YALE UNIVERSITY



YALE UNIVERSITY

Department of Philosophy

Connecticut Hall

Yale University

Email:

(203) 432-5097

PHILOSOPHY 220

EASTERN PHILOSOPHY

Summer 2010 5B SESSION

PHIL S220 01 (30185)   Eastern Philosophy Quang Phu Van MWF 9.00-11.15

July 5 to August 6

Philosophy 220-Eastern Philosophy

Monday, Wednesday, & Friday, 9:00 AM to 11:15 AM

Location: LC 209

Instructor: Quang Phu Van (quang.van@yale.edu)

Office: Luce Hall, 311 (34 Hillhouse Avenue), Phone:432-5097

Office Hour: 11:30AM – 1:00PM, Wednesday or by appointment

A BRIEF DESCRIPTION:

This course is designed to introduce students to Eastern philosophy through the study of philosophical and religious texts, and serves to foster interest in philosophy in general and in Eastern philosophy in particular. It also offers students an alternative to Western perspectives. Topics include reality, knowledge, self, right and wrong, non-attachment, the meaning of life, death, and aesthetics. No prior knowledge of philosophy required.

INSTRUCTION METHODS

The course is not a chronological survey, but is designed to get students engage in philosophical discussion with the authors they will be reading. The course participants are expected to do considerable reading in primary sources. The class meetings are divided between intensive lectures and discussions.

REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS

You can purchase the following book at the Yale Bookstore or on the Internet

1-A Sourcebook in Asian Philosophy, edited by John M. Koller and Patricia Koller, Prentice Hall, 1991.

2-COURSE PACKET: (to be announced)

COURSE OUTLINE

PART ONE:

(July 5) Introduction

PART TWO: What Is (Really) Real?

(July 7 and 9) -The Dao (Lao-Tzu’s Tao Te Ching/Daodejing)

(July 12 ) -The Upanishads

PART THREE How Should I Live?

and How Can I know What is Right?

(July 14) -Confucianism: the concept of jen (or ren)

-Confucianism and Women’s Perspectives

(July 16) -Buddhism (The Four Noble Truths)

PART FOUR : Is Knowledge Possible? (What Can I Know?)

(July 19) -Chuang Tzu’s “Free and Easy Wandering”

-Chuang Tzu’s “Discussion on Making All Things Equal” (Chuang Tzu’s Butterfly Dream)

(July 21) -Nagarjuna: “Treatise on the Fundamentals of the Middle Way”

(July 23) MIDTERM EXAM

PART FIVE: Who Am I?

(July 26) -Buddhist Theory of No-Self (Read “Philosophical Issues in Early Buddhism,” (pages 220-238)

-Shankara’s “A Thousand Teachings” and “The Crest Jewel of Discrimination”

PART SIX: Why Suffering? (Why Evil?)

(July 28) -Hsun Tzu and Mencius (Theory of Human Nature)

-Is Death Anything to Fear?

PART SEVEN: Philosophy and Life

(July 30 to -Dogen: Shobogenzo

August 2) ((Timelessness of the Moment)

(August 4) -Zen Meditation Workshop

(Guest Speaker)

FINAL DAY OF THE SUMMER SESSION:

(August 6) TAKE-HOME FINAL EXAM DUE

ASSIGNMENTS:

For the most part, reading assignments will be made on a daily basis. Since the readings will serve as the primary springboard for class discussion, it’s important that students are prepared before each class. Besides class attendance and participation, there will be a mid-term, a take-home final exam, and a philosophical journal comprising daily reflections on philosophical issues.

GRADES:

Attendance and participation 10%

Philosophical journal 20%

A mid-term exam 30%

A final exam (take-home) 40%

_____________________________________

TOTAL 100%

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abe, Masao, A Study of Dogen, ed. by Steven Heine, Albany: State U. of New York Press, 1992.

Allison Robert, Chuang-Tzu for Spiritual Transformation, Albany: State U. of New York Press, 1989.

__________. “A Logical Construction of the Butterfly Dream,” Journal of Chinese Philosophy (1988).

__________. “On the Question of Relativism in the Chuang-Tzu,” Philosophy East and West (1989).

Biderman, Schlomo, and Scharfatein, Ben-Ami, Rationality in Question: On Eastern and Western Views of Rationality, Leinen: E. J. Brill, 1989

Bielefeldt, Dogen’s Manuals of Zen Meditation, Berkeley: U of California Press, 1988.

Bloom, Irene, “On the Matter of the Mind: The Metaphysical Basis of the Expanded Self,” in Munro ed. (1985), pp. 293-327.

Bowker, John, The Meaning of Death, Cambridge: CUP, 1991.

Brereton, Joel, “Upanishads,” in De Bary and Bloom, eds. (1990), pp. 115-35.

Burford, Grace, “Theravada Buddhist Soterilogy and the Paradox of Desire,” in Buswell and Gimello, eds. (1992), pp. 37-61.

Collins, Steven, Selfless Persons, Cambridge: CUP, 1982.

Confucius, Confucius-- the Analects, translated by  D. C. Lau, Penguin Classics (Paperback).

Creel, H.G., Chinese Thought from Confucius to Mao Tse-Tung, New York: Mentor, 1953.

Cua, A.S., Ethical Argumentation: A Study in Hsun Tzu’s Moral Epistemology,

Dogen, Shobogenzo: Zen Essays by Dogen, (Paperback) translated by Thomas

Cleary, Hawaii University Press, 1991, Honolulu: UHP, 1985.

Danto, Arthur, Mysticism and Morality, New York: Basic Books, 1972.

De Bary, Wm. Theodore and Bloom, Irene, eds., Approaches to the Asian Classics, New York: Columbia University Press, 1990.

De Bary, Wm. Theodore, The Trouble with Confucianism, Cambridge: Harvard U. Press, 1991.

Duerlinger, J., Indian Buddhist Theories of Persons: Vasubandhu's “Refutation of the Theory of a Self,” London, New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003.

Dumoulin, Heinrich, Zen Buddhism: A History, New York: MacMillan, 1990.

Eno, Robert, “Cook Ding’s Dao and the Limit of Philosophy,” in Ivanhoe, ed. (1996).

Fingarrette, Herbert, Confucius—The Secular as Sacred, New York: Harper and Row, 1972.

Garfield, Jay L., The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Graham, A.C., Disputers of the Tao, La Salle: Open Court, 1989.

_________. Reason and Spontaneity, Totowa: Barnes and Noble, 1985.

Griffiths, Paul J., On Being Buddha: The Classical Doctrine of Buddhahood, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994.

Hall, David and Ames, Roger T., Thinking Through Confucius, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987.

Hamburger, Max, “Aristotle and Confucius: A Comparison,” Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 20 (1959), 236-49.

Hansen, Chad, Language and Logic in Ancient China, Ann Arbor: U. of Michigan Press, 1983.

________. “A Tao of Tao in Chuang-Tzu,” in Victor Mair (1983), pp. 25-55.

Ivanhoe, Phillip J., “Reweaving the “One Thread” of the Analects,” Philosophy East and

West, vol. 40 (1990), pp. 17-33.

________. “Zhuangzi’s Conversion Experience,” Journal of Chinese Religions 1991).

Kesarcodi Watson, Ian. "Is Hinduism Pantheistic?" Sophia, 15 (1976), pp. 26-36.

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, translated by D. C. Lau, Penguin Classics (paperback).

Lott, Eric J., Vedantic Approaches to God, London: Macmillan, 1980.

Mair, Victor, editor, Experimental Essays on Chuang Tzu, University of Hawaii Press, 1983.

Matilal, B. K., Perception: An Essay on Classical Indian Theories of Knowledge, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.

Sarma, Deepak, An Introduction to Madhva Vedanta, Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2003.

Shankara, Crest Jewel of Discrimination (Paperback), Vedanta Press (1970).

Siderits, M., Personal Identity and Buddhist Philosophy, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003.

The Upanishads, trans. and selected by Juan Mascaro (Penguin, Paperback), Penguin Books; Reissue edition (1965).

Yandell, Keith E. (1998). "Pantheism," Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, version 1. Edward Craig, ed. London: Routledge.

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