Psychedelics are experiencing a renaissance in clinical research. In recent years, an increasing number of studies on psychedelic-assisted treatment have been conducted. So far, the results are promising, suggesting that this new (or rather, rediscovered) form of therapy has great potential. One particular reason for that appears to be the synergistic combination of the pharmacological and psychotherapeutic interventions in psychedelic-assisted treatment. But how exactly do these two interventions complement each other? This paper provides the first account of the interaction between (...) pharmacological and psychological effects in psychedelic-assisted treatment. Building on the relaxed beliefs under psychedelics (REBUS) hypothesis of Carhart-Harris and Friston and the contextual model of Wampold, it argues that psychedelics amplify the common factors and thereby the remedial effects of psychotherapy. More precisely, psychedelics are assumed to attenuate the precision of high-level predictions, making them more revisable by bottom-up input. Psychotherapy constitutes an important source of such input. At best, it signalizes a safe and supportive environment (cf. setting) and induces remedial expectations (cf. set). During treatment, these signals should become incorporated when high-level predictions are revised: a process that is hypothesized to occur as a matter of course in psychotherapy but to get reinforced and accelerated under psychedelics. Ultimately, these revisions should lead to a relief of symptoms. (shrink)

In two experiments (total N=693) we explored whether people are willing to consider paintings made by AI-driven robots as art, and robots as artists. Across the two experiments, we manipulated three factors: (i) agent type (AI-driven robot v. human agent), (ii) behavior type (intentional creation of a painting v. accidental creation), and (iii) object type (abstract v. representational painting). We found that people judge robot paintings and human paintings as art to roughly the same extent. However, people are much less (...) willing to consider robots as artists than humans, which is partially explained by the fact that they are less disposed to attribute artistic intentions to robots. (shrink)

How do face-to-face, assembly processes, and non-face-to-face, popular vote processes impact the decisions made by citizens? Normative discussions of the comparative merits of these two broad types of participatory decision-making processes partly rely on empirical assumptions concerning this question. In this paper, we test the central assumption that assemblies lead to decisions that are more widely supported by participants than popular votes. We do so by analyzing 1,400 decisions made through these processes on the highly salient issue of municipal mergers (...) in Swiss municipalities since 1999. We find that assembly decisions are consistently made by larger majorities than popular vote decisions and that this relationship is significantly mediated by turnout. This suggests that higher levels of agreement in assemblies mainly result from selection biases – with fewer dissenting citizens participating in assemblies than in popular votes – rather than from internal dynamics in assemblies. (shrink)

Research on the relationship between ideology and affective polarisation highlights ideological disagreement as a key driver of animosity between partisan groups. By operationalising disagreement on the left–right dimension, however, existing studies often overlook voter–party incongruence as a potential determinant of affective evaluations. How does incongruence on policy issues impact affective evaluations of mainstream political parties and their leaders? We tackle this question by analysing data from the British Election Study collected ahead of the 2019 UK General Election using an instrumental (...) variable approach. Consistent with our expectations, we find that voter–party incongruence has a significant causal impact on affective evaluations. Perceived representational gaps between party and voter drive negative evaluations of the in-party and positive evaluations of the opposition, thus lowering affective polarisation overall. The results offer a more nuanced perspective on the role of ideological conflict in driving affective polarisation. (shrink)

Affective polarization—growing animosity and hostility between political rivals—has become increasingly characteristic of Western politics. While this phenomenon is well-documented through surveys, few studies investigate whether and how it manifests in the digital context, and what mechanisms underpin it. Drawing on social identity and intergroup theories, this study employs computational methods to explore to what extent political discussions on Reddit’s r/politics are affectively polarized, and what communicative factors shape these affective biases. Results show that interactions between ideologically opposed users were significantly (...) more negative than like-minded ones. These interactions were also more likely to be cut short than sustained if one user referred negatively to the other’s political in-group. Conversely, crosscutting interactions in which one of the users expressed positive sentiment toward the out-group were more likely to attract a positive than a negative response, thus mitigating intergroup affective bias. Implications for the study of online political communication dynamics are discussed. (shrink)

This paper deals with Husserl’s idea of pure logic as it is coined in the Logical Investigations (1900/1901). First, it exposes the formation of pure logic around a conception of completeness (Sect. 2); then, it presents intentionality as the keystone of such a structuring (Sect. 3); and finally, it provides a systematic reconstruction of pure logic from the semiotic standpoint of intentionality (Sect. 4). In this way, it establishes Husserlian pure logic as a phenomenological epistemology of mathematical logic.

Conceptual engineering is commonly characterized as the method for assessing and improving our representational devices. Little has been said, however, on how best to construe these representational devices—in other words, on what conceptual engineering should be all about. This paper tackles this problem with a basic strategy: First, by presenting a taxonomy of the different possible subject matters for conceptual engineering; then, by comparatively assessing them and selecting the most conducive one with a view to making conceptual engineering an actionable (...) method, that is, a method that can be applied effectively and consistently to specific case studies. The outcome is that conceptual engineering should be all about concepts on pain of pragmatic inconsistencies otherwise. (shrink)

The first millennium BCE was pivotal for the environment and for human societies in Central and Eastern Eurasia because transformations accelerated and altered natural and cultural landscapes to hitherto unknown dimensions. Among the major driving forces was the increasing use of horse riding, which extended range of movement significantly and led to the development of cavalry units as a part of large armies. Empires with enormous outreach and gravitational pull formed and disintegrated in close dependence. The wide spread of military (...) technologies demonstrates their bonds, though mostly in the form of metal objects due to the inherent survivability of their materials. Equipment and protective clothing of organic material, albeit produced in large numbers and thus an economic and environmental factor, are rarely preserved. In Yanghai cemetery site, Turfan, the remains of one leather scale armour were discovered. In this study, the results of the AMS radiocarbon dating as well as the construction details of the Yanghai find are presented and compared with a contemporary armour of unknown origin in the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York (MET) and with finds and depictions from the Near East, the adjacent northern steppe areas and the territory of China. The armour, datable to 786–543 cal BCE (95% probability), was originally made of about 5444 smaller scales and 140 larger scales, which, together with leather laces and lining, had a total weight of ca. 4–5 kg. Our reconstruction demonstrates that it can be donned quickly and without the help of another person by wrapping the left part around the back, tying it to the right part under the right arm and fastening with thongs crosswise over the back to laces at the opposite hip parts. Fitting different statures, it is a light and highly efficient defensive garment. In age, construction details and aesthetic appearance it resembles the MET armour. The stylistic similarities but constructional differences suggest that the two armours were intended as outfits for distinct units of the same army, i.e. light cavalry and heavy infantry, respectively. As such a high level of standardization of military equipment during the 7th century BCE is only known for the Neo-Assyrian military forces, we suggest that the place of manufacture of both armours was the Neo-Assyrian Empire. If this supposition is correct, then the Yanghai armour is one of the rare actual proofs of West-East technology transfer across the Eurasian continent during the first half of the first millennium BCE, when social and economic transformation accelerated. (shrink)

This study documents a rare case of mummified human remains from Japan, dating to the late Heian period, 12th Century AD. The remains have only been scientifically investigated once in 1950 so far. The results of this investigation were translated, analyzed, and interpreted using methods of the 21st century. The remains have been traditionally identified as the four ruling generations of the Ōshū Fujiwara clan, who built a cultural and economic center in Hiraizumi. Accordingly, this paper will first examine the (...) historical and cultural significance of Hiraizumi and its ruling class before re-evaluating the findings of the 1950 investigation. This study is the first in the Western scientific literature to provide a comprehensive historical, cultural, and medical evaluation of these mummies. (shrink)

This article reviews educational efforts to promote a responsible conduct of research (RCR) that were reported in scientific publications between 1990 and early 2020. Unlike previous reviews that were exploratory in nature, this review aimed to test eleven hypotheses on effective training strategies. The achievement of different learning outcomes was analyzed independently using moderator analysis and meta-regression, whereby 75 effect sizes from 30 studies were considered. The analysis shows that the achievement of different learning outcomes ought to be investigated separately. (...) The attainment of knowledge strongly benefited from individualized learning, as well as from the discussion and practical application of ethical standards. Contrarily, not covering ethical standards tended to be a feature of successful courses, when looking at other learning outcomes. Overall, experiential learning approaches where learners were emotionally involved in thinking about how to deal with problems were most effective. Primarily intellectual deliberation about ethical problems, often considered the “gold standard” of ethics education, was significantly less effective. Several findings from previous reviews, e.g., the preferability of mono-disciplinary groups, could not be replicated with multivariate analysis. Several avenues for future research efforts are suggested to advance knowledge on the effectiveness of research integrity training. (shrink)

The normative force of evidence can seem puzzling. It seems that having conclusive evidence for a proposition does not, by itself, make it true that one ought to believe the proposition. But spelling out the condition that evidence must meet in order to provide us with genuine normative reasons for belief seems to lead us into a dilemma: the condition either fails to explain the normative significance of epistemic reasons or it renders the content of epistemic norms practical. The first (...) aim of this paper is to spell out this challenge for the normativity of evidence. I argue that the challenge rests on a plausible assumption about the conceptual connection between normative reasons and blameworthiness. The second aim of the paper is to show how we can meet the challenge by spelling out a concept of epistemic blameworthiness. Drawing on recent accounts of doxastic responsibility and epistemic blame, I suggest that the normativity of evidence is revealed in our practice of suspending epistemic trust in response to impaired epistemic relationships. Recognizing suspension of trust as a form of epistemic blame allows us to make sense of a purely epistemic kind of normativity the existence of which has recently been called into doubt by certain versions of pragmatism and instrumentalism. (shrink)

In seven paragraphs written in 1893, Peirce puts forward a puzzling and thought-provoking claim about the role of rather mysterious “skeleton-sets” in processes of association of ideas: all association of ideas, either by resemblance or by contiguity, requires and involves “skeleton sets”, whose iconic dimension is necessary for these processes to take place. Because it relates to the question of the nature and mode of the existence of ideas, to that of the role of icons in thought, and to that (...) of the content of concepts, this thesis is clearly of great importance for Peirce’s philosophical system. In this paper, I would like to examine two questions: (1) what is the justification of Peirce’s claim that “skeleton-sets”, or “skeleton ideas”, are necessary for an association of ideas – by resemblance or by contiguity – to take place in one’s mind? (2) Is this claim compatible with Peirce’s philosophical system? (shrink)

Responding to recent concerns about the reliability of the published literature in psychology and other disciplines, we formed the X-Phi Replicability Project (XRP) to estimate the reproducibility of experimental philosophy (osf.io/dvkpr). Drawing on a representative sample of 40 x-phi studies published between 2003 and 2015, we enlisted 20 research teams across 8 countries to conduct a high-quality replication of each study in order to compare the results to the original published findings. We found that x-phi studies – as represented in (...) our sample – successfully replicated about 70% of the time. We discuss possible reasons for this relatively high replication rate in the field of experimental philosophy and offer suggestions for best research practices going forward. (shrink)

This chapter lays out what we take to be the main types of justice and ethical challenges concerning those adverse effects of climate change leading to climate-related Loss and Damage (L&D). We argue that it is essential to clearly differentiate between the challenges concerning mitigation and adaptation and those ethical issues exclusively relevant for L&D in order to address the ethical aspects pertaining to L&D in international climate policy. First, we show that depending on how mitigation and adaptation are distinguished (...) from L&D, the primary focus of policy measures and their ethical implications will vary. Second, we distinguish between a distributive justice framework and a compensatory justice scheme for delivering L&D measures. Third, in order to understand the differentiated remedial responsibilities concerning L&D, we categorise the measures and policy approaches available. Fourth, depending on the kind of L&D and which remedies are possible, we explain the difference between remedial and outcome responsibilities of different actors. (shrink)

It has been argued persistently that economic models frequently suffer from poor empirical performance because they rely upon empirically inadequate behavioral foundations, i.e. theories of rational choice. In this paper, I argue that much of this criticism misses the point: it assumes that economics is about explaining human behavior when in fact, since Adam Smith, economists have been more interested in explaining patterns that emerge from social interaction. While some minimal account of human behavior is needed for explaining such phenomena, (...) a full-fledged psychological or neurobiological theory of individual behavior might not be. The more pressing yet under-researched challenge for economic models is to arrive at an adequate description of social interaction processes that connect individual choices on the micro-level and robust patterns on the macro-level. (shrink)

Strawson's descriptive metaphysics was the first explicit and elaborate rehabilitation of metaphysics within the analytic tradition. This chapter discusses Strawson's contributions to metaphysics with a particular view to his conception of the nature of metaphysics-cum-ontology. This chapter first dwells on the background of Strawson's metaphysics. Next it introduces Strawson's idea of descriptive metaphysics and of connective analysis. Sections 3–8 discuss Strawson's main claims: self-conscious experience presupposes a distinction between experience and its mind-independent objects, objective particulars must be situated in a (...) spatio-temporal framework, material bodies are ontologically prior because they sustain this framework, experience and discourse revolve around a fundamental distinction between reference and predication, both particulars and universals are among our objects of reference. This chapter tries to reconstruct the main lines of argument by combining ideas from Individuals and Bounds of Sense. Sections 9–11 defend Strawson's modest conception of metaphysics as a second-order description of our conceptual scheme. (shrink)

This book offers a fascinating insight into how film as a medium can portray political thought. Josette Baer’s collection of seven essays is the first publication of this kind; her analysis covers films such as The Best of Enemies and The Lost Daughter, and the TV series Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul in an interdisciplinary approach to politics, philosophy, and film.

After winning Taiwan’s presidential election with 40% of the vote in January,1 Lai Ching-te faced his first major test on May 20, 2024: his inaugural address. The speech incited a strong military reaction from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Meanwhile, the largest civil protests since the Sunflower Student Movement2 have gripped the island in reaction to a bill passed by opposition parties — a bill that some fear could expand the legislature’s power and undermine the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) (...) presidency. For a number of reasons, Lai’s address, the protests, and his cross-Strait policies are crucial to understanding the continuing evolution of cross-Strait relations as well as the PRC-U.S.-Taiwan triangle. First and foremost, cross-Strait relations are at an all-time low; second, the U.S. presidential election in November could shift U.S. policy toward Taiwan; and third, Lai will govern with a divided Legislative Yuan, presenting challenges to his domestic agenda. This paper will first deal with President Lai’s address and how it framed cross-strait issues, Taiwan’s relationship with the PRC, and other important topics. It will then cover China’s response and likely posture in the upcoming months. The paper then analyzes the current civil protests in Taiwan and how a divided legislature will impact politics over the next four years. The penultimate section looks at the expected differences between a Biden presidency and a Trump presidency for Beijing, Taipei, and the world. A conclusion sums up the paper’s key points. (shrink)

Pyongyang has been described as a center of evil that threatens the world with nuclear weapons. The city is perceived as both aggressive and controlled. This study explains those particularities of Pyongyang utilizing Wagner, Rudolf (2000) (“The moral center and the engine of change. A tale of two Chinese cities”. In: Peking Shanghai Shenzhen. Städte des 21. Jahrhunderts. Beijing Shanghai Shenzhen. Cities of the 21st Century. Vöckler, K and Luckow, D (eds.). Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, Edition Bauhaus, vol. 7, 452–459) theory (...) of the Northeast Asian city as a moral center under the ongoing Korean War (although a ceasefire has been called, the war has not officially ended). This study starts by drawing similarities between Pyongyang and Hanyang, the capital of the Joseon Dynasty, which was established as a moral center according to the Rites of the Zhou Dynasty. I also look at the influence that the Korean War had on Pyongyang and find that Pyongyang was constructed to express the North Koreans socialist Juche ideology (self-reliance, subjecthood), while Hanyang expressed Confucian ideology. Pyongyang is more than just a moral center; it is “the Holy Land of Revolution” according to the “Administration Act of the Capital City Pyongyang”, where the war still takes place to defend the Juche Ideology and its supreme leader. The Korean War justifies the control in North Korea. The country utilizes the five-family control system inherited from the Joseon Dynasty. Its origin is legalism during the Warring States period (770−221 BC) in China. Control in Pyongyang has been strengthened because of the need for military operations in the unfinished Korean War, compared to Hanyang. Having relaxed political tensions in 2019, North Korea offers a vision for the future of Pyongyang as a “socialist fairyland” (seongyeong 仙境), which is related to Korea’s own Taoism (sinseon sasang 神仙思想). Developing Pyongyang with the Juche ideology from a Confucian tradition in the war, the city now reveals a unique means of cultural entanglement. (shrink)

When Marco Polo left China, he passed through Hangzhou (Quinsai) and then travelled approximately southwestwards into what is today Fujian province, to the cities of Fuzhou and Quanzhou (Zaiton). There are still a number of disagreements regarding his route, however, which are discussed here. Consideration is also given to Marco’s use of “Facfur” to designate the last Emperor of the Song dynasty, and more generally to the issue of the use of Persian language in Yuan China. It is suggested that (...) there is no clear evidence that Marco Polo learned Persian. An error regarding consumption of pepper in China during the thirteenth century is corrected. More evidence of the importation of very substantial quantities of pepper into China during the Song and Yuan periods is adduced. Identifications of all the places which Marco mentions in this section of his book are suggested, with the support of evidence. (shrink)

In this paper, I compare the material in the Pāli canon of Theravada Buddhism, a textual tradition famous for the abundance of numerical lists, with certain chapters of the Yi Zhou shu 逸周書 and chapter “Hong fan” 洪範 of the Shang shu 尚書, where numerical lists are equally important. I propose a classification of the insufficiently studied numerical lists in the Yi Zhou shu and point out the divergences in them, suggesting that they were produced by competing communities that developed (...) slightly discordant systems of knowledge. I compare the evolution of complex frameworks of numerical lists in the Buddhist traditions and in early China, arguing that both created comprehensive systems of knowledge-practice out of simpler lists. The peculiar form of numerical lists as vehicles of systematised knowledge-practice attested in both cultures may have originated in hierarchical communities with indisputable knowledge authority. Such communities are known to have existed in early Buddhism, and they have convincing parallels in China’s contemporary political practice, where numerical lists are used to unify the patterns of thinking and behaviour in hierarchical groups. (shrink)

In the analysis of processes of sensory perception in the framework of Buddhist contemplation practices, the visual sense faculty has played a crucial role. In this paper, references to Chinese Buddhist terminology referring to visual processes will be analyzed in their historical context, with a focus on the interpretations ofguān 觀andkàn 看by proponents of the early Chán School. Crucial questions include the notions of the “agent” (i.e., the entity engaging in the process of visualization or viewing), as well as the (...) ontological status of the “object” to be viewed, in addition to the nature of theprocessof viewing and the bodily preconditions for engaging in visualization practices. The creative reinterpretations of terms such asguānxīn 觀心 “contemplate the mind” andkànxīn看心 “view the mind” were also important devices to create a distinctive identity for this newly emerging Chinese Buddhist school. As will be shown, despite the fierce attacks on “gradualist” meditation practices by proponents of the “Southern School” of Chán during the 8th century, the concepts ofguānxīnandkànxīnby no means disappeared from the discourse on meditation but continued to play an important role at least until the 10th century and beyond. (shrink)

This paper considers visualizations in Chinese medieval esoteric Buddhism in seven sculptural tableaux of the Mahāmāyūrī-vidyārājñī (Peacock Wisdom King 孔雀明王) from rock carving sites in the Sichuan Basin, Southwestern China. Early scholars highlighted the authority of Amoghavajra’s ritual manual for the Mahāmāyūrī images in this area, yet divergences between text and image hold them back from further interpretation. This paper reinvestigates these Mahāmāyūrī shrines “dialectically” by considering the text-image relationship. While keeping Amoghavajra’s ritual manual as a reference, it attempts to (...) decode the meaning of the images and sites based on their own content, and to extrapolate from the text-image divergences how artistic productions and esoteric practices could lead to the presence of such divergences. This involves discussing artistic forms and decorative elements appropriated from exoteric Buddhism, as well as adjustments to the central icon and adjacent narrative scenes weaved within the temporal and spatial transitions. It also includes observations on the grouping between the Mahāmāyūrī and other deities in the larger iconographic program in their affiliated rock-cut sites, which reflects the interaction between this esoteric teaching and other popular beliefs. At least four out of seven examples share the same hierarchical iconographic programs or signature spatial structures similar to the Mahāmāyūrī altar prescribed in Amoghavajra’s ritual manual. It takes these visual or spatial similarities as concrete evidences that the construction of these shrines intended to make altars/maṇḍalas, although in two different ways to represent the esoteric altar and to create a space to conduct such a ritual. (shrink)

A crucial feature of Tiantai (天台) Buddhist thought certainly is its elaboration on the hidden and visible, called “root and traces” (ben ji 本跡), as the concept of non-duality (bu er 不二) of these opposites is part of what constitutes the highest level of Buddhist doctrine in Tiantai doxography, called “round/ perfect teaching” (yuanjiao 圓教). Such elaboration is inextricably bound up with paradoxical discourse, which functions as a linguistic strategy in Tiantai practice of liberating the mind from its self-induced deception. (...) Observation of paradoxes in the elaboration on the hidden and visible could be called practice qua doctrinal exegesis, because Tiantai masters try to integrate self-referential observation in mind-contemplation (guanxin 觀心) with interpretation of sūtra and śāstra. For Tiantai Buddhists, the ultimate meaning of the Buddhadharma (fofa 佛法) itself is independent from speech and script and only accessible to the liberated mind, yet it cannot fully be comprehended and displayed apart from the transmission of the canonical word. To observe the paradox in non-duality of the hidden and visible is what triggers practice qua doctrinal exegesis and entails liberation (jietuo 解脫) according to the “round/ perfect teaching.” The article traces the formation of paradoxical discourse in Chinese Madhyamaka, particularly referencing the Tiantai elaboration on the hidden and visible and its diverse sources of inspiration, which includes both Chinese indigenous traditions of thought (Daoism and Xuanxue) and translated sūtra and śāstra literature from India. (shrink)

As Buddhist literature makes abundantly clear, the Buddha’s knowledge is an instance of yogic perception; it radically differs from the ordinary cognition of empirical objects and results from a special training that includes ascetic toil and meditative practices. This essay aims to explore the role of special cognitive processes – in particular the Buddha’s vision of the Truths and cognitive processes relating to meditation practices – in the Buddhist epistemological tradition of South Asia. It argues that, given the Indian philosophical (...) context, an epistemology with Buddhist presuppositions had to consider why and how meditation practices can make a difference as regards the results of cognition. Passages from Dharmakīrti’s work will be examined that show how Dharmakīrti represents yogic perception and the function of meditation practices (especially visualization) in transforming habitual processes of conceptualization. (shrink)

This essay examines a number of statements on painting and visual perception by Chinese literati artists of the late Ming – early Qing periods. It argues that the approaches to pictorial representation and creativity entailed in these statements reveal a considerable impact of Buddhist theories of consciousness. In the theories analyzed, pictorial representation is discussed in terms of ways and modes of how the mind relates to the world. As will be demonstrated, the function of expressing cognitive organization in representation (...) is given more prominence than the function of rendering an external reality. The view of pictorial representation as being essentially what the mind produces in its relation to the world provides a basis for the assumption of a fundamental affinity between the creation of an image and the process how phenomenal reality unfolds by virtue of cognitive operations. This assumption seems to broadly underpin the painting theories discussed. And it is this assumption that provides a clue how and why the literati artists adopt Buddhist theories of cognition to the understanding of art. In the last section of the essay, we turn to the sources which cast still another perspective on artistic practice, namely a practice which captures a single moment of pure direct perception. (shrink)

Textual evidence points at a rather late date of the occurence of meditation in China. In addition, Chinese meditation appeared suddenly, i. e. without any apparent previous development, and in an already sophisticated form. On the other hand, India had witnessed long living and continuous meditative traditions. This may be taken as a possible indication pointing to a Chinese adaptation of an originally foreign concept.

This is Part II following on from the first presentation of the Chinese Map of the World or Kunyutu 坤輿圖 published in vol. 75 of this journal. The large wall map in silk, found in a federal library in Berne, Switzerland, is anonymous and purports to represent the geopolitical situation during the period 1700–1730. After a short general, geographical overview containing cartographic remarks and findings, this article will focus on the translation of all 112 text blocks on the map, which (...) are found in Appendix II. These text blocks contain information on the customs and products of a given place, as well as describing other curiosities associated with it. I compared these texts with other maps and textual sources, in particular with The Complete World Map (Kunyu quantu 坤輿全圖) and The Explanations of the World Map (Kunyutu shuo 坤輿圖說) by Verbiest in 1674. A Venn diagram reveals which source was used most frequently. I detected some geographical assumptions the creator of the Bernese map has drawn from previous sources or copied from earlier maps. These offer valuable pointers to the source language and enable the identification of specific misunderstandings, original creations and uncertainties or signs of ignorance. My translation of the text blocks helps to pinpoint certain anachronisms and inaccuracies, although the map essentially reflects the political situation in the years 1700–1730. These various pieces of evidence suggest that the map was in fact made much later by a copyist and is not only a cartographic composite of earlier maps, but also a fusion based on Northern and Southern Mandarin sources. I presume that the translations, drawn from French sources into Southern Mandarin – the language of the late Ming officials (guanhua 官話) – as well as a variety of Southern Chinese dialects, suggest the underlying influence of a Jesuit tradition. (shrink)

This contribution reconstructs and contextualizes two decrees abolishing specific imposts. Both were inscribed into the eastern entrance vestibule of the great mosque of Mardin connecting the mosque to the main market area of the town in the name of Qaraquyunlu and Aqquyunlu ‘Turkmen’ rulers in the mid-15$^{th}$ century CE. As argued in this article, the decrees pertain to the immediate context of the civil revolt of Mardin against Jahāngīr Aqquyunlu in 1450 CE. Accordingly, the inscription of fiscal decrees into highly (...) visible and institutionally protected locations of the urban fabric emerges as a crucial interface negotiating civil (dis)content and the pragmatics of rule. Together with the exceptionally dense attestation of the history of Mardin during the first half of the 15$^{th}$ century CE in a variety of mediums and narrative and linguistic traditions, this enables an exemplary reconstruction of subaltern and non-rulerly agency during this period of frequently changing rulers. By historicizing the fiscal ordinances decreed in both inscriptions, fiscal imposts emerge as one of the strands along which civil (dis)content could be negotiated. In addition, the continued preservation of both inscriptions attests to the resilience and stability of the ‘inscribed public sphere’ of Mardin. Accordingly, inscriptions 853 and 854 Mardin are presented as the centerpiece of an exemplary micro-study of non-rulerly agency and the pragmatics of rule in the 15$^{th}$ century CE pre-industrial Middle East. (shrink)

This article aims to delve into the approach of Ḫwāǧa Naṣīr ad-Dīn Ṭūsī to a fundamental philosophical question concerning human agency: How can human free will coexist with a necessitating causal framework, where every effect is bound by its complete cause? Ṭūsī’s solution, which left a lasting impact on subsequent philosophical discussions on the issue, particularly within Shiite scholarly circles, revolves around the introduction of a differentiation between types of causes. I will examine Ṭūsī’s elucidation delineated in two of his (...) works: Ǧabr wa Qadar in Persian and a concise Arabic text on Afʿāl al-ʿibād. Additionally, I will endeavor to uncover the historical origins and intellectual influences that may have shaped Ṭūsī’s approach to the question of human free will. (shrink)

In 2008 “Blang Nationality’s Singing and Instrument Playing” (Bulangzu tanchang) was listed as China’s intangible cultural heritage protection. The creation of ethnic parks, cultural villages, and ecomuseums in Southwest China raises some questions about the ethnic minorities’ traditional cultural/musical heritage and its sustainable development: What is the impact of ethnic tourism development on local minorities and what is the role played by government cultural policy in the preservation and dissemination of Blang musical heritage? How is this ethnic group’s identity represented (...) in staged performances for tourists and in mass media? And what is the agency of Blang culture bearers officially appointed ‘cultural heritage inheritors’ in constructing, defining, and representing their own ethnic/musical identity? This article deals with a research project conducted mainly among the Blang of Manxi village in Xishuangbanna (Sipsongpanna), Yunnan Province, Southwest China, in the Spring of 2017. The purpose of this article is to describe and analyze the current interplay of ethnic tourism, government policy, mass media and culture bearers among an ethnic group considered a “minority among the minorities” in China and the effects of this interplay on the sustainability of traditional musical heritage. (shrink)

Jinendrabuddhi, Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla are those who, while putting the ‘intention of the speaker’ (vivakṣā) at the core of their analysis of verbal communication, opt for a formal and technical treatment of the topic. In order to prove through coherent arguments that śābdajñāna is inference and therefore to support Dignāga’s reduction of the valid means of correct knowledge, they all identify vivakṣā with the property-possessor (dharmin) or probandum (sādhya), and śabda (‘word’) with the logical mark (liṅga) or probans (sādhana). They (...) do so to counteract the criticisms of the opponents (Kumārila first of all). Nevertheless, while Jinendrabuddhi, following Dharmakīrti, recognizes the sheer pragmatic value of verbal cognition, Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla seem to follow Dignāga more closely and also recognize its epistemic value. The purpose of this article is precisely to describe the essential points of the arguments of Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla, and show their most original aspects. (shrink)

Directly or indirectly, by way of scriptural commentary or philosophical investigation, dependent origination (pratītyasamutpāda) plays an important role in several of Kamalaśīla’s works. His interpretation is remarkably consistent. As earlier “Yogācāra-Mādhyamika” authors such as Śrīgupta, Jñānagarbha and Śāntarakṣita, Kamalaśīla regards dependent origination as one of the characteristic features of genuine conventional reality, non-origination (anutpāda) being characteristic of ultimate reality/truth. Genuine conventional reality and ultimate reality correspond to the two modes – conventional and ultimate – of dependent origination in the ŚSūṬ, (...) a commentary whose purpose was to provide the ŚSū with a Mādhyamika interpretation. Although it seems to leave no room for the Madhyamaka and culminates in a Yogācāra analysis of reality, the TSP likely is no exception to this, as its maṅgala’s indebtedness to Nāgārjuna already suggests. Close comparative and intertextual analysis reveals that the intention underlying the TS(P) was to provide a description of true conventional reality, i.e., the domain of dependently originated though ultimately essenceless entities similar to magical horses and elephants. As a corollary, Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla attempted to “purify” it from pseudo-entities, i.e., non dependently originated fictions, or, equivalently, entities with incongruous causes (viṣamahetu), such as a rabbit’s horn, the self, and God. In this perspective, the TS(P) can be read as a detailed philosophical propedeutics to a Mādhyamika analysis of reality, cognition, and truth. (shrink)

Madhyamaka philosophy is considered the philosophy of the middle way (madhyamā pratipad). Madhyamaka philosophers acknowledge that the middle way is free from the two extremes of existence and nonexistence. However, when analyzing the way they understand the middle way, we encounter differing interpretations. In his Mūlamadhyamakakārikā 24.18, Nāgārjuna says “precisely this [voidness] is the middle way (pratipad … madhyamā)” (18d). According to Avalokitavrata, Bhāviveka interprets the term pratipad madhyamā in stanza 18d as referring to two types of middle way, i.e., (...) a conventional type and an ultimate one, while Candrakı̄rti comments on stanza 18d that voidness is the middle way. When in his Madhyamakālaṃkārapañjikā Kamalaśı̄la comments on verse 18, he seems to interpret that term neither as voidness or the two types of middle way. His interpretation of the term seems to be different from Nāgārjuna’s and his commentators’. In this article, in order to clarify his interpretation and philosophy of the middle way, we first analyze Kamalaśı̄la’s comments on verse 18. Next is an examination of whether he accepts the conventional type of middle way and the ultimate type, that is, voidness (= ultimate reality) free from the two extremes, and a clarification of his central idea of the middle way and his systematization of the different types of middle way. After an analysis of his idea of the practice for eliminating the two extremes, we will lastly examine his philosophy of the middle way. These analyses will allow us to say that by means of his central idea of the middle way, Kamalaśı̄la systematized his Madhyamaka philosophy as the path (mārga) for fully achieving the understanding of the middle way. (shrink)

The final chapter of the Tattvasaṃgrahapañjikā (TSP) contains a lengthy discussion on omniscience. In this paper, I will first review the relationship between the idea that the Buddha is a pramāṇa, as presented in the Pramāṇavārttika, and the view of the omniscient one in the TSP. I will then examine the concept of “remainderless” (aśeṣa) discussed in Devendrabuddhi’s Pramāṇavārttikapañjikā (PVP) and in Jinendrabuddhi’s Pramāṇasamuccayaṭīkā (PSṬ) to show that the understanding of aśeṣa in the PVP and the PSṬ is related to (...) Kamalaśīla’s understanding of the omniscient one. Finally, I will propose that the concept of aśeṣajñāna can serve as key to considering Dharmakīrtian’s understanding of the omniscient one. (shrink)

The “middle wayˮ (madhyamā pratipad) is a concept of great significance in Buddhism. For Mahāyāna philosophers, the concept of the middle way free from the two extremes of superimposition (samāropa) and denial (apavāda) has ontological import. In the history of the development of Mahāyāna thought, we also see a tendency to work out a dimension of the middle way related to yogis’ spiritual cultivation and to combine it with the middle way’s ontological aspect. The eighth-century Mādhyamika thinker Kamalaśīla is one (...) whose theory of the middle way has a close connection with his theory of spiritual cultivation. The purpose of this paper is to explore Kamalaśīla’s view on the relationship between (1) the middle way that lies between the two extremes of superimposition and denial, and (2) his theory of spiritual cultivation. I first clarify Kamalaśīla’s definition of the two extremes of superimposition and denial by examining his Madhyamakāloka and Madhyamakālaṃkārapañjikā. Based on the knowledge thus gained, I then delve into the fourteenth chapter of the Avikalpapraveśadhāraṇīṭīkā, a text where Kamalaśīla clearly reveals his take on the relationship between yogi’s meditative examination and the middle way of the two extremes of superimposition and denial. My conclusion is that for Kamalaśīla, meditative examination from the perspective of Madhyamaka ontology is the means to abandon the two extremes of superimposition and denial. Moreover, the middle way itself consists in the attainment of non-conceptual gnosis (nirvikalpajñāna) and the awareness obtained subsequently to that (pṛṣṭhalabdhajñāna), both of which result from such meditative examination. (shrink)

The Samyé debate (792–794) between the Chinese Chan monk Moheyan and his Indo-Tibetan opponents has long been one of the key issues in the study of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. This article attempts to approach this debate from a different angle, by focussing on the common ground that enabled the debate in the first place, instead of the doctrinal opposition between the two parties. This article argues that there are several areas where Kamalaśīla’s doctrinal positions are comparable to or even compatible with (...) the doctrinal positions found in Northern Chan texts. First, the article points to the centrality of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra and how it signifies their commitment to a form of Yogācāra-Madhyamaka synthesis. Second, the controversy revolving around the “Single Vehicle” (Ekayāna) is discussed. Third, the article discusses how to understand the “interface” between Yogācāra and Madhyamaka in Kamalaśīla’s texts and Northern Chan texts. Lastly, the article compares yogic perception discussed by Kamalaśīla and the extrasensory apprehension alluded to in Northern Chan texts. (shrink)

This article analyses the origins of the so-called frontier spirit as the main feature of the Japanese pioneers who were the grass-roots agents of Japanese expansion into Asia. It argues that this narrative traces back to the government-sponsored cultivation program in Hokkaidō, where so-called tondenhei were employed as farmer-soldiers to open up the new frontier region as Japan’s first colony. After the termination of the tondenhei program, the frontier spirit took on a life of its own. It was embraced by (...) advocates of Japanese settler colonialism on the Asian continent as a vital element of the quintessential Japanese pioneer, capable of overcoming any hardships that might arise. Consequently, the iconic Japanese pioneer in Manchuria, who eventually fell victim to Japan’s megalomanic migration machine in Northeast China, can be seen as the reincarnation of their equally unfortunate predecessor, the tondenhei soldier. (shrink)

This paper problematizes the role two migrant artists David Davidovich Burliuk and Varvara Dmitrejenva Bubnova played in (re)defining the Japanese pre-war avant-gardes during the Taishō period (1912–1926). Careful consideration is given to the contextually based artistic practice in relation to the specific Japanese history of modernization, the establishment of art institutions, and state-controlled exhibition systems on one hand. On the other hand, however, an argument is made for complicating this context with multipolar and yet entangled avant-gardes composed of many histories (...) that connect and diverge at the same time. The primary focus lies on closely describing and highlighting these profound connections, encounters, and exchanges, regardless their length or intensity. The article aims to trace and discuss the experiences of the two migrant artists who redefined themselves within the local context, based on the choices they made and the barriers they faced. (shrink)

This article traces the significance of the notion of shumi through a comparison between Kunikida Doppo’s ‘Musashino’ and Natsume Sōseki’s Kusamakura. I demonstrate how the language of shumi functioned as a mediator between an observing subject and an observed object, ultimately in order to establish an aesthetic vocabulary for a burgeoning middle class. Both narratives make use of shumi in order to draw out a specific experience of the narrator’s natural surroundings but with very different outcomes.Whereas Doppo’s text uses the (...) language of shumi to draw the attention of the reader to the aesthetic features of the Musashi Plain and presents this way of seeing as natural and universal, it simultaneously works to mask the socio-political unbalance between the possessors of such sensibilities and the inhabitants of the land that is the object of the aesthetic gaze. By contrast, Sōseki’s narrative exposes the untenableness of such an artificial language as the basis for the construction of a bourgeois identity and rejects the narrator’s claims to any kind of mastery over the landscape or its occupants as a result of his heightened sensibilities. Analyzing both narratives from the vantage point of shumi therefore reveals the political, aesthetic, and ontological tensions present in its own discursive structures. (shrink)

My main aim in this paper is to contribute to the elucidation of the nature of non-religious faith. I start by summarising several well-known arguments that belief is neither necessary nor sufficient for faith. I then try to identify the nature of the positive cognitive attitude towards p that is involved in having faith that p. After dismissing some candidates for the role, I explore the idea that faith and hope are similar attitudes. On this basis, I then advance a (...) new characterisation of faith. Finally, I turn to the question of the rationality of faith. I argue that faith is intrinsically irrational because it is an intrinsically incoherent propositional attitude, but that there is nonetheless a sense in which faith is neither intrinsically epistemically irrational nor intrinsically practically irrational. (shrink)

The Expanse does not provide an easy answer to the vexing question on making a decision when competing, but considering conflicts of values on the show can help us reason about tough choices in real life. Sometimes, scientific progress conflicts with the prudential value of self-preservation. This chapter explains three ways of understanding value conflicts: as situations in which every option is forbidden, situations in which every option is permissible, or situations in which some options are obligatory and some options (...) are forbidden. The idea that all these different kinds of value can be traded with a common currency is tempting. But contra Keats, beauty is not truth; and it certainly is not goodness, as Tolstoy says. Epistemic, moral, prudential, and aesthetic values are very different. (shrink)

European Stories is the first book of its kind in any European language. Its authors explore the many different ways 'public intellectuals' have debated Europe - the EU and its periphery - within distinct epistemological, disciplinary, ideological and above all national traditions. The chapters focus on the post-1989 era but with a view to the long history of the 'European idea' and its variants across the continent. To what extent such ideas frame the attitude of European publics is left open. (...) But the authors assume that they matter to the European project as a whole. While the twelve national cases have been selected for the broad range they offer, from founding to non-EU member states, they are not exhaustive as the book is meant to encourage further research. The authors of these chapters are all themselves fully immersed in their respective public spheres although generally not strongly identified with one 'camp' or another. The expected readership is broad and interdisciplinary, ranging from political philosophy, to political science, international relations, history, sociology and the history of ideas. Beyond academia, European Stories is meant for all readers interested in the intellectual debates of our time. (shrink)

The eighth chapter of the Han Feizi is dedicated to the ways of “wielding power” (揚權). As the entire book attributed to Master Han Fei is arguably dedicated to the problem of power – establishing, exerting and protecting it from external and internal enemies, this section of the book is crucial for the entire text. The present article starts from the term “yao 要” and applies the method of conceptual history to this pre-imperial text. It intends to shed light on (...) the conceptual associations between the survival of the State, the ruler’s position, the importance of a political centre, and the use of objective ruling techniques, within a newly conceived “political sphere” with its own laws and necessities. The paper then addresses the heritage of the Han Feizi to conceptualizations of politics during the imperial period, eventually considering the function of the ruler in Han Fei’s thought. (shrink)

In the year 806 CE the Japanese monk Kūkai returned from a journey to China and brought a large amount of visual artefacts with him. Commentators have wondered since what role these visual media play in Kūkai’s Buddhist thought. It has been speculated that the art works show that Kūkai values visual media higher when it comes to transmitting the teaching of the Buddha. Proponents of this view usually refer to a single passage from Kūkai’s writings to warrant their interpretation. (...) By analysing the respective passage in detail and showing how it connects to Kūkai’s other writings, this article argues that Kūkai did not prefer the visual to the verbal in transmitting the dharma. Mandalas certainly play an important role in Kūkai’s thought, but their role differs from what these modern interpreters suppose: first, when Kūkai speaks about ‘mandalas’ he often does not refer to paintings, but to the structure of reality or to ritual procedures. Second, mandala paintings have an ambiguous role in esoteric ritual, because they were added rather late in the development of esoteric ritual. For Kūkai they serve primarily as storyboards for ritual performance. Third, the first glance at a mandala is an important moment during esoteric initiations, but it is only the beginning of a rigorous training. Moreover, the crucial moment in esoteric ritual is the union of the practitioner with the deity; glancing at the mandala has no role to play in this mystic union. Fourth, mandala paintings can be used, according to Kūkai, to reveal the deeper structure of texts, but in this role they are not superior to the written medium but rather play a helping role. Fifth, Kūkai believes that texts as well as paintings can be misleading whenever they are taken as representations of a rigid structure of reality. In Kūkai’s eyes, the visual cannot, therefore, solve the problem how the Buddha can transmit his dharma. (shrink)

The Tattvasaṅgraha (TS) has been considered a comprehensive encyclopedia of both Buddhist and non-Buddhist philosophical subjects. According to Kamalaśīla’s Vajracchedikāṭīkā, however, the refutations of objections (*codyaparihāra) by other systems of thought is merely a means to indirectly make the reader understand the topic (*abhidheya) and ultimately achieve the purpose (*prayojana) of the work. The topic of TS is “the true states [of things]” (tattva), which is interpreted by Kamalaśīla as “the various qualifiers of the entities that have arisen having depended (...) on causes and conditions” (pratītyasamutpāda=pratītyasamutpanna) enumerated in TS 1–6ab. It is well-known that the first ten qualifiers of the pratītyasamutpāda in TS 1–4ab correspond to the topics of the first twenty-three chapters of TS, while the remaining elements in TS 4cd–6abc were known to be difficult to allocate to specific chapters. This paper sheds light on the possibility of analyzing the latter elements as well, suggesting that they form the qualifiers of the pratītyasamutpāda. Consequently, the eleventh and twelfth qualifiers of the pratītyasamutpāda, “which is free from all conceptual proliferation” and “which is not understood by others” in TS 4cd, qualify the pratītyasamutpāda as the object of the Buddha’s cognition characterized by the negation of conceptual cognition and heathen cognition. They summarize the first twenty-three chapters and all twenty-six chapters, respectively. Furthermore, the qualifications of the Buddha who teaches the pratītyasamutpāda in TS 5–6abc are convertible to the thirteenth and fourteen qualifications of the pratītyasamutpāda, “which is taught by [the direct seer] who does not depend on an autonomous Veda” and “which is taught by the Omniscient One for whom the great compassion became natural.” These paired qualities, wisdom (prajñā) and compassion (dayā), form the essential qualities of a qualified teacher of the pratītyasamutpāda and are described in Chs. 24–25 and Ch. 26, respectively. (shrink)

In the 1987 Hollywood film Fatal Attraction, the protagonist Dan Gallagher, played by Michael Douglas, is a successful, wealthy Manhattan lawyer with an attractive wife and a daughter he dotes on. At the beginning of the film, he could not be more satisfied with his happy, conventional life. This all changes after an encounter with Alex Forrest, a seductive female played by Glenn Close. They meet at a business party and have a brief but memorable conversation. Not knowing if they (...) will ever meet again, they are surprised — and delighted — to encounter one another at a business meeting the following day, but Dan restrains his urge to flirt with her. After the meeting, he rushes outside on the way to his next appointment. Rain is bucketing down, but his umbrella refuses to unfurl. Emerging from the building at that moment, Alex comes up to him and jokingly asks,... (shrink)

The idea of moral certainties is venerable, highly contentious, and nevertheless alive. What I call “hinge ethics” (in analogy to hinge epistemology) combines three currents – meta-ethical concerns about the scope and limits of moral knowledge and objectivity, the idea of limits of doubt as articulated in On Certainty, and sympathies for Wittgensteinian ideas about ethics. This essay critically assesses hinge ethics, focusing on Nigel Pleasants’ work. My main objection is not that Wittgensteinian ideas about certainty cannot be transferred from (...) the domain of physical phenomena to the moral domain. Nor shall I nail my colours to the mast of moral relativism. Instead my main tack will be as follows: Several of the views hinge ethicists detect in or derive from On Certainty are intriguing and ingenious, yet either unwarranted and/or not echt Wittgensteinian. Purported moral certainties like the wrongness of killing are neither ineffable, nor non-propositional, nor quasi-transcendental preconditions of moral thought and action. In so far as morality has scaffolding foundations, it is not certainties but capacities. At least some of these capacities are cognitive, a matter of social cognition. (shrink)

An important part of friendships are the so-called special obligations generated by them. Friends owe things to each other that they do not owe to strangers. While such special obligations are an important part of our everyday practice, they raise several philosophical questions. These questions include the status of special obligations (are such obligations sui generis or is it possible to reduce them to general moral principles?), the source of such special obligations (what grounds special obligations of friendship?), and the (...) content of special obligations (what is the content of special obligations of friendship?). This chapter gives an overview of some of the most important positions in the literature with regard to these questions. (shrink)

According to Anscombe, acting intentionally entails knowledge in action. This thesis has been near-universally rejected due to a well-known counterexample by Davidson: a man intending to make ten legible carbon copies might not believe with confidence, and hence not know, that he will succeed. If he does, however, his action surely counts as intentional. Damaging as it seems, an even more powerful objection can be levelled against Anscombe: while acting, there is as yet no fact of the matter as to (...) whether the agent will succeed. Since his belief that he will is not yet true while his action is in progress, he cannot possibly know that he is indeed bringing about the intended goal. Knowledge in action is not only unnecessary for intentional action, it seems, but-at least as regards success-bound types of action-impossible to attain in the first place. (shrink)

Persuasion is one of the main rhetorical techniques employed in debates by early Chinese “wandering persuaders,” as it is attested by several examples preserved in Classical Chinese pre-imperial and early imperial politico-philosophical literature. The present article contributes to the study of persuasion by providing a detailed structural analysis of one of the most famous texts that openly deals with this technique, Chapter 12 ‘Shuìnán’ 說難 (The Difficulties of Persuasion) of the composite “Masters text”Hán Fēizǐ韓非子. Through such analysis, the article discloses (...) the complex, multi-layered underlying rhetorical structure of the text, and the thick network of conceptual cross-references that are established among its different sections through the ingenious distribution of different kinds of text-structuring elements. As the present case study will show, this type of analysis is an invaluable hermeneutic tool that provides a substantial contribution to a better and fuller understanding of Classical Chinese texts. (shrink)

The paper proposes (1.) a non-standard interpretation of the proverbial expression “deuteros plous” by giving a fresh look to Phaedo, 99c9-d1. Then (2.) it proceeds to the philosophical problem raised in this passage according to this interpretation, that is, the problem of the “hypothesis” or the “unproved principle”. It indicates finally (3.) the kernel of truth contained in the standard Interpretation and it concludes with some remarks on the “weakness of the logoi”.

This article discusses the chapter “Objection to Positional Power” (Nan shi 難勢) of Han Feizi 韓非子. It provides a full translation cum analysis of the text and explores systematically the chapter’s structure, rhetoric, and its political message. The discussion, which contextualizes the chapter’s message within broader trends of the Warring States-period political debates, demonstrates that beneath the surface of debates about “positional power” (shi 勢) versus “worth” (xian 賢), the chapter addresses one of the touchiest issues in Chinese political thought: (...) that of the intrinsic weakness of hereditary monarchy. Furthermore, “Objection to Positional Power” also addresses problems of the meritocratic system of rule and elucidates some of the reasons for Han Fei’s dislike of meritocratic discourse. By highlighting some of the chapter’s intellectual gems I hope to attract further attention to the immense richness of Han Feizi as one of the most sophisticated products of China’s political thought. (shrink)

In May 2017, Xiao Bing, a popular Chinese chatbot built by Microsoft Research Asia, made her debut as a poet with Sunlight Has Lost Its Glass Windows, a collection marketed as the entirely created by artificial intelligence. She learnt the art of poetry by “reading” the works of 519 modern Chinese poets, and her “inspiration” comes from pictures provided first by her programmers and later by netizens, who upload photographs through her website. Xiao Bing’s emergence made a splash in Chinese (...) society and raised grave concerns among the poets, who polemicized with her engineers. This essay traces Xiao Bing’s literary and media career, which includes both notable literary failures and notable commercial success, exploring her complex connections to technologies of power/knowledge as well as cultural phenomena that range from traditional Chinese poetry and poetry education to postmodern camp aesthetics. From within the renegotiation of the nature of poetry at the threshold of the posthuman era, I propose the critical notion of reading-as-playing to help poetry take advantage of its various entanglements and strictures in order to survive and co-shape the brave new world. (shrink)

The present article investigates the problems of zoological taxonomical categories in texts that range from the Warring States (ca. 453–221 BCE) to the Eastern Han periods (25–220 CE). It focuses its attention on theErya(attested 3rd c. BCE), a work that had a pivotal role during the development of Chinese lexicography. This terse glossary is probably one of the first texts that deal with the problem of taxonomical classification in early China through the use of syntactical devices that I call “categorical (...) markers”, i.e. normalised characters that introduce an ontologically independent category of entities. By dint of the analysis of selected case studies, it will be shown that along fairly well attested “categorical markers” that constitute dichotomous systems (such asshou獸 “quadruped furred creatures” versusniao鳥 “bipedal winged creatures”), early Chinese taxonomies reveal less explicit linguistic devices that are implied in zoological classification, e.g. the presence of “sub-categorical markers” as noun modifiers (chou醜 “being physically similar” orshu屬 “to belong to a category”) used in order to create embedded taxonomies within the standard “categorical markers”. This complexity reveals an organised taxonomical system that helps us to better define the early Chinese conception of the natural world. (shrink)

This article reflects on the activities of the Indian Buddhist scholar-monk Kamalaśīla (c. 740–795) in imperial Tibet. Following accounts offered by Tibetan historians of later periods, these activities have so far been understood as more or less limited to Kamalaśīla’s victorious participation in the historically momentous “Great Debate” at Bsam yas monastery against the Chinese Chan master Heshang Moheyan. This article suggests that he also composed altogether seven of his works – and possibly more – while residing in Tibet, and (...) sketches aspects of his intellectual profile on this basis. While remaining focused on Kamalaśīla, the article also raises wider-ranging questions regarding the activities of Indian Buddhist scholars in imperial Tibet against the backdrop of interconnected histories across South, Central and East Asia. (shrink)

During the 17th century, the unprecedented opening of Japan to the outside world drew hundreds of Japanese to travel to and settle in Southeast Asia. These Japanese residents, some of whom continued to maintain a strong connection with Japan, acquired a privileged position in their host societies, as merchants, officials, or soldiers. This position enabled them to occupy the central function of go-betweens in the relations that the Southeast Asian states sought to establish with foreign merchants. This paper aims to (...) demonstrate, through a careful analysis of sources and the use of modeling, that the Japanese in Southeast Asia crossed borders in multiple ways. Not only did they move outside the borders of Japan, but through their role as go-betweens they were also at the interface between social, ethnolinguistic, and religious groups. They used this favorable situation to facilitate communication as well as to erect barriers, according to their own interests. Although migrants imported practices from Japan when they settled there, this paper argues that in order to understand the solidity of their settlement and the success they and their children experienced they should be seen as frontier actors rather than Japanese migrants. (shrink)

The following pages provide an annotated translation in French of “Chaoxian celue” (Strategy for Korea), an influential document in the history of modern East Asia. The author, Huang Zunxian (1848–1905), was the counselor of the first Chinese minister assigned to Japan in 1877, He Ruzhang (1838–1891). Their contacts with Japanese and Western diplomats brought both men to the conclusion that China should encourage Korea to conclude treaties with Western nations. In 1880, Huang Zunxian developed their views in a booklet “Chaoxian (...) celue,” in which he urged Korea to “keep close to China, strengthen ties with Japan, and ally with the United States.” He presented it to Kim Hong-jip (1842–1896), head of a Korean diplomatic mission to Japan, who submitted it to King Gojong upon his return to Korea. Huang’s treatise made a strong impression on King Gojong and was instrumental in steering Korea toward an open-door policy. (shrink)

The Daśabhūmikasūtra has a number of distinctly visual components. However, how, and to what ends, imagery functions in this text is less clear. Taking a single narrative episode at the beginning of the text as its main focus this paper offers an examination of the pivotal metaphor of thepeaked dwelling of networks of dense clouds of great light rays(mahāraśmighanābhrajālakūṭāgāra). In attempting to show the importance of visuality to the rhetoric of the text the following approach is offered: exploration of the (...) conceptual domains of the elements of the composition to provide approximated access to cultural context; visual reconstruction of the narrative sequence; analysis of the visual articulation of meaning and interpretation of the strategic use of visual rhetoric. (shrink)