsibility or anti-nature in nature 11 Corporeality in an ecologically oriented aesthetics of nature Index