Chinese Thought and Transcendentalism

Ecology, Place and Conservative Radicalism

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3527567
AutoresMatthew Crippen (0000-0001-8410-3880, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, autor de correspondencia)
Año2023
Volumen14
Número5
Páginas570
Fecha de publicación2023-04-24
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaReligions (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
EditorialMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel14050570
OpenAlexW4366825927
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas10
Referencias citadas41

My central claim is that resonances between Transcendentalist and Chinese philosophies are so strong that the former cannot be adequately appreciated without the latter. I give attention to the Analects, the Mengzi and the Tiantai Lotus Sutra, which Transcendentalists read. Because there was conceptual sharing across Chinese traditions, plus evidence suggesting Transcendentalists explored other texts, my analysis includes discussions of Daoism and Weishi, Huayan and Chan Buddhism. To name just some similarities between the targeted outlooks, Transcendentalists adopt something close to wu-wei or effortless action; though hostile to hierarchy, they echo the Confucian stress on rituals or habits; Thoreau's individualistic libertarianism is moderated by a radical causal holism found in many Chinese philosophies; and variants of Chinese Buddhism get close to Transcendentalist metaphysics and epistemologies, which anticipate radical embodied cognitive science. A specific argument is that Transcendentalists followed some of their Chinese counterparts by conserving the past and converting it into radicalism. A meta-argument is that ideas were exchanged via trade from Europe through North Africa to Western Asia and India into the Far East, and contact with Indigenous Americans led to the same. This involved degrees of misrepresentation, but it nonetheless calls upon scholars to adopt more global approaches

Art · Buddhism · Epistemology · Indian philosophy · Indigenous · Individualism · Literature · Metaphysics · Political radicalism · Political science · Politics · Reactionary · Theology · Chemistry · Cultural Differences and Values · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · Social Representations and Identity · Ecology