Cover image for Cultivating a good life in early Chinese and ancient Greek philosophy : perspectives and reverberations
Cultivating a good life in early Chinese and ancient Greek philosophy : perspectives and reverberations
Title:
Cultivating a good life in early Chinese and ancient Greek philosophy : perspectives and reverberations
Author:
Lai, Karyn, 1964- editor.
ISBN:
9781350049574
Physical Description:
vi, 262 pages ; 25 cm
Contents:
Machine generated contents note: Harmony, Balance, Beauty: Understanding Conceptions of Cultivation -- Cultivation and Harmony: Plato and Confucius / Cultivating Noble Simplicity (Euetheia): Plato / The Beauty Ladder and the Mind-Heart Excursion: Plato and Zhuangzi / Awareness and Spontaneity: Three Perspectives in the Zhuangzi / Understanding `Dao's Patterns': Han Fei / Doubt, Predicament, Conflict: Cognitive, Affective, and Epistemic Difficulties -- Skepsis and Doubt: Ancient Greece and the East / Wisdom and Cognitive Conflict: Benign Perplexity in the Outlines of Scepticism / Understanding Fortune and Misfortune in a Good Life: `Solon' and `Confucius' / Emotion and Self-Cultivation: Marcus Aurelius and Mengzi / Dislodging Mundane Wisdom: The Inner Chapters of the Zhuangzi and the New Testament / Here, Now, Ever-after: How to Practise and Achieve a Good Life -- Knowing How to Act: Aristotle / Learning to Be Reliable: Confucius' Analects / Auditory Perception and Cultivation: The Wenzi / Cultivation and the Arts of Writing: Liu Xie / Death and Happiness: Han China
Abstract:
This book engages in cross-tradition scholarship, investigating the processes associated with cultivating or nurturing the self in order to live good lives. Both Ancient Chinese and Greek philosophers provide accounts of the life lived well: a Confucian junzi, a Daoist sage and a Greek phronimos. By focusing on the processes rather than the aims of cultivating a good life, an international team of scholars investigate how a person develops and practices a way of life especially in these two traditions. They look at what is involved in developing practical wisdom, exercising reason, cultivating equanimity and fostering reliability. Drawing on the insights of thinkers including Plato, Confucius, Han Fei and Marcus Aurelius, they examine themes of harmony, balance and beauty, highlight the different concerns of scepticism across both traditions, and discuss action as an indispensable method of learning and, indeed, as constitutive of self. The result is a valuable collection opening up new lines of inquiry in ethics, demonstrating the importance of philosophical ideas from across cultural traditions.
Bibliographical References:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Field 805:
npmlib 10900684 BJ1595 C76 ysh
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