Siren and the Sage
豆瓣
Knowledge and Wisdom in Ancient Greece and China
Steven Shankman / Stephen Durrant
简介
A comparative study of what the most influential writers of Ancient Greece and China thought it meant to have knowledge and whether they distinguished knowledge from other forms of wisdom. It surveys selected works of poetry, history and philosophy from the period of roughly the eighth through to the second century BCE, including Homer's "Odyssey", the ancient Chinese "Classic of Poetry", Thucydides' "History of the Peloponnesian War", Sima Qian's "Records of the Historian", Plato's "Symposium", and Laozi's "Dao de Jing and the writings of Zhuangzi". The intention, through such juxtaposition, is to introduce the foundational texts of each tradition which continue to influence the majority of the world's population.
'An outstanding example of this approach to comparative philosophy can be found in Steven Shankman and Stephen Durrant's comprehensive study of ancient Greek and Chinese thought, The Siren and the Sage. Shankman and Durrant make an exceptionally valuable contribution to the study of comparative philosophy, for their analysis of the nature of knowledge and wisdom provides a compelling answer to many of the objections that have been raised against it in recent times. They not only show how to do comparative philosophy without "essentializing" a culture, they also demonstrate that the study of comparative philosophy can make a significant contribution to the study of the perennial issues of philosophy.'--Sanford Lakoff
目录
Introduction: previous comparative studies of Ancient Greece and China; the sage; the siren. Part 1 Differentiations of intentionality -the classic of poetry and the Odyssey: poetry and the experience of participation; participation in family and society; participation in the natural world. Part 2 Before and after philosophy - Thucydides and Sima Qian: history and tradition; the structures of written history; the tempest of participation - Sima Qian's portrayal of his own era; Thucydides' tragic quest for objectivity and the historian's irrepressible T. Part 3 The philosopher, the sage and the experience of participation: contexts for the emergence of the sage and the philosopher; from poetry to philosophy; the sage, the philosopher and the recovery of the participatory dimension.
