Focus On The Busy Intersections Of Culture And Cultural Change,
2021
College of the Holy Cross
Focus On The Busy Intersections Of Culture And Cultural Change, Laura Elder
Journal of Global Catholicism
The dynamics of religious resurgence reveal the important ways that religious ritual and performance are meaning making spaces which are not self-contained or cut off from the rest of culture, but rather are a key locus of cultural change. A renewed emphasis on the busy intersections of meaning making – as rituals are connected, disconnected, and reconnected to other domains of social life – would improve the utility of the Catholics & Cultures website for understanding global cultural change. And a renewed emphasis on cultural change would also provide a better means for exploring reflexively by seeking to understand both …
A Widened Angle Of View: Teaching Theology And Racial Embodiment,
2021
College of the Holy Cross
A Widened Angle Of View: Teaching Theology And Racial Embodiment, Mara Brecht
Journal of Global Catholicism
Today’s undergraduate students are digital natives, shaped by constant access to information and countless experiences of encountering the world through the convenience of a screen. The ostensible comfort students have with difference gives way to a paradox, and one that’s made especially apparent in the theology classroom: Students are comfortable with seeing difference and particularity at a distance, but not adept at locating difference and particularity “at home.” I contend that Catholics & Cultures can help students from the dominant culture—namely, white students who comprise the vast majority of Catholic college students—destabilize their notion of the Catholic tradition as tightly …
Introducing Catholics & Cultures: Ethnography, Encyclopedia, Cyborg,
2021
College of the Holy Cross
Introducing Catholics & Cultures: Ethnography, Encyclopedia, Cyborg, Mathew N. Schmalz
Journal of Global Catholicism
In introducing the Catholics & Cultures site and the articles in this special issue, this essay initially locates the overall Catholic & Cultures project within the traditions of ethnography and encyclopedia. Drawing extensively on the work of J. Z. Smith, this essay reflects upon the theoretical implications of emphasizing the diversity of Catholicism in and through a web-based platform that facilitates comparative study and pedagogy. This essay then more specifically considers the web-based aspects of Catholics & Cultures by identifying a nascent cyborgian aesthetic in the site and considering how the site might eventually engage post-modern themes and concerns.
Case Study: Religion, Socialism And Secularization In Modern Japan: The New Buddhist Fellowship,
2021
Bucknell University
Case Study: Religion, Socialism And Secularization In Modern Japan: The New Buddhist Fellowship, James Mark Shields
Faculty Contributions to Books
No abstract provided.
Seeing Through The Aesthetic Worldview,
2021
CUNY College of Staten Island
Seeing Through The Aesthetic Worldview, Andrew Lambert
Publications and Research
Examines the various ways in which the Chinese intellectual tradition has been characterized as an 'aesthetic tradition'. In particular, this paper explores Roger Ames’ and David Hall’s claim that the classical Confucian tradition is an aesthetic tradition, comprising an aesthetic order.
In Memoriam: Adam Morton (1945-2020),
2021
San Jose State University
In Memoriam: Adam Morton (1945-2020), Bo Mou
Comparative Philosophy
No abstract provided.
Book Review On Marxism, China And Globalization (By Xu Changfu),
2021
San Jose State University
Book Review On Marxism, China And Globalization (By Xu Changfu), Ian Hunt
Comparative Philosophy
No abstract provided.
Book Review On New Essays In Japanese Aesthetics (Edited By A. Minh Nguyen),
2021
San Jose State University
Book Review On New Essays In Japanese Aesthetics (Edited By A. Minh Nguyen), Mary Wiseman
Comparative Philosophy
No abstract provided.
The Illusion Of Self Revisited: Replies To Critics,
2021
San Jose State University
The Illusion Of Self Revisited: Replies To Critics, Karsten J. Struhl
Comparative Philosophy
Anand Vaidya, Sean Smith, and Mark Siderits have presented thoughtful comments and provocative challenges to my article “What Kind of an Illusion is the Illusion of Self?” Their challenges raise significant questions about the nature of illusion, whether Buddhism is denying the self in all senses of the term, whether there could be a self that exists for some limited duration of time and has at least some measure of control, whether there is a phenomenal illusion of self, whether the neuropsychological assumptions embedded in Thomas Metzinger’s Phenomenal Self Model is consistent with Buddhist metaphysics, the usefulness of evolutionary psychology …
Is The Self Really That Kind Of Illusion?,
2021
San Jose State University
Is The Self Really That Kind Of Illusion?, Anand J. Vaidya
Comparative Philosophy
Karsten Struhl has offered an intriguing account of what kind of illusion the self is. His account is based on Buddhist philosophy, neuropsychology, and neuroscience. This critical notice examines his arguments, and aims to question whether or not the self is the kind of illusion Struhl argues it to be.
Buddhist Modernism, Scientific Explanation, And The Self,
2021
San Jose State University
Buddhist Modernism, Scientific Explanation, And The Self, Sean Smith
Comparative Philosophy
No abstract provided.
Born Believer?,
2021
San Jose State University
Doing Philosophy Comparatively In The Balkans,
2021
San Jose State University
Doing Philosophy Comparatively In The Balkans, Nevad Kahteran
Comparative Philosophy
No abstract provided.
Reflection And Emotional Well-Being In Nietzsche And Zhuang Zi,
2021
San Jose State University
Reflection And Emotional Well-Being In Nietzsche And Zhuang Zi, Danesh K. Singh
Comparative Philosophy
Nietzsche and Zhuang Zi both believe that the supposed value of certain emotions they deem harmful should be questioned and that reflection can be utilized to change the emotions. They intend to disabuse those of their respective times of conventional morality, with the aim of achieving a state in which negative moral emotions are eliminated and a more natural way of life is embraced. Specifically, Nietzsche examines guilt, a remnant of an ascetic morality endorsed by the religious elite; Zhuang Zi, similarly, considers grief, a moral emotion tied to traditional culture and endorsed by Confucian morality. Living naturally involves the …
The Concept Of Non-Duality In Śaṅkara And Cusanus,
2021
San Jose State University
The Concept Of Non-Duality In Śaṅkara And Cusanus, Jerome Klotz
Comparative Philosophy
When comparing diverse philosophical traditions, it becomes necessary to establish a common point of departure. This paper offers a comparative analysis of Advaita Vedānta Hinduism and esoteric Christianity, as represented by the two highly celebrated figures of Śaṅkara and Nicholas Cusanus, respectively. The common point of departure on which I base this comparison is the concept of “non-duality”—a concept that is fitting for at least two reasons. First, it is general enough to encompass both traditions, pervading the work of each figure, and thus allowing for a kind of “shared language.” Second, it is specific enough to identify a set …
Empty Or Emergent Persons? A Critique Of Buddhist Personalism,
2021
San Jose State University
Empty Or Emergent Persons? A Critique Of Buddhist Personalism, Javier Hidalgo
Comparative Philosophy
In contrast to Buddhist Reductionists who deny the ultimate existence of the persons, Buddhist Personalists claim that persons are ultimately real in some important sense. Recently, some philosophers have offered philosophical reconstructions of Buddhist Personalism. In this paper, I critically evaluate one philosophical reconstruction of Buddhist Personalism according to which persons are irreducible to the parts that constitute them. Instead, persons are emergent entities and have novel properties that are distinct from the properties of their constituents. While this emergentist interpretation is an interesting and well-motivated reconstruction of the Personalist position, I ultimately reject it on substantive grounds. I distinguish …
George Berkeley And Motoori Norinaga On Other Minds And There Being “Nothing To Be Done”,
2021
San Jose State University
George Berkeley And Motoori Norinaga On Other Minds And There Being “Nothing To Be Done”, Wung Cheong Chim
Comparative Philosophy
The 18th century Irish philosopher George Berkeley argued that we might know of the existence of other minds based upon our experience of having certain sense-data or “ideas” imprinted upon us. This served, for Berkeley, ultimately as a basis for us to know of a “grand” other mind orchestrating the order among said ideas imprinted upon us, that is, God. This leap to God, however, has been challenged over the past three decades. A very rudimentary form could still be retained though from Berkeley’s argument for God, whereby Berkeley argued that human minds were dependent upon other “more powerful” minds. …
Gaps: When Not Even Nothing Is There,
2021
San Jose State University
Gaps: When Not Even Nothing Is There, Charles Blattberg
Comparative Philosophy
A paradox, it is claimed, is a radical form of contradiction, one that produces gaps in meaning. In order to approach this idea, two senses of “separation” are distinguished: separation by something and separation by nothing. The latter does not refer to nothing in an ordinary sense, however, since in that sense what’s intended is actually less than nothing. Numerous ordinary nothings in philosophy as well as in other fields are surveyed so as to clarify the contrast. Then follows the suggestion that philosophies which one would expect to have room for paradoxes actually tend either to exclude them altogether …
Echoes From The Great Divide: On The Faltering Philosophical Dialogue Between Africa And The West,
2021
San Jose State University
Echoes From The Great Divide: On The Faltering Philosophical Dialogue Between Africa And The West, Peter Abspoel
Comparative Philosophy
Even in the field of comparative or cross-cultural philosophy, distinctive contributions by African philosophers are often side-lined – that is, relegated to niche publications. Why is it so hard for African philosophers to draw their Western colleagues (other than specialists in African philosophy) into a real dialogue? An attempt is made to describe the field of tension; it is shown that some of the reflexes that manifest themselves in it reveal not just the attachment to specific perspectives or frames of reference, but also implicit ideas about the nature of the “philosophical game”. On the Western side, motives constitutive of …
Editor’S Words,
2021
San Jose State University
