Philosophy

how global integration of cultures, including Eastern metaphysical influences, affected contemporary philosophical thinking

Comments

Great question! I believe that the contemporary philosophical community is so expanding in scope that our traditional categories of what counts as "Eastern" and "Western" will come under considerable pressure. Sure, we will never abandon the idea that Confucianism and Taoism emerged in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, and we will probably persist in thinking about Socrates as uniquely a vital figure in the Athens of Ancient Greece. But in an increasingly global and diverse setting, I suggest we will become less attached to the importance of individual, unique histories and geographical / regional points of origin. For quite some time, so-called Eastern or Asian philosophy has been advocated by non-Asian European and American philosophers, living in "the West." Significant numbers of philosophers in China, India, southeast Asia, Japan, and South Korea are practicing philosophy in a way that is very much in keeping with Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Brown, Princeton, and so on. Part of the doorway that has made all this possible, is the increased availability of good translations between East and West, North and South. One person who led the way on this was a Jewish friend in graduate school with me at Brown University who was brought up in New York City but went on to become a leading translator and expositor of Buddhist philosophy. I suspect that the nineteenth and twentieth century interplay philosophically was often focussed on matters of religion or philosophy of religion. But over time, this work has expanded to comparing Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean (et al) philosophical work on metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, logic, aesthetics with work that has been and is being done outside of Asia. It should not be overlooked, as well, that there is increasing collaborative work among philosophers at work in Muslim cultures with those in other cultures.

I believe all this is headed in the right direction. Eventually, it will no longer be as compelling to say to someone "of course you are an X [Muslim, Christian, observant Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, secular, utilitarian, moral realist, etc] because you were brought up in culture or country Y. More and more, with the spread of universities and literature in good translations, persons will be exposed to greater diversity and more positions to philosophically reflect upon.

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