Smash Temples, Burn Books :Comparing Secularist Projects in India and China

The paper discusses problems inherent in the secularist project,by an examination of secularisms in India and China.Different motives,historical backgrounds,political situations and cultural considerat...     

WANG Zisong et al. 2010. A History of Greek Philosophy. Vol. 4. Beijing： People＇s Publishing House, 1797 pp., ISBN： 9787010090878.

In Chinese Academia, the publication of this volume has gained a great deal of applause, about which little more needs to be said here. As its name indicates, this entry in the series aims to reveal the fourth and the last stage of the history of ancient Greek philosophy, which covers the Hellenistic and Roman periods （about 800 years in total）. Additionally, its appendix also serves as a brief summary of the foregoing volumes, which is quite helpful. This final volume is the end result of a marvelous academic project, which has lasted for 28 years. Prof. Wang Zisong is the Chief Editor of the whole project, and Prof. Chen Chun-fu is the executive editor of this volume. The new authors, who are mainly responsible for this volume, include Prof. Bao and Prof. Zhang.     

Peter Bol,Neo-Confucianism in History

In the past two or three decades,there has been renewed interest in returning to the teachings of Confucius.I say that it is renewed because during the transition period between the Tang and Song dynasties,from the eighth to the eleventh century,some thinkers had already called attention to the project of recovering various aspects of Confucian philosophy and political culture that were present in ancient times.This new interest seems to arise from the questions that Chinese and non-Chinese are now facing concerning the moral and intellectual foundation of contemporary China.     

Introduction to the Special Theme on ＂Philosophy of Language,Chinese Language,and Chinese Philosophy＂

This special theme section concerns ＂Philosophy of language, Chinese language, and Chinese philosophy,＂ presenting （with its own distinct focus） the general theme of an ongoing international collective research project, ＂Philosophical Issues concerning Chinese Language and Development of Contemporary Philosophy of Language,＂ the initial results of which are presented in the four articles here.     

A Couple Nagging Interpretive Difficulties in Zhuangzi Studies vis-à-vis William James on the Ethics and Psychology of Belief

The present article addresses two lingering questions in the interpretation of the Zhuangzi 莊子—(a) How can one reconcile the scepticism of the Zhuangzi with its positive project(s)? and (b) Who can become a sagely person? The questions are addressed with reference to aspects of William James’ accounts of the ethics and psychology of belief.     

Love and the Paradoxes of Unity: Zhu Xi's Debate with Followers of Cheng Hao over "Perceptual Oneness"

At the end of the twentieth century,there was a trend in Chinese literature towards characterizing Chinese culture as the "unity of Tian (Heaven) and humanity天人合一.” Rather than arguing against such a view,I present in this paper a series of debates over the paradoxes within the concept of unity as well as various notions of love,hoping to demonstrate the depth and complexity of this seemingly simple and dogmatic dictum so that those who cite it can be alert to its potential intricacies.I will discuss three elements which threaten to render the pursuit of oneness an impossible project:(1) the relation between naming and the named,which makes any conceptual attempt to attain oneness an infinite regress,as can be seen in Zhuangzi's莊子 argument against Hui Shi's惠施 oneness;(2) the gap between contemplation and practice,as can be seen in the contrast between Zhang Zai's張載 contemplative oneness and Cheng Hao's程顥 perceptual oneness;and (3) the self-bifurcating attentive acts of the heart-mind,which render any conscious endeavor to attain oneness a self-defeating project.Unlike Cheng Hao's emphasis on the subjective experience of perceptual oneness,his followers posit its underlying metaphysical substance as qi or xing (nature) and believe that moral self-cultivation should start from a metaphysical insight into this substance.Zhu Xi 朱熹 rejects the approach of grounding ethics on metaphysics and argues that love is not based on the notion of unity in terms of qi.He sees the ultimate comprehension of unity rather as a "metaphysical promise," a goal to be attained by following the Confucian Way of selfcultivation,which starts simply from reflection and practice on things near at hand.     

中国逻辑史的五个问题(英文)

This journal issue does not stand on its own. A number of projects are under way that aim at bringing together scholars in the history of Chinese logic and working logicians interested in learning more about this fascinating alternative tradition.One such project is a forthcoming book called Five Questions on History of Chinese Logic,     

Authenticity in the Zhuangzi ? Contemporary Misreadings of Zhen 真and an Alternative to Existentialism

This essay reviews the Zhuangzian notion of zhen 真, often through the text’s advancement of the zhenren 真人 (“genuine person,” “true person”) or zhenzhi 真知 (“genuine knowledge,” “true knowledge”). Contemporary scholarship, in both Chinese and English, often presents zhen as analogous to the existentialist theory of authenticity, which correspondingly reflects on interpretations of the “self,” and thereby the zhen person. Much of the Zhuangzi is a reaction to the Lunyu, including an ironic response to the Confucian cultivation project. If we establish our interpretation of the “self” against this background then we find that zhen in the Zhuangzi is actually used to argue against the Confucian identification of the person and self through social roles or conventions. However, advocating zhen does not suggest that there is some essential or core “self” to refer to; instead, it implies a natural state of responsiveness where the person acts efficaciously by being in line with what is obvious or affirmed in the situation. This essay thereby presents a reading of zhen that is historically and culturally consistent, and sets up the Zhuangzi as an alternative, and not an echo, to some of the major issues dealt with by the existentialist movement.     

Wei ZHANG,What Is Enlightenment: Can China Answer Kant's Question?

What is Enlightenment? Can China Answer Kant's question? This is the title and subtitle,respectively,of Wei Zhang's book.An ambitious project due to two factors:the difficulty of answering the question anywhere,not only in China,and the difficulty of translating that question into Chinese reality.The problem that Zhang will try to resolve is whether or not the May Fourth movement could be considered the Chinese Enlightenment.Prior to digging into that answer I will start by analyzing the first,titular question.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Hao Changchi, Politics and Human Beings. Three Dimensions in Pre-Qin Political Philosophy,政治与人：先秦政治哲学的三个维度.. Beijing： Zhongguo Zhengfa Daxue Chubanshe, 2012, 337pp. ISBN： 9787562043959. Hao Changchi, a leading thinker on political philosophy, takes on a thorough research project exploring Pre-Qin political philosophy and its enlightenment in this book, deviating from the usual route of emphasizing the separation of individual and public realms and centering only on freedom and equality. As the book＇s title suggests, the core issue is the relationship between human nature and political existence. Many people might define politics as an outcome of interest conflicts and negotiations, but this view overlooks the existence of concrete people. Hence, the author proposes a wholly new understanding of ＂political nature,＂ which is supposed to embody an individual＇s moral and religious life. Thus, politics is envisaged as consisting of three dimensions, and this is especially true in Pre-Qin political philosophy. According to Hao, the earliest form of politics in ancient China was an entirety composed of heavenly will, universal love and benefit for the whole world, which shaped people into three dimensions （4）. Later, the three dimensions were reduced to two, namely loyalty and filial piety, when it comes to Confucian philosophy.     

Replenishing the “Fountain of Judaism”: Traditionalist Jewish Education in Interwar Poland

The unexpected revitalization of Polish Jewish traditionalism—Hasidic and non-Hasidic—is particularly visible in the realm of education. During the interwar period, a combined influx of pious refugees from the Soviet Union and generous American Jewish philanthropy bolstered traditionalist Jewish elementary schools (hadarim) and yeshivot. At the same time, traditionalists reformed those hitherto sacrosanct institutions in hopes of competing with emergent secularist Jewish movements while preserving an ostensibly authentic cultural core. Polish Jewish traditionalism was subtly transformed in the process, presenting a striking contrast with its more rigid “ultra-Orthodox” counterpart in neighboring Hungary and offering a viable alternative to secularist Jewish subcultures within Poland. This article highlights the surprising durability and flexibility of Poland’s traditionalist Jewish communities during a period usually conceived as one of secularist Jewish growth and traditionalist decline.     

There is No Sacrum in it Any More: Revisiting Formalist Statehood and Religious/Civic Education on Baltic–Barents Borders

ABSTRACT

Even under globalised and hyper-diverse cultural and social conditions, representative liberal democracy conceives of itself as non-involved in issues to do with ethics, faith and belief. Drawing on a formalist systemic state identity it advocates a neutralist, secularist, generalist and non-biased approach to education in state schools. Building on a current research project on religious/civic education in the Baltic–Barents area, this article argues that this self-image is flawed and that representative liberal democracy cannot avoid being ethically biased. There is thus, the article argues, a need to better frame our understanding of different modes of religious/civic education as well as the logic of ethical neutralism characteristic of contemporary democratic statehood.     

A Christian Cancellation of the Secularist Truce? Waning Christian Religiosity and Waxing Religious Deprivatization in the West

Analysis of International Social Survey Program (ISSP) data collected in 18 Western countries in 1998 demonstrates that Christian desires for a public role of religion are strongest in countries where Christian religiosity is numerically most marginal. Moreover, Dutch data covering the period 1970–1996 confirm that the decline of the number of Christians in the Netherlands has been coincided by a strengthening of the call for public religion among the remaining faithful and by increased polarization about this with the nonreligious. Religious decline and religious privatization, two of the most crucial dimensions of secularization ( Casanova 1994 ), hence develop dialectically: as the number of Christians declines, the remaining faithful seem increasingly unwilling to accept the “secularist truce”—the secularist contract that guarantees religious freedom yet bans religion from the public sphere by relegating it to the private realm.     

Interventionist Secularism: A Comparative Analysis of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (1923–1928) and the Indian Constituent Assembly (1946–1949) Debates

The debates in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (1923–1928) and the Indian Constituent Assembly (1946–1949) inscribed the secular infrastructures of these states into law. A close examination of these debates shows that while the separation of religion and state was an important aspect of Turkish and Indian secularisms, both allowed the state to intervene in the religious sphere. In both, state intervention in religion sought to transform the majority religion into a secularized and modernized form that would complement national identity. However, whereas Turkish secularism adopted “restrictive intervention,” which sanctions state interference to construct a monolithic national identity, the Indian nationalist leaders adopted “emancipative intervention,” which seeks to create an overarching national identity while preserving the cultural and religious diversity of society. While the former type of secularist intervention limits religion's public visibility and places it under state control, the latter seeks to eliminate and reform religious practices that hinder social justice and equality. Based on this analysis, I argue that secularism may be seen as a tool state authorities utilize in the service of the political project of creating a modern nation.     

Islam,secularism and danger: a reconsideration of the link between religiosity,radicalism and rebellion in Central Asia

In equating political Islam with radicalism and rebellion against the state, security analysts make a number of assumptions about the religious, the secular and security. Within the Central Asian context, the discursive fusing of religiosity with radicalism produces a bogeyman in which national and foreign governments, although offering quite different countermeasures, have found a common enemy. This securitisation of Islam distorts our understanding of these movements whose approach is seldom ‘radical’ in form. We identify six claims which are axiomatic to both international and national secularist security discourses with respect to Islam in the region. We then demonstrate that popular Muslim discourse and political practice – in the findings of an original survey and ethnographic research in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan – provide a more complex picture than that found in elite discourses. While the six propositions can be refuted in objective terms, they remain relevant to how the problem is subjectively produced and reproduced in elite discourse and practice. As particular secularist claims about Islam, they inform national and international policies towards religious freedom and Islamic movements across Central Asia. Many of these themes appear in weaker and ambiguous forms in popular discourse and continue to limit Muslim political participation.     

Outside the Box: (Post) Secular Projects of Transcendence

Secular theology builds upon the growing recognition and critique of the limitations of the confining box of religion built in and through the modern secularist dispensation. A bipolar model of religion and the secular, and the classificatory web within which it is nestled, have limited theology's field of vision and engagement. This article explores several examples of projects of transcendence that resist easy identification with either the religious or the secular, illuminating the limitations of the religion‐secular classification and the diffuse cultural trends that are reconfiguring it, even leading beyond it.     

RETHINKING THE PAST AND ANTICIPATING THE FUTURE OF RELIGION AND SCIENCE

Abstract. John Caiazza presents the current technoculture as the latest development in the ongoing conflict of science and religion that began with Tertullian in the third century. I argue that his presentation is historically inaccurate, because for most of Western history science and religion interacted with and cross‐fertilized each other. Contrary to Caiazza's misleading presentation, Western thought did not follow the dichotomous model polemically posed by Tertullian. I take issue with Caiazza's portrayal of postmodernism and his claim that technology is the foundation of an inherently secularist culture. I conclude by highlighting certain ethical challenges engendered by the prevalence of new technologies and present the dialogue of science and religion as uniquely qualified to address these challenges.     

‘A nation of vicars and merchants’: religiosity and Dutch MEPs

Religion is a major driving force in the Dutch political system and as European integration has progressed, it is often argued that these national practices affect how national representatives act in the European Parliament (EP). Our aim in this study is to determine to what extent the religious divide impacts upon the work of Dutch MEPs in the European political arena. On the basis of the RelEP survey and interviews, we argue that religious or secular views are very salient to Dutch MEPs, but that their impact is largely indirect. Moreover, we find that Dutch MEPs actively use the EP and its committee system in an attempt to redefine the relationship between church and state in the Netherlands. And finally, we argue that the European arena offers new opportunities for mobilisation among those promoting secularist interests.     

Normand Laurendeau: Spirituality and Science at the Apex of His Life's Vision

Abstract

This article discusses the noteworthy approach of a twentieth-century Muslim scholar, Bediüzzaman Said Nursi (1877–1960), to the issue of Qur'an and science. Nursi points out the “problem of authoritarianism” in both religious and secularist discourses, arguing that many of the clashes between faith and reason result from a misunderstanding of spheres of expertise. Nursi also argues that even at the height of scientific and technological development, the Qur'an remains indispensable in humankind interpreting the world around them. Nursi's case illustrates that the task of relating the modern science and the Qur'an requires attention to their interpretive dimensions.     

Post‐Secularism,Secular Theology,and the Names of the Real

This article disputes the common view of religious and secular as oppositional terms. Our contemporary world is post‐secularist, because secularism is a modern ideology that imagines a strict separation of the religious and the political, where religion becomes a purely private affair. This situation is compromised by the “return” of religion in political terms. Constructively, following Jacques Lacan, we can say that secular theology concerns the Real; and with François Laruelle, we can think about a non‐theology that complements what he calls non‐philosophy. Finally, I speculate on three names of the Real: energy, capital, and nomos.