Western political thought in dialogue with Asia

Contributions by Antony Black, Brett Bowden, Bruce Buchan, Joseph Chan, Fred Dallmayr, Nelly Lahoud, Cary J. Nederman, Philip Nel, Makarand Parajape, Anthony Parel, Vicki A. Spencer, Alistair Swale, Peter Zarrow Edited by Takashi Shogimen, Cary J. Nederman

Publication date:

16 December 2008

Length of book:

386 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

237x166mm
7x9"

ISBN-13: 9780739123782

Given the rise of globalization and coinciding increase in cultural clashes among diverse nations, it has become eminently clear to scholars of political thought that there exists a critical gap in the knowledge of non-Western philosophies and how Western thought has been influenced by them. This gap has led to a severely diminished capacity of both state and nonstate actors to communicate effectively on a global scale. The political theorists, area scholars, and intellectual historians gathered here by Takashi Shogimen and Cary J. Nederman examine the exchange of political ideas between Europe and Asia from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century.

They establish the need for comparative political thought, showing that in order to fully grasp the origins and achievements of the West, historians of political thought must incorporate Asian political discourse and ideas into their understanding. By engaging in comparative studies, this volume proves the necessity of a cross-disciplinary approach in guiding the study of the global history of political thought.

1 Contents
Chapter 2 Introduction
Part 3 I. Comparative Approaches to Political Thought
Chapter 4 1. Comparative Political Theory: What Is It Good For?
Chapter 5 2. Toward a Global History of Political Thought
Part 6 II. Western Conversations with Asia
Chapter 7 3. Varieties of Dialogue: Dialogical Models of Intercultural Communication in Medieval Inter-religious Writings
Chapter 8 4. Asia and the Moral Geography of European Enlightenment Political Thought c. 1600-1800
Chapter 9 5. The Ebb and Flow of Peoples, Ideas and Innovations in the River of Intercivilizational Relations: Toward a Global History of Political Thought
Chapter 10 6. Viewing Islam through Enlightenment Eyes
Chapter 11 7. Dealing with Inequality: A Conversation with Islamic Economics
Part 12 III. Asian Dialogues with the West
Chapter 13 8. Islamic Responses to Europe at the Dawn of Colonialism
Chapter 14 9. From Political Thought in India to Indian Political Thought
Chapter 15 10. Indian Alternations: Aurobindo, Ambedkar and After
Chapter 16 11. Chinese Conceptions of the State during the Late Qing Dynasty (1860-1911)
Chapter 17 12. Is There a Confucian Perspective on Social Justice?
Chapter 18 13. Imagining the Body Politic: Metaphor and Political Language in Late Medieval Europe and Tokugawa Japan
Chapter 19 14. Meiji Intelligentsia's Riposte
20 Further Readings
21 About the Contributors
22 Index

Shogimen and Nederman have produced a volume of great insight and intellectual clarity, a long-overdue contribution to the work of comparative political theorists and to the field of political theory in general. The authors in this volume rightly remind us of the importance of key Islamic, Indian, Confucian and Japanese voices in the emergence of a global canon, allowing us to envision a political theory that does not rely on Western voices alone.