tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/western-philosophy-27605/articlesWestern philosophy – The Conversation2023-07-03T11:52:30Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1996592023-07-03T11:52:30Z2023-07-03T11:52:30Z400 years ago, philosopher Blaise Pascal was one of the first to grapple with the role of faith in an age of science and reason<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534705/original/file-20230628-27-bgnxjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=168%2C17%2C2326%2C1928&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Blaise Pascal's ideas have led to some of the world's most important inventions.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/portrait-du-philosophe-fran%C3%A7ais-blaise-pascal-news-photo/839098016?adppopup=true">API/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In an apostolic letter released on June 19, 2023, Pope Francis praised the “<a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-06/pope-blaise-pascal-anniversary-letter.html">brilliant and inquisitive mind</a>” of the influential French philosopher <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/blaise-pascal-17th-century-philosopher-b1894998.html">Blaise Pascal</a>, born on that date 400 years ago.</p>
<p>When Pascal lived, at the height of the 17th century’s scientific revolution, rapid advances were taking place in all areas of science. Pascal’s significant accomplishments included <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/machines9070136">one of the first calculating machines</a>, the world’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92821-6_8">first public transport system</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/00182702-35-Suppl_1-309">various mathematical models</a>, among others.</p>
<p>In fact, Pascal’s influence in the modern world extends so far that biographer <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/blogs/authors/james-a-connor-880000012925">James A. Connor wrote</a>, “You cannot walk ten feet in the 21st century without running into something that Pascal did not affect in one way or another.” </p>
<p>I am an expert in the <a href="https://philosophy.wvu.edu/faculty-and-staff/faculty-directory/david-hoinski">history of Western philosophy</a>. What interests me about Pascal is that he was among the first to grapple with the implications of modern science for religious faith and his scientific sophistication did not keep him from being a devout religious believer.</p>
<h2>Religion in the age of science</h2>
<p>Pascal was well acquainted with what could and could not be known through the mathematical method, the experimental method and reason itself.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532779/original/file-20230619-22247-7a4ppy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Illustration of a man in seventeenth century clothing, sitting at a desk, looking at mathematical" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532779/original/file-20230619-22247-7a4ppy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532779/original/file-20230619-22247-7a4ppy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532779/original/file-20230619-22247-7a4ppy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532779/original/file-20230619-22247-7a4ppy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532779/original/file-20230619-22247-7a4ppy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1119&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532779/original/file-20230619-22247-7a4ppy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1119&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532779/original/file-20230619-22247-7a4ppy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1119&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Blaise Pascal: French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic philosopher, 1623-1662. Engraving by Geille.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/blaise-pascal-french-mathematician-physicist-inventor-news-photo/173393891?adppopup=true">Culture Club/Hulton Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Through his philosophical investigations, he found that there were strict limits to what we as humans could know. For him, neither the scientific method nor reason more generally could teach individuals the meaning of life or the right way to live. </p>
<p>Pascal also wrote about how humans tried to avoid thinking about their mortality, the extent of their ignorance and their liability to error. Yet he also believed that there was nothing more important for people to consider than their true human nature. In this reasoning, without understanding who we are, it would be difficult to understand how we ought to live.</p>
<p>In Pascal’s view, acquiring self-knowledge was a necessary stage on the way to recognizing one’s need for living with faith and purpose in something beyond oneself. </p>
<h2>Pascal’s religion</h2>
<p>In fact, Pascal argued that believing in the existence of God is essential to human happiness. </p>
<p>For all of his many ideas and accomplishments, he’s probably most famous today for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316850398">Pascal’s Wager</a>, a philosophical argument that humans should bet on the existence of God. “<a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pascal-wager/">If you win, you win everything; if you lose, you lose nothing</a>,” he wrote. In other words, he argued, although one cannot know for certain whether or not God exists, we are better off believing in God’s existence than not.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Pascal’s Wager, Wireless Philosophy.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Pascal saw <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/heyj.14216">Jesus as the indispensable mediator</a> between God and humankind. He believed that the Catholic Church was the only religion to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97447-3_9">teach the truth about human nature</a> and therefore offered the singular route to happiness.</p>
<p>Pascal’s preference for Catholicism over any other religion raises a difficult question, however. For why should anyone wager on one religion rather than another? Some scholars, such as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/19/obituaries/richard-popkin-historian-of-philosophy-and-skepticism-dies-at-81.html">Richard Popkin</a>, have gone so far as to call Pascal’s <a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/5262612">attempts to discredit paganism, Judaism and Islam “pedantic</a>.” </p>
<p>Whatever one’s religious beliefs, Pascal teaches that all individuals have to make a choice between faith in some reality beyond themselves or a life without belief. But a life without belief is also a choice, and in Pascal’s view, a bad bet.</p>
<p>Human beings have to wager and to commit themselves to a worldview on which each one would be willing to bet their life. It follows that, for Pascal, human beings could not avoid hope and fear: hope that their bets will turn out well, fear that they won’t. </p>
<p>Indeed, people make <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198849117.003.0020">countless daily wagers</a> – going to the grocery store, driving a car, riding the train, among others – but don’t usually think of them as risky. According to Pascal, however, human lives as a whole can also be viewed as wagers. </p>
<p>Our big decisions are risks: For example, in choosing a certain course of education and career or in marrying a certain person, people are betting on a fulfilling life. In Pascal’s view, people choose how to live and what to believe without really knowing whether or not their beliefs and decisions are good ones. We simply don’t and can’t know enough to live without wagering.</p>
<h2>Pascal’s unfinished masterpiece</h2>
<p>Pascal presents his argument for the wager in his greatest work, the “<a href="https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1660pascal-pensees.asp">Pensées</a>” – “Thoughts,” in English. Throughout this work, Pascal emphasizes the need for faith, in light of a multifaceted exploration of human nature as well as a thorough investigation of the limits of reason, science and philosophy. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532788/original/file-20230619-27-i401ab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cover page of book that says Pensees De M Pascal" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532788/original/file-20230619-27-i401ab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532788/original/file-20230619-27-i401ab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532788/original/file-20230619-27-i401ab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532788/original/file-20230619-27-i401ab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532788/original/file-20230619-27-i401ab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1198&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532788/original/file-20230619-27-i401ab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1198&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532788/original/file-20230619-27-i401ab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1198&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Title page of ‘Pensées’ by Blaise Pascal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/pens%C3%A9es-title-page-for-a-defence-of-the-christian-faith-by-news-photo/1431000506?adppopup=true">Bridgeman via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Pascal’s central argument in “Pensées” for believing in God <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12404">did not rest on proof of God’s existence</a>. On the contrary, Pascal argued that God’s existence cannot be proved because, for him, God is hidden – a “deus absconditus.” He wrote that “there is enough light for those whose only desire is to see, and enough darkness for those of the opposite disposition,” but ultimately no certainty was possible – and so humans faced a choice. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004395794_014">For Pascal</a>, belief would make the difference between misery and true happiness. </p>
<p>On the 400th anniversary of his birth, then, one way of honoring Pascal might be to risk believing in something beyond ourselves and what we can know; such faith might give us a chance of living well.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199659/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Hoinski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Blaise Pascal, a mathematician and a Catholic theologian, born 400 years ago,
left a deep and lasting influence on the world that can be felt today.David Hoinski, Teaching Associate Professor of Philosophy, West Virginia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1120452019-03-15T14:42:49Z2019-03-15T14:42:49ZWhy we need a new philosophy of sex<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263881/original/file-20190314-28468-k7p9fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/statue-woman-115879468">Sarkao/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A number of years ago, I found myself at a public sex beach in southern France for <a href="http://www.zero-books.net/books/fucking-law">research purposes</a>. Unsurprisingly, I experienced some ethical dilemmas. Because I was researching the ethics of sexuality, my research involved potentially having sex with men and women at the beach. </p>
<p>The question of whether I “should” or “could” do so was complicated by a number of factors. I am a woman. I am queer. I am an academic. At the time, I was also in an (increasingly) difficult relationship with a man who was a philosopher. Given all of these complex factors, I desperately needed ethical assistance supported by philosophy (that I read and revered) that did not judge, and was aligned to my sexuality. But this philosophy – whichever way I turned to find it – doesn’t exist.</p>
<p>Ethics is a field of philosophy that seeks out the foundations of how we should <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/intro_1.shtml">live our lives</a>. It seeks to provide a framework for doing the “right” thing. This framework is founded on conventional Western philosophical ideas. For instance, conventional ethical thinking finds homosexuality to be an “<a href="https://www.iep.utm.edu/ethics/">issue</a>”, rather than an inherent characteristic of bodies. The ethical theorist <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/11/john-finnis-oxford-university-academic-freedom-law">John Finnis</a>, for example, recently argued that the ethics of homosexuality are still up for discussion.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263606/original/file-20190313-123525-p0qt8l.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263606/original/file-20190313-123525-p0qt8l.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263606/original/file-20190313-123525-p0qt8l.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263606/original/file-20190313-123525-p0qt8l.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263606/original/file-20190313-123525-p0qt8l.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263606/original/file-20190313-123525-p0qt8l.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263606/original/file-20190313-123525-p0qt8l.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">René Descartes’s illustration of dualism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Descartes_mind_and_body.gif">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>Most of these philosophies are heavily influenced by <a href="https://www.iep.utm.edu/descarte/">Rene Descartes’s</a> concept of dualism, which separates the substances of body and mind. This idea of dualism is at the roots of the philosophical canon, from Immanuel Kant, to Friedrich Nietzsche, to David Hume. Founded in the primacy of knowledge and rationality, these philosophies culminate in the idea at the heart of the liberal philosophy of John Rawls and Ronald Dworkin: that for a debate to be moral, it must be capable of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/mar/31/ronald-dworkin-morality-dignity-hedgehogs">being rational</a>. This is so we can use our minds to judge the actions of ourselves and others. </p>
<p>Some Western philosophers were more radical, such as Baruch Spinoza, a contemporary of Descartes. His major work, <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/343/34342/ethics/9780140435719.html">Ethics</a>, opposed Cartesian dualism by unifying body and mind, God and substance. This also hugely influenced modern Western philosophy, particularly big, fashionable <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_philosophy">continental thinkers</a> such as Martin Heidegger, John Paul Sartre and Jacques Derrida, who all have sought to place the body on equal philosophical terms with the mind. Despite being a leap forward, this philosophy still does not place all women’s bodies on equal philosophical footing with the minds of the men who wrote it.</p>
<h2>A white male canon</h2>
<p>All of the names listed above are white men. There is, of course, the huge body of (usually white) feminist work, but this is described as feminism, not philosophy. This means that we have a philosophy built by men, put on pedestal of genius, who defined and continue to define philosophy through their rational legacy. </p>
<p>This is despite the fact that Kant and Hume were <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/why-the-western-philosophical-canon-is-xenophobic-and-racist">racist</a> and Aristotle (“the Father of Western philosophy”) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle%27s_views_on_women">was sexist</a>. Heidegger was a member of <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/is-heidegger-contaminated-by-nazism">the Nazi party</a>, and as a professor began an affair with his then student, <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2017/05/the-love-letters-of-hannah-arendt-and-martin-heidegger.html">Hannah Arendt</a>. The argument is that these philosophers were not as socially enlightened as us, given their historical specificity, so we should continue to value <a href="https://aeon.co/ideas/why-sexist-and-racist-philosophers-might-still-be-admirable">their ideas</a>, if not their bodies. </p>
<p>This Cartesian insistence that philosophy can be separate from the body that writes it, can be dangerous. Sexist, racist, powerful (and sometimes abusive) men have been endowed with an authority to create the foundations of how we judge sex. We endow this philosophy with authority over all bodies: women of colour, queer women, trans women, women who like to have sex in all types of ways, women whose oppression and assault maintains <a href="https://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/2016/06/14/stop-protecting-abusive-academic-men/">the authority</a> of these philosophical geniuses. These philosophers are dangerous since their authority can inform our sexual tastes, and what is “acceptable”. These rules encourage us to disregard the ethical complexities of women’s lives.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263607/original/file-20190313-123522-1h0bkbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263607/original/file-20190313-123522-1h0bkbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263607/original/file-20190313-123522-1h0bkbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263607/original/file-20190313-123522-1h0bkbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263607/original/file-20190313-123522-1h0bkbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263607/original/file-20190313-123522-1h0bkbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263607/original/file-20190313-123522-1h0bkbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">How could a canon of white men do justice to the complexities of women?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/pattern-different-female-characters-vector-1277351833">Saeki/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<h2>The pleasure of women</h2>
<p>These philosophies were not helpful for me in my ethical dilemmas, since they were not written for me, my body and my sexuality. Thankfully, in the world outside of philosophy, core assumptions about women’s sexuality are being dismantled. </p>
<p>The academic <a href="https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/tinsley-beyonce-in-formation">Omise'eke Tinsley</a> writes to empower the sexuality of black women generally, and against “<a href="https://theconversation.com/diane-abbott-and-misogynoir-colourism-anti-blackness-and-sexism-in-the-uk-110413">misogynoir</a>”, a specific sexism against black women. The writer <a href="http://wednesdaymartin.com/">Wednesday Martin</a>, meanwhile, is systematically dismantling the myth that women are the monogamous ones, compared to men’s inherent sexual restlessness.</p>
<p>The movement to “correct” dominant ideas is not only about the sociology of women’s desire, but also the science. The <a href="https://www.omgyes.com/">OMGyes</a> project is using research and women’s experiences to redefine a science of women’s pleasure. The <a href="https://www.thevulvagallery.com/">Vulva Gallery</a> is doing revolutionary work in sex education and representing women’s vulvas and their owner’s stories. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BtGbBJxFx_j/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Sadly, we are not closer to finding a philosophical ethic that fits these growing understandings of women’s sexuality. There is the practical philosophy put forward by Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy in <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ethical-Slut-Roadmap-Relationship-Pioneers/dp/1587613379">The Ethical Slut</a>, but this is geared towards polyamorous people. And such an explicit code could be seen as unsexy, not to mention that some people might think of themselves as monogamous sluts, or something in between. Maybe some of us don’t want to be called sluts. And maybe there are those who prefer to be unethical. In the present philosophical landscape, who can blame them?</p>
<h2>Future sexual ethics</h2>
<p>So philosophically, we have not moved on. Psychoanalytic philosopher Alenka Zupančič’s <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/what-sex">What IS Sex</a> aims to tell us what sex is in modern psychoanalytic and philosophical terms. But this does not help us discover a new kind of sexual ethics in light of what we have discovered and continue to discover about women’s practical sexual experiences. To do so, I argue that we need to move beyond the authority of even the male continental “radical” philosophical canon. </p>
<p>In my own ethical dilemmas, conventional ethics did not help me. In fact, they became part of the dilemma, since somehow I valued the perspective and empowered the words of my partner, because he was a philosopher. I also sat on that beach thinking that my desires were wrong, since they did not fit within a particular category, which meant I was not entitled to ethical treatment. </p>
<p>Also, as an academic, not only was I supposed to be objective and non-desiring, I was supposed to value ideas over bodily sensations. I was supposed to be rational and operate ethically while having my sexuality abused. Western ethics was not in favour of the strength of my body, but its destruction. </p>
<p>All this is to say that conventional philosophy and research is not going to develop a new ethics for women’s sexuality. Instead, as <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fucking-Law-search-sexual-ethics/dp/1789040671">I argue</a> in my story of finding my own sexual ethics, we need an ethic of vivid kindness, to ourselves and others. And it needs to be founded on a wholesale, orgasmic attack: on Western philosophy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112045/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victoria Brooks does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>And it needs to wholeheartedly attack the foundations of western philosophy.Victoria Brooks, Lecturer in Law, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1095932019-03-06T13:53:46Z2019-03-06T13:53:46ZSocrates in love: how the ideas of this woman are at the root of Western philosophy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262372/original/file-20190306-48423-spopun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C23%2C1757%2C1894&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aspasie_Pio-Clementino_Inv272.jpg#/media/File:Aspasie_Pio-Clementino_Inv272.jpg">Aspasia. Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Where did Socrates, the foundational figure of Western philosophy, get the inspiration for his original ideas about truth, love, justice, courage and knowledge? <a href="http://www.armand-dangour.com/socrates-in-love/">New research</a> I’ve conducted reveals that as a young man in 5th-century BC Athens, he came into contact with a fiercely intelligent woman, Aspasia of Miletus. I argue that her ideas about love and transcendence inspired him to formulate key aspects of his thought (as transmitted by Plato). </p>
<p>If the evidence for this thesis is accepted, the history of philosophy will have taken a momentous turn: a woman who has been all but erased from the story must be acknowledged as laying the foundations of our 2,500-year old philosophical tradition.</p>
<p>A neoclassical painting by the 19th-century artist Nicolas Monsiau depicts Socrates sitting across a table from a lusciously dressed, gesticulating Aspasia. The handsome young soldier Alcibiades looks on. The image captures the <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/socrates/">standard view</a> of Socrates: as poor and ugly. The son of a stonemason, he was known from middle age for going unshod and wearing ragged clothes.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260543/original/file-20190224-195886-19ldpa4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260543/original/file-20190224-195886-19ldpa4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260543/original/file-20190224-195886-19ldpa4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260543/original/file-20190224-195886-19ldpa4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260543/original/file-20190224-195886-19ldpa4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=622&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260543/original/file-20190224-195886-19ldpa4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=622&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260543/original/file-20190224-195886-19ldpa4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=622&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Debate of Socrates and Aspasia, c. 1800.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Debate_Of_Socrates_And_Aspasia.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But Socrates is also said by Plato to have been instructed in eloquence by Aspasia, who for more than a decade was the partner of Athens’s leading statesman Pericles. Supposedly a highly educated “courtesan”, Aspasia is shown in the painting enumerating the points of a speech on her fingers. Her gaze is directed at the aristocratic youth Alcibiades, who was Pericles’ ward and probably Aspasia’s great-nephew. Socrates claimed to be enthralled by Alcibiades’ good looks and charisma, and (as recounted in Plato’s dialogue Symposium) he saved his life at the Battle of Potidaea in 432 BC.</p>
<p>Does the painting do Socrates justice? His main biographers, Plato and Xenophon, knew him only as an older man. But Socrates was once young, and was a direct contemporary of Aspasia’s. And, from surviving images of the philosopher, occasional information given by his biographers, and ancient written texts which have been generally overlooked or misinterpreted, a different picture of Socrates emerges: that of a well-educated youth who grew up to be no less brave a soldier than Alcibiades, and a passionate lover of both sexes no less than a intense thinker and debater.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262373/original/file-20190306-48447-1eghqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262373/original/file-20190306-48447-1eghqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262373/original/file-20190306-48447-1eghqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262373/original/file-20190306-48447-1eghqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262373/original/file-20190306-48447-1eghqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262373/original/file-20190306-48447-1eghqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262373/original/file-20190306-48447-1eghqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Socrates seeking Alcibiades in the house of Aspasia, Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1861.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AspasiaAlcibiades.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Diotima/Aspasia</h2>
<p>Socrates was famous for saying: “The only thing I know is that I don’t know.” But Plato, in <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1600">Symposium</a> (199b), reports him as saying that he learned “the truth about love” from a clever woman. That woman is given the name “Diotima” – and in Symposium Socrates expounds her doctrine. </p>
<p>Scholars have almost universally dismissed Diotima as a fiction. She is described in the dialogue as a priestess or seer (<em>mantis</em>), and she is thought at best to be an allegorical figure – one of inspired or visionary wisdom who might have initiated a thinker such as Socrates into the mysteries of Love. But Plato leaves some curiously precise clues about the identity of Diotima which have never hitherto been elucidated. In my book I present the evidence to show that “Diotima” is in fact a thinly-veiled disguise for Aspasia.</p>
<p>Aspasia came from a high-born Athenian family, related to that of Pericles, which had settled in the Greek city of Miletus in Ionia (Asia Minor) some decades earlier. When she migrated to Athens around 450 BC she was around the age of 20. At that date Socrates too was around 20 years old.</p>
<p>A few years later, Aspasia became attached to Pericles, who was then a leading politician in Athens – and already twice her age. But a pupil of Aristotle, Clearchus, records that “before Aspasia became Pericles’ companion, she was with Socrates”. This fits with other evidence that Socrates was part of Pericles’s circle as a young man. He would undoubtedly have become acquainted with Aspasia in that milieu.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262374/original/file-20190306-48420-g8tgnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262374/original/file-20190306-48420-g8tgnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262374/original/file-20190306-48420-g8tgnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262374/original/file-20190306-48420-g8tgnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262374/original/file-20190306-48420-g8tgnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262374/original/file-20190306-48420-g8tgnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262374/original/file-20190306-48420-g8tgnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Socrates, Pericles, Alcibiades, Aspasia in Discussion, unknown artist, 1810–25.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Drawing,_Socrates,_Pericles,_Alcibiades,_Aspasia_in_Discussion,_1810%E2%80%9325_(CH_18122823).jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Given that he was part of this privileged elite in his youth, what impelled Socrates to turn to the life of the mind, shun material success and reorient philosophical thinking for posterity? No one has ever sought to trace the trajectory of the younger Socrates, because the biographical sources are scattered and fragmentary, and appear to say little of interest regarding his thought. But since Socrates was well known in Athens as a philosopher by his thirties, the earlier period is where we should seek evidence of his change of direction to becoming the thinker he was to be. I argue that Socrates’ acquaintance with Aspasia provides the missing link.</p>
<p>Aspasia was the cleverest and most influential woman of her day. The partner of Pericles for around 15 years, she was widely slandered and reviled by the comic playwrights - the tabloid journalists of their day - for her influence over him. Part of Pericles’s circle of thinkers, artists and politicians, she is depicted by Plato, Xenophon and others as an admired instructor of eloquence, as well as a matchmaker and marriage counsellor.</p>
<p>In Plato’s dialogue <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1682/1682-h/1682-h.htm">Menexenus</a> she is described as teaching Socrates how to give a funeral speech – just as she had allegedly once taught Pericles. She was, in other words, known for her skill in speaking and, like “Diotima”, in particular for speaking about love.</p>
<h2>Socrates in love?</h2>
<p>So. Could Socrates and Aspasia have fallen in love when they first met and conversed in their twenties? The fact that Plato accords Aspasia considerable intellectual authority over Socrates has alarmed generations of scholars, who have largely <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-politics/article/challenge-of-platos-menexenus/7F400D233DEF8E8C4D314FF099305F20">dismissed</a> the scenario in Menexenus as a parody of oratorical techniques. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, they have been happy to consider Aspasia a “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspasia">brothel-keeper and prostitute</a>” on the strength of citations from comic poets of the day. At best, scholars have elevated Aspasia to the status of <em>hetaira</em> – a courtesan. But this appellation is not once given to her in ancient sources.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262375/original/file-20190306-48429-yv5zx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262375/original/file-20190306-48429-yv5zx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262375/original/file-20190306-48429-yv5zx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262375/original/file-20190306-48429-yv5zx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262375/original/file-20190306-48429-yv5zx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262375/original/file-20190306-48429-yv5zx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262375/original/file-20190306-48429-yv5zx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Socrates.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Socrates_Louvre.jpg">Sting, Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If we accept the evidence that Aspasia was, like “Diotima”, an authoritative instructor of eloquence and an expert on matters of love – rather than a common prostitute or even an influential courtesan – a striking possibility arises. The notions attributed in Symposium to “Diotima” are central to the philosophy as well as to the way of life that Socrates was to espouse. </p>
<p>The doctrine put in the mouth of “Diotima” teaches that the physical realm can and should be put aside in favour of higher ideals; that the education of the soul, not the gratification of the body, is love’s paramount duty; and that the particular should be subordinated to the general, the transient to the permanent, and the worldly to the ideal. </p>
<p>These ideas may be acknowledged as lying at the very root of the Western philosophical tradition. If so, identifying the fictional “Diotima” as the real Aspasia makes for a historically sensational conclusion. In retrospect, the identification is <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/socratess-mistress-erased-history/">so obvious</a> that its failure to be seen clearly up to now must perhaps be attributed to conscious or unconscious prejudices about the status and intellectual capacities of women. </p>
<p>The time is ripe to restore the beautiful, dynamic and clever Aspasia to her true status as one of the founders of European philosophy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109593/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Socrates in Love: The Making of a Philosopher is published by Bloomsbury on March 7 2019.
</span></em></p>A new look at ancient texts allows for a pivotal perspective on the role of a certain Greek woman.Armand D'Angour, Associate Professor in Classics, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/877502017-11-20T19:14:53Z2017-11-20T19:14:53ZThe concept of ‘Western civilisation’ is past its use-by date in university humanities departments<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195395/original/file-20171120-18547-xffej5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Ottoman empire facilitated the movement of ideas and people across Europe and Asia. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Istambul_observatory_in_1577.jpg&oldid=257105281">Wikimedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A number of NSW and ACT <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/universities-line-up-for-new-3-billion-ramsey-centre-for-western-civilisation-20171113-gzk22r.html">universities are vying for the opportunity</a> to access funding from the <a href="http://www.ramsaycentre.org/">Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation</a>, which aims to “revive” liberal arts and the humanities in university education in Australia. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195393/original/file-20171120-18561-11vyw1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195393/original/file-20171120-18561-11vyw1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195393/original/file-20171120-18561-11vyw1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195393/original/file-20171120-18561-11vyw1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195393/original/file-20171120-18561-11vyw1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195393/original/file-20171120-18561-11vyw1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195393/original/file-20171120-18561-11vyw1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195393/original/file-20171120-18561-11vyw1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Howard: launched the Ramsay Centre on Monday.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
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<p>The centre, launched on Monday by former prime minister John Howard, has the support of former Labor leader Kim Beazley, and former prime minister Tony Abbott.
The centre defines “Western civilisation” through classical studies, including ancient Greek and Rome, the European renaissance and enlightenment, modernism, and Christian thought and philosophy. It seeks to put European cultural production at its heart. </p>
<p>The idea is to reform the current Bachelor of Arts degree in Australia by reinforcing the traditional western foundations of it. The centre will partner with universities to create the degree, and offer scholarships.</p>
<p>The announcement is a welcome endorsement of humanities disciplines such as literature, history, philosophy and classics. Yet the shaping of a Bachelor of Arts curriculum around Western European concepts of knowledge should be viewed very carefully.</p>
<p>The concept of “civilisation”, and particularly “western civilisation”, rose to prominence in universities after World War II. However it quickly became outmoded. The Ramsay Centre announcement suggests a return to retrograde understandings of the arts at a time when we should be expanding our sense of the humanities to include the increasing number of students from diverse backgrounds.</p>
<p>For example, in 2016 nearly half of all preschool children in NSW came from <a href="https://www.cese.nsw.gov.au/publications-filter/schools-language-diversity-in-nsw-2016">language backgrounds other than English</a>. Universities will eventually need to cater to these students as they make their way through the education system. </p>
<h2>A hierarchical view</h2>
<p>The “civilisation” model of history, which suggests peoples and empires existed separately from one another, and rose or fell over time, is now viewed as deeply flawed. The problem with this view of peoples and cultures as civilisations is that it is hierarchical, with some civilisations viewed as superior to others. </p>
<p>Such hierarchies of thought tend to inscribe inequalities between groups and peoples. The model is challenged by <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1963/10/17/in-a-nutshell/">leading international scholars of world history</a>. </p>
<p>Western civilisation is a concept partly based on the belief that the world can be divided neatly into west and east, for example, the ancient civilisations of Greece and Rome, and those of Asia and Islam. However this denies centuries of complex systems of trade, communication and cultural exchange between different peoples.</p>
<p>For instance, the 19th-century Ottoman empire, which included parts of western Asia, Africa, and eastern Europe, was seen as an eastern civilisation. But in fact, it was never separate from the west: its peoples and cultures interacted with western European peoples and cultures.</p>
<p>Immediately after WWII, it was important for historians to reassert the dominance of western nations because it allowed the Anglo-American victors of war to tell their story as having a longer history. This history tended to be written inside elite institutions, including English universities. These imperial universities were not yet very open places, and non-European students from colonial backgrounds (and many women) only rarely gained entry.</p>
<h2>Towards a world history</h2>
<p>Historians started criticising the civilisation model of history in the 1950s. Instead they proposed a <a href="http://www.thewha.org/about-wha/what-is-world-history/">“world history”</a>. Instead of viewing the past history of the world through competing civilisations, world history views societies and peoples as intersecting groups.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195347/original/file-20171120-18533-xf41tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195347/original/file-20171120-18533-xf41tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195347/original/file-20171120-18533-xf41tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195347/original/file-20171120-18533-xf41tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195347/original/file-20171120-18533-xf41tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195347/original/file-20171120-18533-xf41tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1257&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195347/original/file-20171120-18533-xf41tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1257&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195347/original/file-20171120-18533-xf41tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1257&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>For example, historian William H. McNeill saw the world as highly integrated place of communication, cultural, social and political connections, characterised by the spread of intellectual ideas and commodities over time, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXkR6AyQRqM">a challenge to the idea of the preeminence of the west</a>. His book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46725.Plagues_and_Peoples">Plagues and Peoples</a> (1976) explained this integration through the spread of disease. Eric Hobsbawm, a towering figure in British history, wrote about about the importance of a seeing our world as a global village in his <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/a-global-memoir-of-a-short-century/155761.article">many works</a>. </p>
<p>One of the most exciting books in world history was written by Janet Abu-Lughod, who wrote about the world system before European dominance. This pre-modern economic, cultural and trade system extended across Eurasia in the 13th century, and suggested a network prior to the modern system, which arose in the 17th century.</p>
<p>In other words, peoples, as well as things, have always been on the move, and have always turned up in surprising ways as being connected with each other. The history of Australia and its peoples is no different. Our connections with the global world through its peoples make us a richer nation.</p>
<h2>Mobile Australians</h2>
<p>Australia’s students are increasingly diverse. According to the <a href="https://www.cese.nsw.gov.au/publications-filter/schools-language-diversity-in-nsw-2016">Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation</a>, in state secondary schools in NSW, a third of students come from non-English speaking backgrounds. The number of students speaking Arabic, for example, is climbing steadily: it was at 35,735 in 2016. The group includes refugees, new arrivals, and international students here by virtue of their families’ mobility. </p>
<p>The proportion of Indigenous students is also growing. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students currently make up <a href="https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/aec/media/documents/Annual-Report-2015.pdf">6.8% of all NSW state school enrolments</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195396/original/file-20171120-18574-koafiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195396/original/file-20171120-18574-koafiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195396/original/file-20171120-18574-koafiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195396/original/file-20171120-18574-koafiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195396/original/file-20171120-18574-koafiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195396/original/file-20171120-18574-koafiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195396/original/file-20171120-18574-koafiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195396/original/file-20171120-18574-koafiz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Local Darwin school children and some Parramatta Eels players at a NRL Indigenous youth summit in Darwin last year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Neda Vanovac/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>University education for these students should extend our collective sense of history, and universities must avoid narrowing the liberal arts to an old-fashioned view of a world with borders. These borders tend to be reinforced through the focused study of specific peoples and places, such as western civilisation.</p>
<p>Universities should embrace the multiple languages, literature, histories and perspectives of a broad array of cultures and peoples, a task made more pressing by our changing demographic. We need to teach students to relate to our neighbours near and far, and to celebrate difference and diversity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87750/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catharine Coleborne has received research funding from the Royal Society of New Zealand's Marsden Fund (Social Sciences panel). </span></em></p>The new Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation aims to ‘revive’ liberal arts and the humanities. Yet the ‘civilisation’ model of history is now viewed as deeply flawed.Catharine Coleborne, Dean of Arts/Head of School Humanities and Social Science, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/627202016-07-29T05:58:31Z2016-07-29T05:58:31ZAfrican philosophy needs to blossom. Being exclusionary won’t help<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131437/original/image-20160721-32633-3kf87r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Devotees of the popular series “Game of Thrones” may recall Jaime Lannister’s fatal, but memorable, quip: “The things we do for love”. He said this just before hurling a ten-year-old boy down a high castle wall.</p>
<p>The boy’s “crime”? He’d caught Lannister in an incestuous embrace with his sister, Cersei. One can only truly fathom the enormity of Lannister’s wicked shove by becoming simultaneously acquainted with the intensity of his love for his sister. Love, or a certain way of loving, shows itself to be exclusive. It is always seeking to rid itself of the “outsider”. </p>
<p>Academic philosophy, too, is a love affair – with wisdom. But it’s one that, like the Lannisters’, comes with a distinctively dark side.</p>
<p>Much of academic philosophy is openly and unashamedly in love with the idea of the West as destiny. It loves the West’s culture, history and thinkers, to the exclusion of the other. And this other is everything African.</p>
<p>This is all happening right here in Africa. It is, to borrow American philosopher Paul Taylor’s <a href="http://philosophy.la.psu.edu/directory/pct2">phrase</a>, philosophy “corrupted”.</p>
<h2>Too much in common</h2>
<p>Some have seen the light and decided it’s time for “transformation” – a magical word that, in the mouths of a few, seems to promise more than it can deliver. These people have suggested a new state for academic philosophy in Africa; an alternate world to what currently exists at the continent’s universities.</p>
<p>The problem is that, for some, this “transformed” world of African philosophy has much in common with its Western counterpart. It comes with clearly defined geographical boundaries, strict rules of admittance and non-negotiable terms of legitimate citizenship. It has self-appointed gatekeepers. They bicker about who belongs and who doesn’t. They seem to think that politicking about identity and belonging is a necessary first step towards transformation. This, too, is becoming African philosophy’s dark side. </p>
<p>The seed for this sort of thinking was already sown in the early days of the formation of the canon of contemporary African philosophy. Benin’s <a href="http://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/paulin-hountondji">Paulin Hountondji</a> in his book, “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/221497?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">African Philosophy: Myth and Reality</a>”, sought to distinguish what is mythical and what is real about African philosophy and in the process suggested that African philosophy is philosophy done by Africans. </p>
<p>As would later become clear, Hountondji’s primary interest was in seeing the development of a discursive tradition of African philosophy rooted in scientific rigour. This was instead of merely proposing an African identity as prerequisite for doing African philosophy.</p>
<p>But definitions, especially uncomplicated ones, have a way of prevailing with philosophers. So “African philosophy” was immediately assumed by many to be a philosophy practised by Africans – in the geo-ethnic sense of the word. These people belong to ethnic groups situated in the geographical area called Africa. This definition excludes those who may be Africans but trace their ethnic identity elsewhere.</p>
<p>This laid down the condition of legitimate citizenship; the basis of differentiation between the African and non-African Africanist philosopher; a sense of belonging and exclusion.</p>
<p>It is worth thinking about how the politics of identity in African philosophy might inhibit the aims of transformation – of giving academic philosophy an African face. Let’s ask a plain question: is the vocation to teach, research and publish on African philosophy the preserve only of black Africans? </p>
<h2>Silencing of black voices</h2>
<p>It may be argued that a certain kind of evil is perpetrated where non-African – here I mean white – philosophers take up this vocation: the continued silencing of black philosopher’s voices. The muzzling of marginal and specifically black voices in academic philosophy is systematic. It figures within a historical pattern of white savagery. </p>
<p>But the cure for this sort of silencing is not to have non-African, white philosophers shut their mouths and retire their pens. Instead, systemic barriers must be repaired. Black philosophers will need to be trained and employed in philosophy departments across the continent. Journals that have traditionally blocked black voices from being heard must begin to publish these philosophers.</p>
<p>The transformation agenda will suffer if an African identity is a precondition for teaching, researching and publishing in African philosophy. This precondition would be a let off for non-African, white philosophers on the continent who aren’t yet disposed to avail themselves as agents of transformation. </p>
<p>Regrettably, this breed of philosophers populates and still colonises philosophy departments – certainly in South Africa, where I’m based. Ruling them out on account of their illegitimate status as citizens of the imagined African nation equips them with enough of a reason to be mere onlookers in the process of transformation. This perpetuates the “corruption” of philosophy I referred to earlier. </p>
<p>Non-African, white philosophers should, because of their epistemic location and current employment in South African philosophy departments, be agents of the transformation agenda. </p>
<h2>The responsibility of white philosophers</h2>
<p>This shouldn’t be optional. These people have a responsibility to teach, research and, where possible, publish on African philosophy: on <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/ahrlj/v11n2/11.pdf"><em>ubuntu</em> morality</a>, Kwasi Wiredu’s <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/wiredu/">Akan notion of truth</a> and <a href="https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/yoruba-epistemology/v-1">Yoruba epistemology</a>. If they can’t, it may be a matter of incompetence rather than identity.</p>
<p>They should actively seek out and mentor promising black philosophy students to become faculty members who will replace them. Again, if they can’t, it has nothing to do with identity. It’s all about disposition. </p>
<p>After all, some non-African, white philosophers with an Africanist bent are already in the business of doing this. It is no use helping others evade the responsibility they have to this place. Nor should those who are already assuming that responsibility be scrutinised simply because they are not African. Transformation in philosophy is not about the politics of belonging and exclusion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62720/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oritsegbubemi Oyowe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Much of academic philosophy, even on the African continent, is openly and unashamedly in love with the idea of the West as destiny.Oritsegbubemi Oyowe, Lecturer of Philosophy, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/565502016-05-19T01:25:24Z2016-05-19T01:25:24ZChinese philosophy is missing from U.S. philosophy departments. Should we care?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178695/original/file-20170718-10283-9tahnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Plato, Confucius, Aristote</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Platon-Confucius-Aristote.jpg">Oxag/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Philosophy has been a favorite whipping boy in the culture wars since 399 B.C., when an Athenian jury sentenced Socrates to death. Nowadays, philosophers are no longer accused of “corrupting the youth.” Instead, a surprisingly wide range of pundits, from <a href="http://theweek.com/articles/447197/why-neil-degrasse-tyson-philistine">celebrity scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson</a> to former <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/11/10/marco_rubio_says_welders_make_more_money_than_philosophers_he_s_wrong.html">GOP presidential candidate Marco Rubio</a>, assert that philosophy is pointless or impractical.</p>
<p>In reality, philosophy majors <a href="http://dailynous.com/value-of-philosophy/charts-and-graphs/">do strikingly well on standardized tests</a> for graduate school. In addition, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/successful-philosophy-majors-2014-1?op=1">many successful CEOs and entrepreneurs</a> majored in philosophy. </p>
<p>Although the critics of academic philosophy may be mistaken about where the problem is, the truth is that departments <em>are</em> failing their students in some critical ways.</p>
<p>Departments of philosophy across the United States almost universally neglect the profound, fascinating and increasingly relevant philosophy that is outside the traditional Anglo-European canon. <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/africana/">Africana</a>, Indian and Islamic philosophy is all largely ignored. My own experience has led me to be particularly concerned about the failure of philosophy departments to engage with Chinese philosophy. </p>
<p>In 1985, I was a college senior who wanted to continue my education by earning a doctorate in Chinese philosophy. At that time, it was almost impossible to find top philosophy departments in the U.S. that taught Chinese thought. I had only two choices: University of Michigan and Stanford University. Today, neither of the two institutions has anyone in their philosophy departments teaching Chinese thought anymore.</p>
<p>So how bad is the problem? And why should we care? </p>
<h2>What is missing from the philosophical curriculum?</h2>
<p>Consider the current coverage of Chinese philosophy by U.S. universities.</p>
<p>Among <a href="http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/overall.asp">the top 50 philosophy departments in the U.S.</a> that grant a Ph.D., only four have a member of their regular faculty who teaches Chinese philosophy: <a href="http://philosophy.duke.edu/people?Gurl=&Uil=1540&subpage=profile">Duke University</a>, <a href="https://philosophy.berkeley.edu/people/detail/336">University of California at Berkeley</a>, <a href="http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/%7Eeschwitz/">University of California at Riverside</a> and <a href="http://philosophy.uconn.edu/2016/01/04/welcome-alexus-mcleod/">University of Connecticut</a>.</p>
<p>At an additional two institutions (<a href="http://explore.georgetown.edu/people/emc89/">Georgetown University</a> and <a href="http://indiana.edu/%7Erelstud/people/profiles/stalnaker_aaron">Indiana University at Bloomington</a>), the philosophy department has agreed to allow members of another department (Religious Studies and Theology, respectively) to list their courses as philosophy. </p>
<p>In contrast, every one of the top 50 schools has at least one regular member of the philosophy department who can lecture competently on <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/parmenides/#WayCon">Parmenides,</a> a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. His only surviving work is a poem filled with cryptic utterances like, “for not to be said and not to be thought / is it that it is not.” Is this really more profound than everything in Chinese philosophy?</p>
<h2>Why should we care?</h2>
<p>Why is the lack of coverage of Chinese philosophy by U.S. universities problematic?</p>
<p>There are at least three reasons. First, China is an increasingly important world power, both economically and geopolitically – and traditional philosophy is of continuing relevance. President Xi Jinping <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/world/leader-taps-into-chinese-classics-in-seeking-to-cement-power.html">has repeatedly praised Confucius</a>, the influential Chinese philosopher who lived around 500 B.C. </p>
<p>Confucius is comparable in historical influence to the Buddha, Jesus and Socrates. Also like them, he has been variously interpreted, sometimes idolized and other times demonized. At the beginning of the 20th century, some <a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520068377">Chinese modernizers</a> claimed that Confucianism was authoritarian and dogmatic at its core. Others have suggested <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10418.html">that Confucianism provides a meritocratic alternative</a> to Western liberal democracy. <a href="http://www.hackettpublishing.com/mou_zongsan_manifesto">“New Confucians” claim</a> that Confucianism represents a distinct teaching that can both learn from and contribute to Western philosophy.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123085/original/image-20160518-5867-1phekvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123085/original/image-20160518-5867-1phekvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123085/original/image-20160518-5867-1phekvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123085/original/image-20160518-5867-1phekvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123085/original/image-20160518-5867-1phekvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123085/original/image-20160518-5867-1phekvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123085/original/image-20160518-5867-1phekvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Confucius temple.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bibbit/2700170983/in/photolist-57B5L8-7q9Cbv-5FFtjq-fSzz1M-fSoYRn-92QVuW-hoiaBV-8vtJRX-G47D9-oW94yx-6kdsPH-f5zH4s-eaD3wc-aSQhH-7zfFi-s28MpN-b3B2A-a7UGr8-cMGft7-G4aNX-hoi9NF-6khmBs-7qdxUA-f5krvp-5QFXNu-7zbwH1-6kd3xB-8q74Bo-8h8rLX-8h8sq8-cMGf3Q-8YhX7u-7AbDay-rymbCm-2B7uMC-6kd9nz-7Aowjh-a7UM3M-7qdxrE-cMHXPw-8Dixbi-agELDz-7A7W1H-7AbEP1-6kd8vF-so67zz-8vw4mN-6QLpkd-6khhxu-auDfcx">Bridget Coila</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Thinking about these issues is important in understanding China’s present and future. How will the next generation of diplomats, senators, representatives and presidents (not to mention informed citizens) learn about Confucius and his role in China as a political thinker? </p>
<p>Second, Chinese philosophy has much to offer simply as philosophy. Late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia expressed a common misconception about Chinese philosophy. He <a href="http://thediplomat.com/2015/07/confucius-on-gay-marriage/">dismissed it as</a> the “mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie.” Scalia went on to denigrate Chinese philosophy as nothing but “poetry or inspirational pop-philosophy” that lacks “logic and precision.” In reality, Chinese philosophy is rich in persuasive argumentation and careful analysis. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="http://explore.georgetown.edu/people/emc89/">an academic at Georgetown University, Erin Cline,</a> has shown how Confucian views of “filial piety” are relevant to contemporary ethics. Cline demonstrates that Confucian ethics can provide a <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/families-of-virtue/9780231171557">deeper understanding of ethical issues regarding the family</a> and can even inform specific policy recommendations. </p>
<p>A more abstract, but equally valuable, aspect of Chinese thought is explored by <a href="http://www.gc.cuny.edu/Page-Elements/Academics-Research-Centers-Initiatives/Doctoral-Programs/Philosophy/Faculty-Bios/Graham-Priest">Graham Priest, currently at City University of New York</a>. Priest has demonstrated that Chinese Buddhism can challenge the common Western view of selves as radically independent individuals. Graham, a logician, uses advanced mathematical models to explain and defend the Buddhist claim that <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/one-9780199688258">the self is transpersonal rather than individual</a>. </p>
<p>The third reason that it is important to add Chinese philosophy to the curriculum has to do with the need for cultural diversity. As researchers <a href="http://www.myishacherry.org/bio/">Myisha Cherry</a> and <a href="http://philosophy.ucr.edu/eric-schwitzgebel/">Eric Schwitzgebel</a> <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0306-schwitzgebel-cherry-philosophy-so-white-20160306-story.html">pointed out</a> recently,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…academic philosophy in the United States has a diversity problem. … Among U.S. citizens and permanent residents receiving philosophy PhDs in this country, 86 percent are non-Hispanic white. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Both my own experience and that of many of my colleagues suggest that part of the reason for this is that students of color are confronted with a curriculum that is almost monolithically European. </p>
<h2>How significant is the ‘pipeline problem’?</h2>
<p>I recently discussed the neglect of Chinese philosophy with a leading expert on ancient Western philosophy. She worried: where would philosophy departments find people who both knew philosophy and could actually read Classical Chinese? In other words, she argued that the pipeline of competent specialists in Chinese philosophy is too narrow to effect anything more than incremental change.</p>
<p>Certainly, there are very few universities even capable of training professors to teach Chinese philosophy. This creates a vicious cycle. Few institutions teach Chinese philosophy, so there are few recent Ph.D.s in Chinese philosophy for institutions to hire. As a result, the number of institutions that teach Chinese philosophy does not increase. </p>
<p>I believe that, although the pipeline problem is real, the emphasis on it is mistaken. </p>
<p>There are enough strong scholars currently doing research that we could double the number of top institutions teaching Chinese philosophy overnight if there were the will to do so. Just one of the professional groups devoted to the study of Chinese philosophy, the <a href="http://www.sacpweb.org/about/">Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy</a>, has over 600 members.</p>
<h2>What does the future hold?</h2>
<p>Most mainstream philosophers show no interest in learning anything about Chinese philosophy. I was recently part of <a href="http://www.apaonline.org/?page=E2016_Invited">an invited panel at the American Philosophical Association</a> that was specifically advertised as an opportunity for nonspecialists to learn about Chinese philosophy. </p>
<p>Here is a photo I took of what the room looked like at the start of the panel.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115673/original/image-20160319-4446-1et00s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115673/original/image-20160319-4446-1et00s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115673/original/image-20160319-4446-1et00s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115673/original/image-20160319-4446-1et00s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115673/original/image-20160319-4446-1et00s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115673/original/image-20160319-4446-1et00s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115673/original/image-20160319-4446-1et00s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Start of Eastern American Philosophical Association Panel on Chinese Political Philosophy on January 6, 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bryan W. Van Norden</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most philosophy departments <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/opinion/if-philosophy-wont-diversify-lets-call-it-what-it-really-is.html">are unwilling to even admit</a> that there is anything outside of the European philosophical tradition that is worth studying.</p>
<p>Ironically, philosophers who narrowly study the Western tradition are not being true to it. The ancient philosopher <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cosmopolitanism/#1">Diogenes</a> was asked what his home was, and he replied, “I am a citizen of the world.” Contemporary philosophers who refuse to engage with Chinese thought are betraying the cosmopolitan ideal at the heart of Western philosophy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56550/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bryan W. Van Norden does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Among the top 50 philosophy departments in the U.S., only four have a member of their regular faculty teaching Chinese philosophy. Why is this problematic?Bryan W. Van Norden, Professor of Chinese Thought and History, Vassar CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.