HN Books @HNBooksMonth

> Life is so short, read nothing but the cornerstones (this may not be that) of western thought.

I'd like to recommend Bryan W Van Norden's book "Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto" for those willing to concede that maybe life is not short enough to ignore everything but Western thought.

https://www.amazon.com/Taking-Back-Philosophy-Multicultural-...

edit: my original comment was asking "Why only western thought?" I removed it as it wasn't substantial enough.

⬐ ldjkfkdsjnv

With all due respect, please do not denigrate western philosophy by asserting its ubiquity is due to eurocentrism.

⬐ kranner

Not denigrating Western Philosophy at all -- whose ubiquity may well be due to Eurocentrism primarily -- just saying there's more to look at elsewhere if one is interested in philosophy in general.

⬐ cyber_kinetist

Any specific pointers on what books you should read? (Apart from the popular books / manifestos, I’m searching for real alternatives)

⬐ kranner

The Further Reading sections at the ends of volumes 3 (Philosophy in the Islamic World) and 5 (Classical Indian Philosophy) by Peter Adamson et al are great.

⬐ cyber_kinetist

The problem seems to be that, most non-Western philosophy I've heard is either from Chinese Confucianism (which personally I don't really like as a Korean, Korea has a long history of dealing with the problems of Confucianism for centuries), or from Buddhist/Zoroastianist/Islam religious literature (which I'm hesitant to read, since I don't have much of a religious background and think it's kind of superfluous, although I get why its existence is necessary) Maybe I just need to open my mind more, but as others have said I don't have much time left to cram other things into my (already very slow) hobby of reading continental philosophy.

Hell, even most philosophers outside of Western countries doesn't really seem to look at non-Western philosophy that seriously. (Maybe it's because it's a Western thing to be a philsopher as a profession?) Chinese philosophers like Yuk Hui might be currently trying the synthesis of Western and Eastern thought, but it still seems like a long way to go (plus my objections on Confucianism).

⬐ mcguire

Western philosophy fell in love with Plato and Aristotle and basically ignored everything else.

A couple of suggestions: Angus Graham's translation of Zhuangzhi, Chuang-tzu: The Inner Chapters and other Writings from the Book of Chuang-tzu and A Companion to Angus C. Graham's Chuang Tzu edited by Harold Roth.

Graham actually made me appreciate analytic philosophy.

⬐ NoGravitas

I don't have a solution to this, but one thing I've noticed is that there's a whole hell of a lot of classical Indian philosophical works that seem under-studied. Dealing independently with a lot of the same issues as the ancient Greeks, and not any more religious/mystical than the comparable Greek texts were.

⬐ keiferski

Three points:

1. The division of philosophy and religion into separate camps is a modern thing. It doesn’t hold up very well to scrutiny, either; much of what we consider “Western secular” values and ideas are really just modifications and reinterpretations of old Christian and Greco-Roman ideas. I recommend the book A Secular Age by Charles Taylor if you are interested in how this process has gone (and continues to go.)

2. There are extensive and thorough philosophical traditions in the Islamic world, Russian world, Indian world, and East Asia (especially China and Japan.) I really wouldn’t brush all of these away so quickly.

3. You might find the Kyoto School interesting and a good entry point. They attempted to synthesize much of Eastern and Western thought.

⬐ cyber_kinetist

Thanks for the suggestions. Reading up on the Kyoto School right now. Also added A Secular Age on the reading list, it seems really interesting.

⬐ keiferski

No problem! Also, A Secular Age is a huge tome, so you might want to start with How Not to Be Secular by James K. A. Smith. It's essentially a summary and reading guide to the book.

⬐ throw0101a

> much of what we consider “Western secular” values and ideas are really just modifications and reinterpretations of old Christian and Greco-Roman ideas.

Tom Holland goes over this in his recent book Dominion as well:

* https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/21/dominion-makin...

* https://historyforatheists.com/2020/01/tom-holland-dominion/

See also from a sociological perspective as well:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_WEIRDest_People_in_the_Wor...