Another Phenomenology of Humanity

A Reading of A Dream of Red Mansions

By (author) Xunwu Chen

Hardback - £105.00

Publication date:

17 September 2015

Length of book:

300 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498504546

Another Phenomenology of Humanity: A Reading of A Dream of Red Mansions is devoted to developing another version of phenomenology of humanity—human nature, human dispositions and human desires—by taking A Dream of Red Mansions, the crown jewel of Chinese culture, as its main literary paradigm of illustration. The version of phenomenology of humanity at issue is a synthesis of the Confucian, Daoist, Buddhist and Western existentialist phenomenological accounts of humanity—for example, what is humanity, what make humans as human, human nature, human feelings, human desires, three core human existential interests, and four basic problems of human existence.
Chen's Another Phenomenology of Humanity represents a true scholarship and is an important contribution to the field. Outlining a new version of phenomenology of humanity by taking A Dream of Red Mansions as its main literary paradigm of illustration and drawing from Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, and Western existentialism, Chen explores in depth and width four important subject-matters of humanity: the subject-matter of fate, the subject-matter of the law of existence, the subject-matter of contingency, and the subject-matter of authenticity. The book is a work of brilliance, creativity, lucidity, coherence and plausibility. It is original, engaging and well researched. It should provide the lead for a new stream of explorations of humanity, including exploration of the relation between philosophy and literature with regard to studies of humanity.