Good groundings in Eastern Philosophy?

Raiden333

I'm a philosophy major and I suddenly came to a realization last year that my university does not offer a single course, discussion, or anything at all on Eastern school of thought. This came up while I was taking a class on Foucault and other post-structuralists and another student referenced how what Foucault was saying in a certain passage reflected a page in the Tao Te Ching. I picked up a copy over the summer and in my opinion, it's one of the most profound and personally affecting works I've ever read. I e-mailed one of the heads of the philosophy department and received as a response:

As far as the eastern/western philosophy question, no, it's not abnormal. Our department doesn't offer classes, as a rule, in eastern philosophy. It isn't that the department is ignoring it; any department is going to have certain area that they emphasize and other area that, due to the faculty available, they aren't able to cover. We did a few years ago have a visiting teaching fellow that taught Buddhist philosophy, but I don't foresee anyone teaching classes like that next year.

The only other books related to eastern philosophy I've read was The Tao of Physics by Capra back in late high school when I was really into quantum mechanics, and The Book by Alan Watts after I read the Tao Te Ching. Both I enjoyed greatly. Other than that, most of the books I see in the Eastern Philosophy section seem... Well, in a word, fluffy. I'm used to reading Heidegger, Hume, Kant, and Russel, and while I don't expect Eastern thought to be as straightforward and logical, I just haven't found anything that doesn't seem like the author is pulling stuff out of their ass and not even trying to justify it.

As I said, the Tao Te Ching really resonated with me, so I feel like there's a lot of potential here, I just don't know where to start. I guess my main question is, who are some good (preferably contemporary, but I'm not picky) authors grounded in Eastern philosophy to start with?

Iruka

If you can get past any dislike you may have for Brad Warners Ego/personality, I find Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies, & the Truth about Reality a pretty interesting and contemporary way to start thinking about what Buddhism is and ways it can be understood. As a highschool it really captured my interest because it wasn't flower covered frou-frou looking and I wanted to be all angst like. Its still a pretty basic and informative book which is told through a personal narrative rather than an instructional way.

Raiden333

Iruka wrote: »

If you can get past any dislike you may have for Brad Warners Ego/personality, I find Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies, & the Truth about Reality a pretty interesting and contemporary way to start thinking about what Buddhism is and ways it can be understood. As a highschool it really captured my interest because it wasn't flower covered frou-frou looking and I wanted to be all angst like. Its still a pretty basic and informative book which is told through a personal narrative rather than an instructional way.

There was an article about him in a local newspaper a couple months back, but I ignored it since he seemed to be playing to a 'scene' I wasn't a part of. I might go back and check him out, thanks.

furiousNU

Hello! Resident East Asian Studies major at your service!

I really don't know how cerebral you want to get but here are some books that I thought were good:

The Open Empire (Hansen)-History book written in a nice narrative style, has large sections on how philosophy and religion developed concurrently in China

Thinking Through Confucius (Hall and Ames)- very very abstract but refreshing analysis of Confucian thought through a loose Western philosophy framework(not for the faint hearted, but I think this is one of the best books I've read on Confucian thought)

I'll add more later when I remember the titles

The Nescient

As a fellow philosphy major, I've found that the eastern stuff that falls into philosophy tends to be limited to the Tao Te Ching, Confucious, and various offshoots thereof. While The rest of eastern philosophy is pretty interesting, its usually very religiously based, and is often categorized as Theology. Also I find it really annoyingly difficult to try to wade through all the frou frou and get to something interesting.

stawk

History international apparently has a series specifically on eastern philosophy, Just started showing part one a half hour ago.

Sarcastro

This conversation is interesting, because I found the exact opposite to be true. I found Heidegger and Kant to be verbose and excessively constructed, whereas Eastern philosophy seemed very to the point. Western philosophical texts are extremely linear, but after you've read a few, one soon realizes that the constructions of thought are shared to the point of being extremely repetitive, and each new book only delivers a small amount of meat topping off the gigantic buildup using other peoples work.

I understand this is how it has to be in those circles, very institutionalized forms of thinking about thinking (very interesting you mention some of Foucaults work bending more towards eastern thinking, as he often struggled with the intitutionalization of philosophy and the inherent problems in acquiring absolute knowledge under such structures) but most of the eastern texts I've read gain their edge by simply stating or being recognized that they are authoritative first, and then make subtle references to other texts during their own statements as if to prove awareness, but not strict adherence to, those bodies of work. More meat, less build- but at the same time, less likely to be recognized as truly authoritative by an institutionalized structure, or heh, a 'structurilized' academic institution.

I also liked the Tao of Physics, though the physics part is a bit squiffy and the Tao part is a bit off- still, it holds as as excellent example of the problems and rewards found in merging the two ways of thinking. The Tao Te Ching is amazing, but requires basic enlightment in several concepts to be read effectively. The I Ching, coin games aside, provides an excellent daily dose of eastern philosophy, and you don't need to be a fortune teller to make use of all the entries- its lays out 64 basic concepts of taoist thought, with six different variables to each one. It is essentially both primer and master work to understanding Buddism and Taoism.

Read in conjuntion with the Confucious Essentials, one uses the I Ching as a reference. The Essentials breaks down certain Confucious concepts into the relative hexagrams, which can be reversed and re-referenced for further thinking. The basic elements are learned first, and then combined and modified to capture ongoing personal and humane experiences.

From there, you can shift off into Buddhist, Taoist or Zen thinking. All three hold many points in common, but focus on different things. I would recommend following your own train of thinking on this one, so I'm not going to recommend any one over the other. The most important thing is to go where your own thinking takes you, your own intuitive sense of what you need to learn.

Unlike western philosophy which (IMHO) focuses on the understanding of certain key elements in cognitive thinking, eastern philosophy past a certain point focuses on the personal application of such ideals. This is where it branches towards theology, in that it encourages one to take these new ways of thinking and apply them in ones personal life, seeking excellent models of being, and applying the concepts held by those models.

saggio

As a fellow philosphy major, I've found that the eastern stuff that falls into philosophy tends to be limited to the Tao Te Ching, Confucious, and various offshoots thereof. While The rest of eastern philosophy is pretty interesting, its usually very religiously based, and is often categorized as Theology. Also I find it really annoyingly difficult to try to wade through all the frou frou and get to something interesting.

This. I don't think you are going to be able to find much stuff that is straight up philosophy after you've moved beyond the Tao Te Ching. If that doesn't bother you, I really recommend you look into Islamic scholars, like Ibn al-Arabi, who wrote the Meccan Illuminations. Also people like al-Gazali. These were religious thinkers that took a lot of fundamental Greek philosophy and did some fairly interesting things with it. Unfortunately, a lot of it is in defense of a specific kind of theology or dogma, like Augustine or Aquinas, but if you can get beyond that, it's pretty cool.

Erios

furiousNU wrote: »

Hello! Resident East Asian Studies major at your service!

I really don't know how cerebral you want to get but here are some books that I thought were good:

The Open Empire (Hansen)-History book written in a nice narrative style, has large sections on how philosophy and religion developed concurrently in China

Thinking Through Confucius (Hall and Ames)- very very abstract but refreshing analysis of Confucian thought through a loose Western philosophy framework(not for the faint hearted, but I think this is one of the best books I've read on Confucian thought)

I'll add more later when I remember the titles

Hi2u there. Do you have my glasses by chance?

What furious said is pretty solid advice, having leafed through said books myself. Also, for a classical approach, try Zhuangzi (self-titled). Also, my university publishes a pretty good survey of the old philosophers called "Sources of Chinese Tradition" (there are Japanese and Korean ones as well), which I know is available on google for free and/or cheap.

Toefoo

Another Philosophy major here.

I ran into the same problem as the OP...it seems my college only offers classes on Western Philosophy. I do enjoy these classes, but I can only read so much Kant without going insane.

Sarcastro's response is dead on the money, and I'll be following this advice as well since I'm in the same boat as you. Luckily for me though, the school I'm transferring to next semester has Eastern Philosophy courses abound. I've been reading through a copy of Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion by Shambhala to get a feel for the various terms and sects of the philosophy, and so far it's been a good reference tool.