Birgit Kellner, Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik (Ed.)
Denkt Asien anders?
Reflexionen zu Buddhismus und Konfuzianismus in Indien, Tibet, China und Japan
1. Edition 2009
165 pages
ISBN 978-3-89971-713-6
Vienna University Press at V&R unipress
plus S&H
Book
Does Asia think differently? Many who from their own experience know the difference that presents itself when comparing Europe and Asia ask themselves this question. The answer appears to be obvious: Asia is different, therefore Asia thinks differently. The authors of this volume do not deny Asia's otherness. They do show, however, that philosophers in Southern and Eastern Asia pose the same questions that have always been asked throughout the history of European philosophy. It is simply that the answers to these questions, the paths that are taken to find the answers, and the emphases differ. If Asia thought fundamentally differently from us, we would hardly be able to understand what philosophy in Asia means. To completely deny the difference, on the other hand, would mean to evade the challenge inherent in this very otherness. In this volume, logics, epistemology and ontology are discussed in Buddhist and Confucian contexts. A continuum is thereby drawn from India via Tibet and China to Japan, and from antiquity to modernity.