Comparison, Commensurability and Comparative Philosophy

Coordinator: Lisa Raphals, Professor, Philosophy

Project Description and Scope

These readings explore key problems and new approaches to comparative philosophy, a discipline that has often been marginalized (to area studies) and balkanized (especially through Chinese, Japanese or Indian and “Western” comparanda). We are interested in methodological approaches both within and outside of the discipline of philosophy proper. [1] Our initial focus is a methodologically innovative text, G.E.R. Lloyd’s Cognitive Variations: Reflections on the Unity and Diversity of the Human Mind (Oxford, 2007), an ambitious book that sets up comparisons both between Chinese and Greco-Roman antiquity and the evidence of ancient societies and contemporary biological and social sciences. [2] We then turn [back?] to more conventional approaches to comparative philosophy, focused on China (Wong, Larson and Deutsch, eds.)and India (Mohanty). [3] We then reconsider comparison in a historical context using Jack Goody’s The Theft of History and its historical arguments for a unified Eurasian cultural sphere. [4] We finally turn to the process of addressing apparent incommensurability through the lens of anthropology using Philippe Descola’s The Spears of Twilight.
Additional readings specifically address comparative approaches that are not mediated by “Western Philosophy” (especially the direct comparison of Chinese and Indian philosophy) and the role of the biological and social sciences.

Initial Reading List

  • Lloyd, G.E.R. Cognitive Variations: Reflections on the Unity and Diversity of the Human Mind. Clarendon, 2007.
  • Goody, Jack, The Theft of History. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2006.
  • Descola, Philippe, The Spears of Twilight: life and death in the Amazon jungle. HarperCollins, 1996.

Supplementary edited volumes, articles or book chapters
  • Larson, G. J.and E.Deutsch, eds., Interpreting Across Boundaries: new essays in comparative philosophy. Princeton 1988. Also review by Richard Rorty and response by J.N. Mohanty.
  • Mohanty, J.N., “Are Indian and Western Philosophy radically different?” in Essays on Indian Philosophy.
  • Wong, David. “Three Kinds of Incommensurability.” In Relativism: Interpretation and Confrontation, ed. Michael Krausz (Notre Dame University Press, 1989): 140-159.

Meeting Schedule and Events

Meeting every two to three weeks.
Speakers: 13 January 2011. Sir Geoffrey Lloyd

List of Participants

  • Lisa Raphals, Philosophy
  • Saranindranath Tagore, Philosophy
  • Loy Hui Chieh, Philosophy

    • Additional potential attendees:
  • Leigh Jenco (Political Science)
  • Philip Cho (ARI)