Eastern Philosophy

Catalog description

To study Eastern philosophical thought involves opening one’s perspective to the ways that Eastern thinkers address the same types of ethical dilemmas as Western philosophers: questions about the nature of reality, what counts as knowledge, the nature of suffering, and so on. Eastern philosophy often appears contradictory and intentionally opaque, especially in Buddhism and Taoism, where poetic and narrative writing inspire a deeper depth of understanding. The study of Eastern philosophy does not solely take place for its poetic or other aesthetic values, but to comprehend propositions and to assess them in a process of developing coherent and defensible criticisms and positions. Introduction to Eastern Philosophy focuses on the arguments either explicit or implicit in Eastern philosophical texts and emphasizes careful reading of these texts. Careful reading involves constructing interpretations or expositions of the texts, followed by systematic comparisons between them to disclose the meaning(s) of the works studied.