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Thinking World Philosophies

The Fusion of Intellectual Horizons in Chinese and Western Thought

By Ming Dong Gu

Format

£100.00

About this book

Offers a convergence of ideas as the basis for a contemporary universalism with global values

  • Locates a flow of intellectual thought from China to the West, which challenges Western-centric thought
  • Modernises the ancient wisdom of traditional Chinese thought through Western philosophy and postmodern critical theories
  • Investigates how intellectual dialogues enable Chinese and Western intellectual traditions to illuminate and complement each other
  • Finds a common conceptual ground for the fusion of intellectual visions
  • Conceives a conceptual framework for global Confucianism and transcultural universalism

Ming Dong Gu bridges the divide between Chinese and Western thought. He does this by addressing key topics that have been of enduring interest to thinkers, scholars and intellectuals in an effort to bring about the fusion of horizons between Chinese and Western thought. These focus on the flow of Chinese thought to the West, Chinese and Western metaphysics, and the foundational ideas from both traditions including the Tao, Taiji, Logos, One, the Yijing, Confucianism, individualism and universalism.

In addressing these key areas, Gu offers new interpretations of ideas, concepts, and principles in Chinese and Western thought and formulates new ideas, insights and conceptual frameworks for Chinese and Western thought to complement and mutually enrich each other.

Reviews

This new monograph by senior scholar Mingdong Gu is nothing less than the distillation of his own lifetime-long reflection on the intellectual and critical possibilities available to us, both East and West, in the fusion of our philosophical horizons. Gu begins by guiding us through the history of our cultural encounters and then offers us a rigorous and insightful account of the substance of our importantly different narratives. The story he tells is prescriptive rather than simply descriptive, searching out ways in which activating our philosophical differences from each other can make a profound difference in enriching the intellectual lives for each other. Indeed, his unwavering goal is the mutual intellectual empowerment that comes with giving each tradition its own voice and allowing it to engage the other on its own terms.
Table of contents

List of Figures
Preface

Introduction: Two Intellectual Horizons

Part I: Intellectual Divide between China and the West

1. Western-Centrism and Chinese Thought
2. Metaphysical Dialogues as an Intellectual Bridge
3. How Can East Meet West as Intellectual Equals?

Part II: First Principles in Chinese and Western Metaphysics

4. Dao, Taiji and Trans-Cultural Meta-sign
5. Dao, Taiji and Metaphysics of the Mind
6. Dao, Logos, and One: A Common Conceptual Ground

Part III: From Metaphysics to Issues of Ethics

7. Confucian Ethics and Spirit of World Order
8. Individualism and Confucian Self-Cultivation
9. Modernizing Confucianism for the Global Age

Conclusion: Toward Transcultural Universalism

Bibliography
Index

About the author

Ming Dong Gu

Ming Dong Gu is the Katherine R. Cecil Professor in the School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology at the University of Texas at Dallas. His research areas include comparative literature, critical theory, comparative thought, and cultural studies. He is the author of The Nature and Rationale of Zen/Chan and Enlightenment (Routledge 2024), Fusion of Critical Horizons in Chinese and Western Language, Poetics, Aesthetics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), Sinologism: An Alternative to Orientalism and Post-colonialism (Routledge, 2013), Chinese Theories of Reading and Writing (SUNY Press 2005), Chinese Theories of Fiction (SUNY Press 2006) as well as more than 190 articles in English and Chinese.

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