Western Philosophy Research Articles

Expanding the literature on philosophical counselling through African hermeneutic philosophy and conversationalism

Philosophical counselling, a contemporary movement in practical philosophy, continually expands its discourse by introducing novel philosophical ideas and different traditions. Nevertheless, a conspicuous silence persists regarding the introduction of African philosophies in its discourse. This issue becomes apparent when the question “How might one live?”—a fundamental question that the philosophical counsellor deals with—is adequately investigated. However, its current formulation suffers greatly from a much-needed nuance concerning temporal and contextual awareness. To address and transcend this shortcoming, I turn to two distinct African philosophies, namely, the hermeneutic philosophy of Tsenay Serequeberhan and the conversational method of philosophising advocated by Jonathan O. Chimakonam. By incorporating these philosophies, my aim is twofold: first, to promote an interpretative actualisation situated within a conversational framework that might lead to the creation of new concepts and/or the disclosing of different ways of being/becoming, and second, to draw attention to an underlying assumption that might maintain the neglect of philosophical traditions beyond Western philosophy.

A Comparative Study of Emotion in Indian and Western Philosophy

A Comparative Study of Emotion in Indian and Western Philosophy

Intersecting Perspectives: A Comparative Dialogue on Respect in Confucian and Western Philosophies

Intersecting Perspectives: A Comparative Dialogue on Respect in Confucian and Western Philosophies

An Introduction to Zoeontology

Zoeontology, or the study of living, is a philosophical system the author is constructing in the spirit of traditional Chinese philosophy. We see living as the central philosophical inquiry in the Chinese tradition, rather than being as in Western philosophy. Being is supposed to be eternal and death is a negation of being, but living consists of birth, growing, aging, and death. Hence in zoeontology, we see time as the rhythm of living, and space as the orientation in a living community. As a time-space system, a living subject interacts with the world from the perspective of the ego. Zoeontology is also a kind of subjective philosophy. Different living subjects interact with each other if their living rhythms parallel or overlap with each other. A child’s living process is internal to the parents’ living process, and hence there must be intimate and profound interactions between them. This is the beginning of a civil community. There is a dialectical relationship between civilization and nature. The purpose of human civilization is to civilize a natural living community, but it must obey the rules of nature. Human civilization is not meant to change nature, but to fulfil it.

Learning to Think [Together

The article demonstrates how thinking works according to German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel and shows what can go wrong if the reality Hegel relied on is compromised by images we encounter in the global world of media images, a critique made by French philosopher Jean Baudrillard. While people may connect with images on their devices rather than on television, Baudrillard’s analysis of images also applies to digital content. This article examines the human task of learning to think for oneself in the company of other people. Its central question focuses on the path thoughtfulness takes if thinking is authentically personal and socially sound. The article offers a model for thinking, abduction, that allows us to keep in touch with reality as we learn to think together about our opinions, knowledge, and beliefs. The article suggests a hopeful way forward for learning to think based on Western philosopher Immanuel Kant’s approach to the growth of the intellect.

Comprehensive Harmony versus Antipathetic Duality: Thome H. Fang’s ViewPoint on the Spirit of Chinese and Western Philosophy

Abstract In his comparative philosophy, Thomé H. Fang issues the spirit of Chinese philosophy as the type of wisdom of comprehensive harmony; meanwhile, Western philosophy remains a conflicting mode of thinking of bifurcation or duality. Comparatively, the spirit of Chinese philosophy possesses a superiority which might issue a challenge to Western philosophy. Fang even takes it as the only remedy capable of solving the theoretical problems of Western philosophy. Practically, Fang has revealed the theoretical problems of Western philosophy and profoundly criticized Western modernity. Although he does tend to overstate the superiority of the Chinese concept of the unity of Heaven and Human, thereby overlooking its defects, Fang has nevertheless advanced comparative philosophical research to a new stage.

Islamisasi Ilmu Dalam Upaya Mengatasi Keterbelakangan Kualitas Umat Islam Di Era Modern

Education is important human progress. Likewise, Islamic education a very important role in determining the quality of life of Muslims. Unfortunately, in this modern era it can felt that Islamic education is lagging behind modern western. According to Al-Faruqi, this is evidenced by existence of identity crisis, loss of economic, political and intellectual independence in Islamic world, existence of sectarianism that focuses on borders, and slow modernization (Ramdhani, 2013 ). There are factors that cause these things, namely: the influence of western science and philosophy, colonialism, lack of Islamic unity, and lack of modernization of Islamic. To overcome these problems, ulama proposed the Islamization of science. This article was created using the SLR method. It aims to integrate Islamic principles and values into field of science and knowledge which involves a process of rethinking, re-evaluating and reconstructing scientific knowledge to enrich the vision and struggle of Islam (Sahide, 2015). The concept of Islamization of Science was introduced by Ismail Raji Al-Faruqi who defined it as an effort to integrate science into the unity of Muslim life with aims to improve the quality of Islamic education, and hoped it can also improve the quality of life of Muslims in this era.

Thoroughness of philosophy and return to religion in Tanabe Hajime

Japanese philosopher Tanabe Hajime (1885–1962) not only discussed religion in ways that were rooted in the fundamental claims of his writings, such as Shinran in Philosophy as Metanoetics (1946), but he also made proposals on religion, as in Demonstration of Christianity (1948), where he advocated for the need for a “second religious reformation.” For Tanabe, philosophy and religion (along with science) are fused in a specific way, and it is possible to find a vision of religion to be aimed for that is worth considering as a theory of religion among Japanese philosophers. To examine the theory of religion in Tanabe, this study focuses on the work, Demonstration of Christianity, and other works from the perspective of religious studies. In Demonstration of Christianity, the concept of absolute religion toward the second religious reformation is envisioned based on Tanabe’s dialectics of the absolute mediation, and a discussion on his world religion can be found, although it is limited to Christianity and some Buddhist sects. Reflecting his absolute dialectic, Tanabe says that this world religion was established through the absolute mediation of Christianity with “Nembutsu-Zen” (the unification of Pure Land Buddhism and Zen Buddhism). One cannot deny the impression of Christocentrism in these discussions, but they are in fact the result of Tanabe’s thoroughness in philosophy. What can be drawn from these discussions is that Tanabe's theory of religion is strongly connected to Platonism, which he considered the root of his dialectics. For example, by the third article in Existence, Love, and Practice (1947), “Self-Transcendence in Platonism and Faith in Gospel.” Tanabe’s argument reveals the characteristics of conceiving a new religion that combines Eastern and Western ideas, philosophy, and religion through a creative interpretation of Platonism, the source of Western thought where philosophy and religion are inseparably linked.

Editoriale: abitudine e letteratura


 
 
 Starting from antiquity, the concept of habit has traversed the entire history of Western philosophy and has represented one of the great themes of modern and contemporary literature. The reflection on habit has raised questions concerning the relationship between body and mind, the problem of time and the (re)construction of identity, the conscious and the unconscious, and the role of memory.
 This dossier addresses these questions from an aesthetic perspective, at the crossroads between the history of philosophy and the history of literature.
 
 

The Afrocentric Imperative in Tackling African Environmental Challenges: Afroecosolidarity Perspectives

Africa is not exempted from environmental challenges. Environmental challenges in the continent include desertification, deforestation, soil erosion, gas flaring, overpopulation, resource wars, multidimensional poverty, oil spillage and pollution. The challenge is that in the process of seeking solutions to the environmental crisis in Africa, solutions rooted in African indigenous ecological values may be neglected or sidelined in preference for Western or Eurocentric ideologies and philosophies. This paper argues that there is a need to pay attention to environmental solutions based on indigenous ecological ideals and values. African solutions to her environmental problems should be Afrocentric, sourced from an Afroecosolidarity perspective. A critical hermeneutic and analytic method is adopted here to help understand the issues that the paper deals with. The paper finds that there is an undue privileging of Western ideas in the search for solutions to African environmental problems. The paper concludes that solutions to African environmental problems should be both Afrocentric and also informed by the value of Afroecosolidarity

Martín-Barbero’s style

In Latin America, Jesús Martín-Barbero is a pop star and a beloved scholar with thousands of followers captured by his original way of thinking, imagining, and researching the relations between communication, culture, and politics. This essay explains five characteristics of Martín-Barbero’s style: (i) his reflections about expressions of popular and mass culture such as music, telenovelas, fairs, and celebrations; (ii) his gaze at and from local territories, identities; (iii) his innovative way of thinking from the Global South while in conversation with Western philosophy; (iv) his proposal for a theory of mediations as a way to understand cultural interactions and the production of social meaning; and (v) an intellectual passion that led him to engage daringly in political issues in society. As one of his students and colleagues, the essay ends with my own notions of what a communication researcher should do/be.

Afrocentricity and the Quest for Identity in the African Diaspora

Africa as a continent has experienced and still going through lot of negative, derogatory and dehumanizing experiences. This, in turn formed the basis of the identity crises that rock the continent. Some Western philosophers, historians, sociologist and so on are of the opinion that Africans do not have an identity nor history of their own; this is emboldened in the idea that Africa is not part of world history. This view may not necessarily be unconnected with the clash of culture occasioned by the colonization of the continent of Africa by the Western world. Against this backdrop, the discourse examines what constitute African identity before the advent of colonialism. This is done to unravel the content and context of Africa(n) identity before the subjugation of the continent’s identity by the colonial master. This search, which seems to have formed the basis of the contemporary contention of the Africans’ diaspora wanting to know ifs they are truly Africans or a hybrid of different cultures remain the fulcrum of this discourse. In driving home the argument of the paper, different philosophies such as afrocentricity, afropolitanism, negritude, transnationalism as articulated by African scholars are reviewed with the aim of reconstructing the misconception and misrepresentation of the images alluded to Africa. Hence, using the analytical method of philosophical investigation, the paper project afrocentricity as a philosophy that is basic to the quest of identity in the African diaspora than afropolitanism.

Exploring on the Poetic Pragmatic Structure in Chinese Classical Philosophical Texts

In Chinese classical philosophical texts, the use of poetic explications to convey concepts is a unique and fascinating phenomenon. Unlike Western philosophy, where conceptions are often explained by definition of connotation and extension. Classical Chinese philosophy relies on direct experiential understanding through poetry and metaphorical language. This pragmatic structure in Classical Chinese allows for a deeper connection between the reader and the text, even opening up the possibility of personal interpretation. By recalling or forming certain experiences, even mystical ones, readers can gain a more profound understanding of the concepts being discussed. This article explores the ontology of the unity of heaven and man() that is preset in these texts and makes this process (what people called tiwu()) possible. Taking the Five Elements as an example, this article reveals unique concepts born on the basis of this pragmatic structure that is different from Western philosophy.

Further Discussion of the Fundamental Differences between Chinese and Western Philosophy

In the context of the problem of the “fundamental differences” between Chinese and Western philosophy, it is essential to investigate the basic system on which the entirety of Western philosophy operates and the unique way it has developed within this system, so that concrete observation can help deepen understanding. The observation involves the issues of what metaphysics is; “transcendence”; the fourfold distinction in the history of Western metaphysics; Christianity as Platonism; and the “Onto-Theo-Logik” mechanism in metaphysics. In a general sense, there can be no metaphysics where there is no division or opposition between the supersensuous and the sensory worlds. Where the “Onto-Theo-Logik” mechanism of Western metaphysics fails to work or has no chance of working, the field is one in which Chinese philosophy should make active moves and undertake development. The divisions arising from this context essentially mark the fundamental difference between Chinese and Western philosophy. When it comes down to it, it is these differences that determine the differences in the nature, structure, and direction of Chinese and Western philosophy.

Against the Marginalisation of Western Pedagogics in Postcolonial Zimbabwe

The current textual analysis juxtaposes Western pedagogics with Zimbabwe’s instructional methodology as currently encapsulated in the Curriculum Framework for Primary and Secondary Education for period 2015-2022. This framework is a principal document that continues to enshrine Zimbabwe’s education system while it undergoes review. Thus, the reflection estimates the applicability of Western pedagogics (as informed by Western philosophies) to Zimbabwe’s postcolonial education system. This undertaking comes against the background of Education 5.0 which occasioned the ongoing move by the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development [Mo HTEISTD] in collaboration with the University of Zimbabwe [UZ] to scrap Western educational philosophies like idealism, empiricism, pragmatism, progressivism and social reconstructionism from Zimbabwe’s teacher education syllabus. Hence, the author is explicitly perturbed by the imminent disregard of Western philosophies and their respective pedagogics as a result of the unmistakable over-exaltation of the heritage-based philosophy within Zimbabwe’s new teacher education syllabus yet to be implemented. In the process of juxtaposing Western pedagogics with Zimbabwe’s instructional methodology, the author observes strong congruence between the former and the latter. Notwithstanding a few points of divergence between Western pedagogics and Zimbabwe’s instructional methodology, the former is applicable to the latter. The current reflection, therefore, demonstrates beyond doubt that the idea of peripherising Western pedagogics (on the grounds that it is informed by Western philosophies)is more emotive than rational. This article, thus, implores the MoHTEISTD and the UZ to revisit with due sobriety their position of wanting to excise Western philosophies and their respective pedagogics, and consider restoring the same to their rightful place in Zimbabwe’s teacher education syllabus so that the country’s entire education sector remains of global resonance.

The Socratic Moment

This essay attempts to rethink what is here called “the Socratic Moment” in Western philosophy, that is, the unique turn that philosophy takes in the early Socratic dialogues of Plato. The essay begins by contesting the traditional view that the goal of Socratic inquiry is to gain irrefutable knowledge of ethical concepts such as courage, justice, friendship, and the holy for the purposes of future action. It argues instead, through a close reading of key passages from Plato’s Apology and Euthyphro, that Socratic inquiry actually begins with the concept under consideration in order to put the interlocutor themself—their beliefs and their actions—into question.

Impact of Western Thought in English Literature

Western philosophy has been expressed and developed historically through a rich and varied process documented in English literature. The intellectual movements that influenced English literature from antiquity to the present are carefully examined in this essay. The formation and development of religious themes were greatly influenced by medieval Christian philosophy, while ancient Greek and Roman philosophies served as an inspiration for the themes and materials of literary works. Philosophy and literature were combined by the Renaissance humanism movement to symbolize humanity's quest for the human spirit. Philosophy is specifically conveyed in literature through themes such as nature, reason, and self-awareness, to name just a few. Certain literary genres and philosophical systems also have a lot in common. By promoting dialogue and interaction between literature and philosophy, interdisciplinary research will expand our knowledge.

Objectification Theory in History and Class Consciousness and Its Implications for Ideology Construction

As the pioneer and forerunner of Western Marxism, Lukács’ ideas have had a significant impact on the development of Western Marxism and even Western philosophy. History and Class Consciousness, consisting of eight essays, is the most important work of Lukács’s life. The objectification theory elaborated in the book has important implications for the critique of capitalist ideology and the reconstruction of the consciousness of the proletariat, as well as for contemporary ideological construction.

The Difficult Struggle with Metaphysics

The article traces the crisis of intellectual and political situation in which the Vienna Circle operated. It is shown that the struggle against metaphysics was a common task of its participants. Forms and methods of metaphysical criticism are considered. The role of neo-Kantianism in the formation of logical empiricism is evaluated. The origins of the profound rift in German-speaking, and then Western philosophy as a whole, are analyzed.

Navigating Intellectual Crossroads: Intersections of Modern Western Thought and Islamic Reformism

Introduction: The article begins by outlining the historical and intellectual context of the interaction between Modern Western Thought and Islamic Reformism. It highlights the challenges and opportunities arising from the convergence of these two intellectual traditions, noting the significant impact of Western secularism, scientific inquiry, and rationality on global discourse, including Islamic societies. The introduction sets the stage for a detailed exploration of the exclusivist and inclusivist movements and their implications for Islamic societies. Objectives: The primary objective of this article is to examine the intellectual challenges and opportunities presented by the interaction between Modern Western Thought and Islamic Reformism. It aims to provide insights into the diverse perspectives within Islamic societies, the clash between tradition and modernity, and the potential for reconciling religious faith with reason. The article also seeks to foster a deeper understanding of the historical and cultural contexts that shape these debates and to promote respectful dialogue and critical inquiry. Conclusion: The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of fostering mutual understanding and respectful dialogue between Eastern and Western philosophies. It underscores the need for a nuanced approach that considers historical and cultural contexts to bridge the epistemological gap between these two intellectual traditions. By promoting critical inquiry and embracing pluralism, the article suggests that both Islamic and Western societies can engage in a productive exchange of ideas, ultimately contributing to intellectual advancement and societal progress.