Beyond the troubled water of Shifei : from disputation to walking-two-roads in the Zhuangzi / Lin Ma and Jaap van Brakel.

Author
Ma, Lin, 1970- [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
  • Albany, NY : State University of New York Press, [2019]
  • ©2019
Description
xxiv, 283 pages : illustration ; 24 cm.

Availability

Copies in the Library

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Firestone Library - Stacks BL1900.C576 M29 2019 Browse related items Request

    Details

    Subject(s)
    Author
    Series
    SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture [More in this series]
    Summary note
    In recent decades, a growing concern in studies in Chinese intellectual history is that Chinese classics have been forced into systems of classification prevalent in Western philosophy and thus imperceptibly transformed into examples that echo Western philosophy. Lin Ma and Jaap van Brakel offer a methodology to counter this approach, and illustrate their method by carrying out a transcultural inquiry into the complexities involved in understanding shi and fei and their cognate phrases in the Warring States texts, the Zhuangzi in particular. The authors discuss important features of Zhuangzi?s stance with regard to language-meaning, knowledge-doubt, questioning, equalizing, and his well-known deconstruction of the discourse in ancient China on shifei. Ma and van Brakel suggest that shi and fei apply to both descriptive and prescriptive languages and do not presuppose any fact/value dichotomy, and thus cannot be translated as either true/false or right/wrong. Instead, shi and fei can be grasped in terms of a pre-philosophical notion of fitting. Ma and van Brakel also highlight Zhuangzi?s idea of ?walking-two-roads? as the most significant component of his stance. In addition, they argue that all of Zhuangzi?s positive recommendations are presented in a language whose meaning is not fixed and that every stance he is committed to remains subject to fundamental questioning as a way of life.
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
    Contents
    • Machine generated contents note: 1. Preliminaries
    • Necessary Preconditions of Interpretation
    • Against the Ideal Language Assumption
    • Underdetermination of Meaning and Interpretation
    • Would "On Its Own Terms" Be Possible?
    • pt. I The Troubled Water of Shifei
    • 2. Projection of Truth onto Classical Chinese Language
    • The Harbsmeier
    • Hansen Dispute
    • Looking for the "Is True" Predicate in Classical Chinese
    • Conceptual Embedment of Shi and Its Congeners
    • Transcendental Pretense in Projecting "Theories of Truth"
    • The Later Mohist Canons
    • 3.Competing Translations of Shifei
    • 4. Variations of the Meaning of Shi
    • Shi as a Demonstrative
    • Shi as Meaning both "This" and "Right"
    • Modifiers of Shi
    • 5. Dissolution of Dichotomies of Fact/Value and Reason/Emotion
    • Are There Dichotomies in Classical Chinese?
    • Fact/Value Dichotomy in Western Philosophy
    • 6. Rightness and Fitting
    • Nelson Goodman on Rightness and Fitting
    • Note continued: Setting up the Quasi-universal of Yi and Fitting
    • 7. Shi and Its Opposites and Modifiers in the Qiwulun
    • Non-English Translations of Shifei
    • Bi/Ci and Shi/Fei
    • Shibushi, Ranburan, Kebuke
    • Qing and Shifei
    • Modifiers of Shi in the Qiwuiun
    • Graham's Contrasting between Yinshi and Weishi
    • Translations of Yinbi, Weishi, and Yinshi
    • pt. II From Disputation to Walking-Two-Roads in the Zhuangzi
    • 8. Is Zhuangzi a Relativist or a Skeptic?
    • Zhuangzi and Relativism
    • Relativities versus Relativism
    • Hansen and Graham's Relativistic Interpretations of the Zhuangzi
    • Zhi and Skepticism
    • 9. Zhuangzi's Stance
    • Stance Instead of Perspective or Set of Beliefs
    • No Fixed Meanings (Weiding)
    • Walking-Two-Roads (Liangxing)
    • Doubt and Rhetorical Questions
    • Buqi Erqi: Achieving Equality by Leaving Things Uneven
    • 10. Afterthoughts
    • Do the Ruists and Mohists Really Disagree?
    • Is Zhuangzi's Stance Amoral?
    • Appendix
    • Note continued: The Zhuangzi
    • Key Notions
    • Zhuangzi's Text(s): What Are the Authentic Chapters?
    • The Big (Da) and the Small (Xiao): Early Interpretations and Disagreements
    • The Qi and Lun of Wu
    • The Sages
    • Dao, Tian, and "the One"
    • Ziran and Hundun
    • Wuivei and Wuyong.
    ISBN
    • 9781438474830 ((hardcover ; : alkaline paper))
    • 1438474830 ((hardcover ; : alkaline paper))
    • 9781438474823 ((paperback))
    • 1438474822 ((paperback))
    LCCN
    2018036000
    OCLC
    1057238415
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