Bryan W. Van Norden
Against Garfield and @BryanVanNorden on multicultural philosophy by @NTampio
– aeon.co/ideas/not-all-… via @aeonmag
Bryan W. Van Norden
hmm. Doesn't the argument here just assert as both premise and conclusion precisely what is contentious?
Zara B
This is not a twitter-length issue. I have a book coming out in spring 2017 that addresses this topic. But...
Bryan W. Van Norden
...I would ask YOU why the Mohist state-of-nature argument to justify government authority is not philosophy...
Bryan W. Van Norden
...why Zhuangzi's dream argument for skepticism is not philosophy...
Bryan W. Van Norden
...why Mengzi's thought experiment to refute psychological egoism is not philosophy...
Bryan W. Van Norden
...why Han Feizi's critique of forms of government that emphasize the virtue of rulers is not philosophy...
Bryan W. Van Norden
...why Fazang's dialogue defending the claim that everything is defined by its relations to others is philosophy...
Bryan W. Van Norden
...why Wang Yangming's claim that weakness of will is impossible is not philosophy...
Bryan W. Van Norden
...whether your critique of classical Confucianism is the same as that offered by Hu Shih...
Bryan W. Van Norden
....whether you think Mou Zongsan's critique of Kant is incisive...
Bryan W. Van Norden
...why the argument for the equality of women given by Li Zhi is not philosophy...
Bryan W. Van Norden
...and whether you agree that @HistPhilosophy is correct to treat Avicenna as a philosopher: aeon.co/ideas/what-can…
Bryan W. Van Norden
Here are some books to start: faculty.vassar.edu/brvannor/bibli…
Bryan W. Van Norden
So how is al-Ghazali NOT a philosopher, since he is engaging in a critique of Alfarabi and Avicenna? @HistPhilosophy
Bryan W. Van Norden
But in your essay in @aeonmag you classed him with Confucius as someone "unreasonable" to count as a philosopher.
Bryan W. Van Norden
So in other words you read one secondary work about Han Feizi that compared him to a seminal Western philosopher...
Bryan W. Van Norden
...and on the basis of that secondary work you concluded that Han Feizi is not a philosopher?
Bryan W. Van Norden
Another secondary work by someone who is happy to admit that he is not a philosopher.
Bryan W. Van Norden
<irony>I don't need to read Heidegger, because I read Carnap and Russell explaining why he is wrong... 1/2
Bryan W. Van Norden
...and I even read Žižek, so no need to read Heidegger himself.</irony> 2/2
Bryan W. Van Norden
I'm with @BryanVanNorden: it's unreasonable to say it's "unreasonable" to see Confucius or Han Feize as philosophers
Sam Crane
Conservatives respond to multiculturalism by calling for more study of traditional Western philosophy... 1/3
Bryan W. Van Norden
...liberals respond to multiculturalism with applause and more enthusiasm for philosophy... 2/3
Bryan W. Van Norden
...and either way multicultural philosophy makes the topic seem more exciting and relevant than before. 3/3
Bryan W. Van Norden
@NTampio Did Bai Juyi write sonnets?—No. Did he write poetry?—Yes. So, is "philosopher" more like "poet" or "sonneteer"?
Edmund Griffiths
It seems to me that the burden of proof is on people who would say it's more like "sonneteer"
Edmund Griffiths
Everybody should check out @BryanVanNorden schooling some fool who thinks there's been no philosophy in China.
Edward Butler