The Cycles of Heaven and History

The pluralism of The Shadow of God invites us to also consider ‘non-Western’ ways of ‘coming to terms with the world’ in historical immortality and the project of reconciliation. I offer two methodological notes for any such undertaking. The first note elaborates on Rosen’s point that “‘non-Western’ cultures have been heavily influenced by Western ones – even in their opposition to the West” by examining the forgotten Straits Chinese philosopher, Tan Teck Soon, in the context of fin-de-siècle British colonial Singapore. The second note concerns a commitment to anthropocentrism in such considerations and how it might condition our search for ‘non-Western’ ways out of the ‘spiritual situation of the West’, even if we are to find ‘non-Western’ cultures uninfluenced by ‘the West’ such as the early Daoist text of the Zhuangzi , which Tan based his version of historical immortality and attempt at the project of reconciliation upon

Ancient history · Art · Heaven · Literature · Medieval history · Historical and Architectural Studies · History · Philosophy · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices

• Eurocentrism as disease

  Open Access•Lee Wilson•British Journal for the History…•2025

  Add to list