Western Philosophy Research Articles

Confucius in The Times from 1785 to 2019: a diachronic news discourse analysis of newsworthiness

This article diachronically analyses the variations in newsworthiness with regards to the conception of Confucius in the British newspaper The Times from its initial publication in 1785 to 2019. Adopting corpus linguistic methods and discursive news values analysis approach, this study examines news values through collocations and concordances of Confucius-centred instances. The results mainly lie in two folds. First, before 1840s, Confucius had been highly Westernized and religionized through analogy with Western philosophers, literary works, religious prophets, religious maxims, etc., which constructed proximity and eliteness to help alleviate the foreignness brought by the Chinese concept of Confucius and reduce the British audiences’ sense of distance. Following the increasing and continuous identification of Confucius with the Chinese identity in reporting, these methods (Westernization and religionization) of reporting had comparatively abated, as a consequence of which the media tended to present more Chinese contexts to market more full-scaled information related with Confucius. Second, the concepts of Confucius had been frequently metonymized for the national identity of Chinese, which dominantly framed the ordinariness of the Chinese people before 1880s, and gradually transformed into the elite Chinese identities after 1880s. With historical statistics and diachronic lens, the results of this study provided valuable historical data for social studies in the British context and improved on the findings of the existing studies of Confucius in Britain.

An Art for Art's Sake or a Critical Concept of Art's Autonomy? Autonomy, Arm's Length Distance, and Art's Freedom

What is the relationship between the philosophical concept of the “autonomy of art” and the cultural policy-notion of “artistic freedom”? This article seeks to answer this question by taking the Swedish governmental report This Is How Free Art Is (Så fri är konsten 2021) and its reception in the Swedish main stream media as an emblematic example and by reading it symptomatically. Firstly, it traces the critical history of “artistic freedom” and the interrelated term “arm’s length distance”, primarily in the context of Great Britain. Secondly, it critically reconstructs the concept of the “autonomy of art” in the history of Western philosophy by making a critique of a fetishized notion of art’s autonomy in the name of l’art pour l’art. The main argument is that the idea about art’s autonomy, on which the Swedish report leans, resembles such philosophical and art historical idea of art’s autonomy. The claim is also that such an understanding of art does not tie up, either philosophically or historically, with the arm’s length principle, since they ultimately rely on different conceptions of art’s freedom.

The Introduction of Modern Western Philosophy in the Ottoman Empire: Armenian Thinkers

Abstract The literature on the introduction of modern Western philosophy in the late Ottoman Empire is predominantly ethnocentric. This is because it reduces the Ottoman version of modern Western philosophy to the philosophical discourses of Muslim/Turkish intellectuals at the expense of non-Muslim Ottomans’ philosophical activities in languages other than Turkish. This article challenges such ethnocentrism and offers an alternative narrative from the perspective of Ottoman Armenian thinkers in the late nineteenth century. With this aim, it analyzes the philosophical thoughts of Madatia Karakashian, Nahabed Rusinian, Kalusd Gosdantian, and Yeghia Demirjibashian.

Retracted: Analysis of the Influence of Western Philosophy on the Development of Chinese Environmental Philosophy Theory and Its Future Direction.

[This retracts the article DOI: 10.1155/2022/1216866.].

The 700th Anniversary of the Canonization of Thomas Aquinas: A Legacy of Wisdom

The current year of 2023 marks the 700th anniversary of the canonization of Thomas Aquinas (1323-2023), a key figure in Western philosophy and Christian theology. This commemorative evocation seeks to honor Aquinas by examining his monumental contributions to various domains of knowledge, highlighting his methodological rigor, and outlining the enduring relevance of his work for contemporary philosophical and theological discourse.

“Why Race Still Matters”

ABSTRACT While there is no proof that there are distinct races among humans, racial divisions remain alive and relevant. Discrimination feeds into racism and sponsors beliefs in differences among races. Race as a social issue and a topic of analysis is generally treated as if it were a concept that could be understood on its own terms and independently of some other issues. One of the most promising attempts at understanding race is its relation to perceptible differences between and among races. These differences have played out in numerous ways, including how philosophy has been used as a tool of exclusion. This exclusion necessitated the rise of African philosophy as an extension of the combat against racism. Yet racists and racist attitudes remain prevalent. While African philosophy’s emergence can be articulated in terms of race and racism, what is more difficult to articulate is why racist attitudes persist. In tracing the pervasiveness of race and racism in African philosophy’s emergence as a counter to Western views, I demonstrate how African philosophy could not avoid being implicated in the struggle against racism. As a representative of African thought systems, African philosophy had to define itself in contrast to Western philosophy to show the viability of the African thought processes. However, African philosophy neither ended racism nor caused African thought systems to be treated as equals to their Western rivals. On the contrary, racist thinking and practices remain rife. Hence, I attempt to show that the sponsors of these attitudes are insistent on making prominent, perceptible differences between humans.

The Chan Buddhist Way toward Truth in the Context of Chinese and Western Philosophy

The Chan Buddhist Way toward Truth in the Context of Chinese and Western Philosophy

Emptying the Mind: Nothingness in Mahāyāna Buddhism and in the Chan Tradition

Abstract After an introductory overview of the treatment of nothingness in Western philosophy, nothingness is addressed from the perspectives of important doctrines of Mahāyāna Buddhism, espcially the ontological concept of dependent origination (pratītya-samutpāda; yuanqi 緣起) in its interpretation by Nāgārjuna as emptiness (śūnyatā; kong 空) and the five manifestations of nothingness in the saṃbhogakāya (baoshen 報身) aspect of the trikāya (sanshen 三身). In the Chan Buddhist tradition, these crucial elements of Mahāyāna teaching have been reinterpreted as meditative tools for emptying the mind. Finally, Daoist elements of the Chan Buddhist interpretation of nothingness/ emptiness are pointed out.

The amalgamation of eastern and western philosophies within Idokan Karate

Every school of the Japanese martial art of karate possesses special values and norms unique to its practice. Unsurprisingly, the philosophy of Idokan karate is therefore similar to other schools while remaining distinct in the myriad of martial art practices. Idokan karate possesses a practical philosophy (i.e., applicable to everyday life) influenced by Eastern and Western belief systems that are internalized and utilized by its practitioners as forms of today’s civilian warrior path. This single case study examines the prominent Idokan ethics, values, and rules as well as details its specific and symbolic content. It makes use of the hermeneutic phenomenology research method to present a content analysis of literature on Idokan within the wider discourse of martial arts studies. A broad discourse analysis of these topics in both scientific studies and popular publications was conducted. In doing so, this study’s practical implications are that it not only provides a glimpse into the uniqueness of Idokan karate philosophy but also into that of the vastness of the great martial arts menagerie. Idokan karate philosophy is derived distinctively from its founders’ understandings of Chinese and Japanese martial arts, Taoism, and Christianity and dictates practitioners a unique morality. Such teleology comes from special values, rules, and aims embedded in Idokan teachings. In normative ethics, the Decalogue and nobility of spirit (the Homo Creator Nobilis) are most important. Tao in Idokan is understood as God’s Word, the principle of love, and the way of (Christian) heaven.

Entering the Ethical Space Between Epistemologies: A Step Toward Decolonizing the Heart and Mind

At a tipping point marked by knowledge fragmentation, the evaluation field’s ability to address the complex problems confronting the world today is threatened. Contributing to this is the field’s narrowed epistemological foundation which places limits on what counts as knowledge, alienating many engaged with it. Privileging empirical knowledge over traditional and revealed (i.e., spiritual) knowledge places the reigning evaluation paradigms at odds with Indigenous paradigms and presents numerous risks to individuals, communities, and ecosystems. Yet, if we enter the space between epistemologies (Emine, 2007), we discover that the founders of western philosophy, Aristotle and Descartes, held many ideas in common with Indigenous philosophies. Here I deconstruct Western thought to show how Aristotle and Descartes upheld an immaterial reality, with Descartes grounding all his understanding in revealed knowledge. After providing a bombardment of multidisciplinary support for revealed knowledge, I argue that embracing the Knowledge Trinity advances the decolonization of evaluator self and mind and provides a new epistemological foundation upon which to construct a Decolonizing Paradigm.

COVID-19 and Climate Change: Re-thinking Human and Non-Human in Western Philosophy

The pre-conditions and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are inter-connected with those of climate change, prompting reflection on how to re-think the relations between human and non-human on a changing planet. This essay considers that issue with reference to the contrasts between the philosophies of Descartes and Spinoza, who offered radically different approaches to the conceptualization of human presence in Nature.

The Influence of Renaissance Thought on Martin Luther’s View of Liberty

Abstract Scholars have long acknowledged the substantial influence of the Renaissance movement on Luther’s Reformation. However, due to the absence of comprehensive studies on Luther’s contexts, a thorough and detailed analysis of this influence in Luther’s thought and writings has been hindered. The aforementioned circumstance has resulted in the overall disregard of this contribution in the history of Western philosophy. This paper aims to analyze the distinct impact of Renaissance ideology on the evolution of Luther’s concept of liberty. The first section will discuss the background of Luther’s reform movement and the fundamental place of the humanist concept of liberty in its impact on the destruction of the religious power of the Catholic Church. The second section will examine the significant role played by humanists, such as Erasmus, in shaping Luther’s liberal ideas during his early years. The third section will examine how Luther’s understanding of liberty was developed through his polemical exchanges with Erasmus and other thinkers. This process ultimately resulted in Luther’s distinctive and paradoxical conception of freedom, which highlights Luther’s and humanists’ historical influence on the independence, emancipation, and autonomy of the individual personality in their age. The fourth section will examine the influence of Luther’s paradoxical ontological theory on the development of Western intellectual history. Additionally, it will address the misinterpretation of this intellectual history lineage by the mainstream of Western intellectual history that occurred concurrently. Finally, in the twentieth century, the revival of Luther’s thought, which was gradually revitalized by Heidegger, Karl Barth, and other contemporary scholars, also highlights the significant influence of Renaissance thought on Luther’s theory and the whole history of Western thought.

Classics in Western Philosophy of Art

Classics in Western Philosophy of Art

Cultural Studies in Interhemispherical Perspective. China, Africa, Asia and Australasia

Thematic assessment is offered with regard to Critical Arts’s incorporation into various Chinese trajectories and networks of cultural and media studies. The predominance of discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, and comparative empirical studies of Western and Chinese media is addressed for the period 2016–2023, as is the recent location of Critical Arts within the global discourse analysis publishing sector, that is mapped in Wang and Sun (2023, “Bibliometric Study on Chinese Discourse (1994-2021).” Critical Arts 1–17). The reasons for this narrow discursive framing are offered in comparison with another trajectory that is evident in the pages of the journal, one that emerges out of Chinese literary studies in conversation with Western theories, Western philosophies and which addresses big epistemological questions rather than questions of comparative “us-them” differences/correspondences or of administrative or linguistic detail. Finally, in addressing the different methodological directions that have been experienced in the journal’s pages, this overview seeks to act as something of a manifesto in returning Critical Arts to a more general cultural and media studies position. Our method of analysis is to symptomatically track and frame the Chinese meta-narratives as published in the journal, to identify and describe the themes that have been of concern to our various Chinese authors and editors, to relate these to cultural studies as inherited from the field’s earlier origins across the world, and to offer a paradigmatic map for future authors through which to conceptually filter their submissions. Our analysis was pre-circulated to the four Critical Arts editorial board China specialists, amongst others, who were invited to contribute to our narrative.

‘To be or not to be’ of Eco-Deconstruction

This paper aims to unravel a tension between the act of naming and ‘differential relationality’. Derrida has taught us that ‘naming’ is an essentialising, and thus metaphysical gesture that works to define and circumscribe a field of work (for instance, ‘Eco-Deconstruction’), the human, and ecology. ‘Naming’ entails the beginning of the institutionalisation and sedimentation of a field, despite a ‘field’s’ claim to the opposite. The danger of such sedimentation is that it perpetuates what Derrida calls ipseity that in the history of western philosophy and metaphysics has worked in contradistinction to the nonhuman (animals, environment, ecology).

Analytic philosophy of education and the postcolonial moment

Of all possible future directions for analytic philosophy of education, few are as overdue as thoroughly confronting the legacy of colonialism and the postcolonial moment. Rightly credited with establishing the credibility and standing of philosophy of education, by 1980, analytic philosophy of education was the dominant though not unchallenged approach to philosophy of education in the Anglo-American world. While its dominance has declined and philosophy of education has become more diverse, analytic philosophy of education retains a strong international presence in educational theory. By contrast, postcolonial theory – the critical study of colonialism and its aftermath – has attracted growing interest across many academic disciplines, developing from the 1970s onwards from its early location in literary and cultural studies. After outlining the emergence of analytic philosophy of education, and the subsequent reshaping of philosophy of education, we describe postcolonial theory and the place of education in both colonialism and postcolonial thought. Having thus located analytic philosophy of education and the postcolonial turn in their own times and contexts, we consider the postcolonial challenge to Western philosophy and how analytic philosophy of education could respond, developing our stance on a postcolonial future direction for analytic philosophy of education. We argue that the future of philosophy of education is now inescapably postcolonial and that it should retain its analytical strengths.

From sankofa, tu, shosholoza to Ubuntu and umoja: a five-stage historical timeline of the philosophy of Africa and implications for education, research and practice

There is no comprehensive history of Africa’s philosophy for reasons including colonisation and neo-colonisation that resulted in its philosophy’ neglect and under-studying compared to Eastern, Middle-Eastern and Western philosophies. In this article, the timeline of Africa’s philosophy has been divided into five stages – sankofa, tu, shosholoza, Ubuntu and umoja. Sankofa is a stage where less is known, although, by looking at the history of the different groups of Black Africans – the Bantu, Kush, Nile-Sahara, San, Khoi Khoi, Hadza, Sandawe, Mbenga, Mbuti and Twa – we learn that they had related values centred around the family, community, society, environment and spirituality, and probably lived in proximity. The tu stage was characterised by the expansion of their communities and new languages that named Africa’s philosophy differently but closely. The shosholoza stage involved resisting the colonisation of Africa’s philosophy on and off the continent. The fourth stage is Ubuntu, the current stage where the noun Ubuntu has become prominent as the name of the philosophy for reasons including the resilience of the Zulu Kingdom from whose Nguni/Ngoni language the noun derives from. The final stage is umoja, the stage of renaissance and African-centredness. At this stage, Ubuntu is becoming the dominant worldview for Africa. From this history, among other things, we learn that Ubuntu did not start recently, Africa is not philosophyless and that Ubuntu cannot be attributed to Bantu people alone but all Black Africa. This history contributes to a better education for Africa where scientists, researchers, teachers, social workers, development workers, even security people, politicians and business people – become African-centred, all working for an Africa whose knowledge, innovations and capabilities compete with the rest of the world on an equal footing. It is recommended that the history of Africa’s philosophy and the philosophy itself be embedded in all levels of ‘formal’ or ‘informal’ education and this will be more useful if all stages, from sankofa to umoja are included. Knowledge of Africa’s philosophy would make education, research and practice more appropriate to Africa, especially in the fields of social work and development where colonial knowledge, values and practices have been dominant.
 How to reference using ASWNet style:
 Mugumbate, R. (2023). From sankofa, tu, shosholoza to Ubuntu and umoja: a five-stage historical timeline of the philosophy of Africa and implications for education, research and practice. African Journal of Social Work, 13(3), 167-178. https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ajsw.v13i3.5
 Visit journal website: https://ajsw.africasocialwork.net

한국철학사에서 자기정체성과 타자성의 문제

The other is a stranger to the a subject. The myth of Dangun mythologically in Korea expresses the process in which the other changes the subject through the process of metamorphosis. Just as an individual's identity is formed in social relationships, the identity of philosophy is also formed through relationships with others. There are typically three ways in a philosophical tradition that makes responses when it interacts with other traditions: conversion(轉向), confrontation(對決), and consilience(統攝). Firstly, in conversion, one admits that the other is superior and gives up one’s own self-identity all together. There are two types in the conversion.: collective conversion and individual conversion. As a case of collective conversion, there is a case in which the royal family of Silla collectively turned to Buddhism, and as an example of an individual conversion, there is the case of Choe Byeong- heon who converted from a Neo-confucian scholar to a Protestant Christian. Secondly, in confrontation, one believes that one’s system of beliefs is correct and other’s is incorrect so a conflict is inevitable. Wijeongcheoksa(衛正斥邪) theory belongs to the case of confrontation. The root of Wijeongcheoksa theory lies in the Horak(湖洛) debate. Thirdly, the case of consilience is found in Wonhyo(元曉), a Buddhist thinker of Silla. Hwajaeng(和諍=harmonization of disputes) was Wonhyo's method of integrating the theories of other lineage within Buddhism, but it was also applied to theories outside of Buddhism. Western philosophy is the other that Koreans confronted for the last time in the history of Korean philosophy. After the introduction of Western philosophy, Korean philosophy suffered a serious crisis of identity confusion. After the Japanese colonial period, the traditional subject-other or host-guest relationship is reversed. This situation is a very uncomfortable truth for Eastern or Korean philosophers to accept. Now, what is the direction Korean philosophy should go in the future, and where is the identity to be newly formed? In the global world, the relationship between the subject and the other is not fixed and is constantly evolving. In the global knowledge field, the subject and the other will exchange information more actively than ever before, forming a new amalgam.

Цивилизационный субъект в ХХI в. и моральный универсализм

The article is devoted to some reflections on how a civilizational subject should behave in the conditions of the degradation of Western culture that has emerged in the 21st century and the resurrection of the idea of essentially tribal or ethnic separatism in the world community. At the same time, the coming era is characterized by the philosophical justification of the “truth” of the golden billion, the realization of which involves the disappearance of seven billion human lives. The thinking of the last century led humanity to a global catastrophe, to the closing of the path to truth. The affirmation of the real truth of global geopolitics as the design of the will to power as the original absolute truth was a consequence of the recognition of the death of God as a stream of non-truth of a metaphysical idea. The author believes that the main element of the direction of the current situation is moral universalism, which develops into universal philosophical truth. Such universalism unites people with their ethnic, national and other differences. This universalism of the truth of being is based of a real policy of harmonization of human relations, combining the civilizational reconstruction of industrial and social life with its adaptation to environmental practice, ensuring the preservation of nature and humans. The author draws on the cultural ideas of Eastern and Western philosophers: Nishida Kitaro, Hobbes, Hegel, Bergson, Heidegger, Schelling, Rosenzweig.

KARL POPPER’S CONCEPT OF ‘WORLD 3’

Karl R. Popper (1902-1994) was a great philosopher of 20th century best known for his Political Philosophy and his contribution in Philosophical Epistemology. His concept of ‘World 3’is basically an extension of his Epistemological views. According to Popper there is not one single world in front of us but three. ‘World 1’ is the world of material objects. ‘World 2’ is the world of human perception, conception, a disposition to act or react etc. ‘World 3’ is the world of all possible human creation. Popper considers Plato as the first discoverer of ‘World 3.’ Popper considers World of Ideas or Forms as the first attempt in the history of Western Philosophy to locate the Ontology of Knowledge. In the World of Forms of Plato every Idea is perfect, every idea is a Substance and objectively existent. But according to Popper the ‘World 3’ is Manmade and not divine. He is also of the view that with the interaction of ‘World 1’ and ‘World 2’, ‘World 3’ comes in to being but after its coming to existence, it liberates itself from the previous worlds. It becomes objective, self-existent but Popper claims that it is not divine as Plato and Hegel think of it. This article is an attempt to critically discuss that is it possible for any world to be Manmade in nature and yet totally independent of any human mind at the same time? Keywords: World 3, World of Forms, Objective Spirit, Epistemology, Ontology.