Introduction
Philosophy has long centered the perspective and contributions of white male thinkers, especially from Europe and the U.S. In recognition of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we have compiled a guide highlighting just a few of the influential AAPI thinkers in order to expand the horizons of philosophy as it is currently understood and learn about the history and achievements of AAPI philosophers. Their works span the areas of Asian American feminism and queer studies, colonial studies, indigenous thought, and justice, among others, and challenge us to think outside of dominant viewpoints. These thinkers represent only a handful of the many important AAPI philosophers of history and today, and we hope you'll continue to learn and explore beyond the scholars and lineages of thought we've highlighted here.
Further Reading & Exploration
- What is Asian American Philosophy? (Philosophy in Multiple Voices)
- APA Studies on Asian and Asian American Philosophers and Philosophies (American Philosophical Association)
- Understanding the Pacific Islander (Pacific Rim Studies)
- Polynesian Philosophy (PhilPapers)
- Māori Philosophy and Social Justice (Massey University)
- Rethinking the profession through Asian/American philosophy (Grant Proposal)
Next Steps
As with many of these national commemorations, one month is never enough time to fully honor and celebrate the history and culture of marginalized communities, let alone heal the legacies (and ongoing reality) of harm they've experienced. We recognize that there is much more to be done, that racism and hate against Asian American and Pacific Islander individuals and communities can't be eliminated simply through the creation of resource guides, and that the work of realizing justice won't soon be over. But nevertheless, we keep trying, contributing how we can and building upon the efforts of those who came before us, and we continue to learn from and with one another.
If you'd like to engage more deeply with Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, IU Libraries have created a number of interrelated resources and features to provide more holistic coverage of this remembering. You'll find those, below:
- Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (Pasifika) Feature (Media Studies)
- Asian American Representation in the Media (Media Studies)
- Asian American, Native Hawaiian, & Pacific Islander Heritage Month (Media Studies)
- Korea Remixed (Media Studies)
- Spotlight on Queer & Trans* Asian Literature and Poetics (Gender Studies)
- Indigenous Philosophies (Philosophy)
- Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month Media Resources (Media Services)
- Asian American Artists, Architects, and Designers (Art, Art History, & Architecture)
- AAPI Identity - Recommended Reads from the Children's Collection (Education Library)
- Stop AAPI Hate (IUPUI Stop Asian Hate)
Prominent AAPI Philosophers
A selection of Asian American and Pacific Islander philosophers, along with a summary of their research areas and interests:
- Jaegwon Kim Philosophy of mind, metaphysics, action theory, epistemology, philosophy of science (Brown University)
- David H. Kim Moral psychology (especially emotion theory), moral and political philosophy, Asian/Comparative philosophy (especially Confucianism), critical race and feminist philosophy, decolonial/postcolonial thought (University of San Fransisco)
- Emily Lee Phenomenology (especially of Maurice Merleau-Ponty), feminist philosophy, philosophy of race (California State University, Fullerton)
- Lynn Fujiwara Asian American Studies, women of color criticisms and queer of color critique, immigration, gender and sexuality studies, media and cultural studies, social policy (University of Oregon)
- Carol Lee Cognitive science, epistemology, implicit bias, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of science, science and technology, social organization of science (University of Washington)
- Gary Mar Logic, philosophy of mathematics, analytic metaphysics, history of analytic philosophy, philosophy of language and linguistics, philosophy and computation, Asian American philosophy, philosophy of religion (Stony Brook University)
- Kyoo Lee 20th c. continental philosophy and early modern philosophy, feminist, gender, and queer theory, critical race theory and postcolonial studies, Asian and Asian American philopoetics/textual aesthetics, literary theory and comparative literature translation studies (CUNY)
- Bo Mou Metaphilosophy, metaphysics, philosophy of language, logic and philosophy of logic, Asian philosophy, epistemology (San Jose State University)
- Hao Wang Logic, mathematics, philosophy of mathematics, Gödel, anthropologism (The Rockefeller University)
- Yarran Hominh Moral psychology, social and political philosophy, philosophy of law, ethics, colonialism, early modern European philosophy, Asian philosophy (particularly Buddhism and Confucianism), critical Asian American philosophy, philosophy of the social sciences (Bard College)
- Minh Nguyen Philosophy of mind, theory of mind, aesthetics, ethics, political philosophy, creative writing (Florida Gulf Coast University)
- Georgina Stewart Research centers on the nexus of between language, knowledge, culture, and education and aligns with Kaupapa Māori, feminist and poststructuralist philosophical traditions (Auckland University of Technology)
- Krushil Watene Ethics, politics, and Indigenous philosophy; in particular, the intersections of diverse philosophical traditions, trans-disciplinarity, and the role of local communities for global change. Primary areas of expertise include mainstream theories of well-being, development, and justice (particularly the capability approach), intergenerational justice, and Māori philosophy (University of Auckland)
- Konai Helu Thaman Education (indigenous and teacher education), curriculum development, sustainable development, (with a focus on the Pacific context) (University of the South Pacific)
- Willy Huanduo Philosophy of Bernard Narokobi (judge, poet, philosopher, writer of the Melanesian Way, and first chairman of the Law Reform Commission prior to and during the independence of Papua New Guinea) (University of Papua New Guinea)
- Sanjay Lal Gandhi, peace studies, non-western philosophy, environmental ethics, philosophy of religion, Hume (Clayton State University)
- Veena Howard Asian religious traditions (Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Buddhism), philosophy of M.K. Gandhi, animal ethics, interfaith religions (Fresno State University)
- Vrinda Dalmiya Epistemology, feminist philosophy, environmental philosophy (University of Hawaii)
- Prasanta S. Bandyopadhyay Applications of statistical/probabilistic notions to long-standing conundrum of methodological issues, history of philosophy (modern), epistemology, Indian philosophy (Montana State University)
- Celia Bardwell-Jones Feminist philosophy, American philosophy, philosophy of race and cultural diversity (University of Hawaii at Hilo)
- Kenneth Aizawa Philosophy of neuroscience, philosophy of psychology, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, science, logic, and mathematics (Rutgers University)
Books
Subjects of Intergenerational Justice: Indigenous Philosophy, The Environment and Relationships by ISBN: 9780367551476Publication Date: 2021-09-01This book challenges mainstream Western IEJ (intergenerational environmental justice) in a manner that privileges indigenous philosophies and highlights the value these philosophies have for solving global environmental problems. Divided into three parts, the book begins by examining the framing of Western liberal environmental, intergenerational and indigenous justice theory and reviews decolonial theory. Using contemporary case studies drawn from the courts, film, biography and protests actions, the second part explores contemporary Māori and Aboriginal experiences of values-conflict in encounters with politics and law. It demonstrates the deep ontological rifts between the philosophies that inform Māori and Aboriginal intergenerational justice (IJ) and those of the West that underpin the politics and law of these two settler states. Existing Western IEJ theories, across distributional, communitarian, human rights based and the capabilities approach to IJ, are tested against obligations and duties of specific Māori and Aboriginal iwi and clans. Finally, in the third part, it explores the ways we relate to time and across generations to create regenerative IJ. Challenging the previous understanding of the conceptualization of time, it posits that it is in how we relate--human to human, human to nonhuman, nonhuman to human--that robust conceptualization of IEJ emerges. This volume presents an imagining of IEJ which accounts for indigenous norms on indigenous terms and explores how this might be applied in national and international responses to climate change and environmental degradation. Demonstrating how assumptions in mainstream justice theory continue to colonise indigenous people and render indigenous knowledge invisible, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental and intergenerational philosophy, political theory, indigenous studies and decolonial studies, and environmental humanities more broadly.
Everything Ancient Was Once New by ISBN: 9780824888183Publication Date: 2021-02-28In Everything Ancient Was Once New, Emalani Case explores Indigenous persistence through the concept of Kahiki, a term that is at once both an ancestral homeland for Kānaka Maoli (Hawaiians) and the knowledge that there is life to be found beyond Hawaiʻi's shores. Kahiki is therefore both a symbol of ancestral connection and the potential that comes with remembering and acting upon that connection. Tracing physical, historical, intellectual, and spiritual journeys to and from Kahiki, Case frames it as a place of refuge and sanctuary, a place where ancient knowledge can constantly be made anew. It is in Kahiki, and in the sanctuary it creates, that today's K'naka Maoli can find safety and reprieve from the continued onslaught of settler colonial violence while confronting some of the uncomfortable and challenging realities of being Indigenous in Hawai'i, in the Pacific, and in the world. The book engages with Kahiki as a shifting term employed by K'naka Maoli to explain their lives and experiences at different points in history. Case argues for reactivated and reinvigorated engagements with Kahiki to support ongoing work aimed at decolonizing physical and ideological spaces and to reconnect K'naka Maoli to peoples and places in the Pacific region and beyond in purposeful, meaningful ways. By tracing Kahiki through pivotal moments in history and critical moments in contemporary times, Case demonstrates how the idea of Kahiki--while not always mentioned by name--was, and is, always full of potential. Intertwining personal narrative with rigorous research and analysis, Case weaves the past and the present together, reflecting on ancient concepts and their continued relevance in movements to protect lands, waters, and oceans; to fight for social justice; to reexamine our responsibilities to each other across the Pacific region; and to open space for continued dialogue on what it means to be Indigenous when at home and when away. Everything Ancient Was Once New journeys to and from Kahiki, offering readers a sanctuary for reflection, deep learning, and continued dreaming with the past, in the present, and far into the future.
Reading Descartes Otherwise by ISBN: 9780823244843Publication Date: 2012-12-10Focusing on the first four images of the Other mobilized in Descartes' Meditations--namely, the blind, the mad, the dreamy, and the bad--Reading Descartes Otherwise casts light on what have heretofore been the phenomenological shadows of "Cartesian rationality." In doing so, it discovers dynamic signs of spectral alterity lodged both at the core and on the edges of modern Cartesian subjectivity. Calling for a Copernican reorientation of the very notion "Cartesianism," the book's series of close, creatively critical readings of Descartes' signature images brings the dramatic forces, moments, and scenes of the cogito into our own contemporary moment. The author patiently unravels the knotted skeins of ambiguity that have been spun within philosophical modernity out of such clichés as "Descartes, the abstract modern subject" and "Descartes, the father of modern philosophy"--a figure who is at once everywhere and nowhere. In the process, she revitalizes and reframes the legacy of Cartesian modernity, in a way more mindful of its proto-phenomenological traces.
Cross-Tradition Engagement in Philosophy by ISBN: 9780367360412Publication Date: 2020-05-05This book presents a systematic unifying-pluralist account--a "constructive-engagement" account--of how cross-tradition engagement in philosophy is possible. The goal of this "constructive-engagement" account is, by way of reflective criticism, argumentation, and methodological guiding principles, to inquire into how distinct approaches from different philosophical traditions can talk to and learn from each other for the sake of making joint contributions to the contemporary development of philosophy. In Part I of the book, Bo Mou explores a range of fundamental theoretic and methodological issues in cross-tradition philosophical engagement and philosophical interpretation. In Part II, he analyzes several representative case studies that demonstrate how relevant resources in the Western and Chinese philosophical traditions can constructively engage with each other. These studies cover issues in philosophical methodology, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language and logic, and ethics. The book's theoretical and practical approaches expand the vision, coverage, and agenda of doing philosophy comparatively, and promote worldwide joint efforts of cross-tradition philosophical inquiries. Cross-Tradition Engagement in Philosophywill be of interest to graduate students and scholars interested in comparative philosophy and the intersection of Chinese and Western philosophy. It will also appeal to those who are interested in the ways in which cross-tradition philosophical engagement can enhance contemporary philosophical debates in metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language and logic, and ethics.
Chinese Dialectics by ISBN: 0739109227Publication Date: 2005-03-22Dialectical thought is at the core of Karl Marx's work and all subsequent attempts to build on his legacy: Marxism. And, arguably, Marx's special departure into dialectics represents an anomaly in that tradition and all of Western philosophy. Marxism finds its philosophers in the academy; in trade unions; in former soviet states; in industrial and non-industrial nations and this makes it distinct from all other modern philosophies. It is certainly the most international modern philosophical movement. Chinese Dialectics From Yijing to Marxism is an unparalleled investigation into the conversation between Western Marxism and Chinese, or Eastern Marxism. An autochthonous version of Marxism persists in China coming to fruition through the work of Mao Zedong. Chenshan Tian contends that the conversation between Eastern and Western Marxism results in a striking feature of dialectics that pervades the everyday thinking and speech of ordinary persons in China. No study to date has undertaken the task of tracing the development of Marxism in China through it's ancient philosophical texts. This book is absolutely essential reading in the disciplines of comparative political theory, philosophy, and Asian studies.
Philosophy of Language, Chinese Language, Chinese Philosophy by ISBN: 9789004368439Publication Date: 2018-07-12From the constructive-engagement vantage point of doing philosophy of language comparatively, this anthology explores (1) how reflective elaboration of some distinct features of the Chinese language and of philosophically interesting resources concerning language in Chinese philosophy can contribute to our treatment of a range of issues in philosophy of language and (2) how relevant resources in contemporary philosophy of language can contribute to philosophical interpretations of reflectively interesting resources concerning the Chinese language and Chinese texts. The foregoing contributing fronts constitute two complementary sides of this project. This volume includes 12 contributing essays and 2 engagement-background essays which are organized into six parts on distinct issues. The anthology also includes the volume editor's theme introduction on comparative philosophy of language and his engaging remarks for three parts.
Decolonizing Methodologies by ISBN: 9781786998125Publication Date: 2021-06-03To the colonized, the term 'research' is conflated with European colonialism; the ways in which academic research has been implicated in the throes of imperialism remains a painful memory. This essential volume explores intersections of imperialism and research - specifically, the ways in which imperialism is embedded in disciplines of knowledge and tradition as 'regimes of truth.' Concepts such as 'discovery' and 'claiming' are discussed and an argument presented that the decolonization of research methods will help to reclaim control over indigenous ways of knowing and being. Now in its eagerly awaited third edition, this bestselling book includes a co-written introduction features contributions from indigenous scholars on the book's continued relevance to current research. It also features a chapter with twenty-five indigenous projects and a collection of poetry.
Indigenous Knowledge in Taiwan and Beyond by ISBN: 9789811541773Publication Date: 2021-01-16This book situates Taiwan's indigenous knowledge in comparative contexts across other indigenous knowledge formations. The content is divided into four distinct but interrelated sections to highlight the importance and diversity of indigenous knowledge in Taiwan and beyond. It begins with an exploration of the recent development and construction of an indigenous knowledge and educational system in Taiwan, as well as issues concerning research ethics and indigenous knowledge. This is followed by a section that illustrates diverse forms of indigenous knowledge, and in turn, a theoretical dialogue between indigenous studies and settler colonial studies. Lastly, the Paiwan indigenous author Dadelavan Ibau's trans-indigenous journey to Tibet rounds out the coverage. This book is useful to readers in indigenous, settler colonial, and decolonial studies around the world, not just because it offers substantive content on indigenous knowledge in Taiwan, but also because it offers conceptual tools for studying indigenous knowledge from comparative and relational perspectives. It also greatly benefits anyone interested in Taiwan studies, offering an ethical approach to indigeneity in a classic settler colony.
Philosophy of Statistics by ISBN: 9780444518620Publication Date: 2011-05-25Statisticians and philosophers of science have many common interests but restricted communication with each other. This volume aims to remedy these shortcomings. It provides state-of-the-art research in the area of philosophy of statistics by encouraging numerous experts to communicate with one another without feeling "restricted" by their disciplines or thinking "piecemeal" in their treatment of issues. A second goal of this book is to present work in the field without bias toward any particular statistical paradigm. Broadly speaking, the essays in this Handbook are concerned with problems of induction, statistics and probability. For centuries, foundational problems like induction have been among philosophers' favorite topics; recently, however, non-philosophers have increasingly taken a keen interest in these issues. This volume accordingly contains papers by both philosophers and non-philosophers, including scholars from nine academic disciplines.
Asian American Feminisms and Women of Color Politics by ISBN: 9780295744360Publication Date: 2018-12-01Asian American Feminisms and Women of Color Politics brings together groundbreaking essays that speak to the relationship between Asian American feminisms, feminist of color work, and transnational feminist scholarship. This collection, featuring work by both senior and rising scholars, considers topics including the politics of visibility, histories of Asian American participation in women of color political formations, accountability for Asian American ?settler complicities? and cross-racial solidarities, and Asian American community-based strategies against state violence as shaped by and tied to women of color feminisms. Asian American Feminisms and Women of Color Politics provides a deep conceptual intervention into the theoretical underpinnings of Asian American studies; ethnic studies; women's, gender, and sexual studies; as well as cultural studies in general.
Exploring Agency in the Mahabharata by ISBN: 9781138709201Publication Date: 2018-03-20The Mahabharata, one of the major epics of India, is a sourcebook complete by itself as well as an open text constantly under construction. This volume looks at transactions between its modern discourses and ancient vocabulary. Located amid conversations between these two conceptual worlds, the volume grapples with the epic's problematisation of dharma or righteousness, and consequently, of the ideal person and the good life through a cluster of issues surrounding the concept of agency and action. Drawing on several interdisciplinary approaches, the essays reflect on a range of issues in the Mahabharata, including those of duty, motivation, freedom, selfhood, choice, autonomy, and justice, both in the context of philosophical debates and their ethical and political ramifications for contemporary times. This book will be of interest to scholars and researchers engaged with philosophy, literature, religion, history, politics, culture, gender, South Asian studies, and Indology. It will also appeal to the general reader interested in South Asian epics and the Mahabharata.
Mothers Without Citizenship by ISBN: 9780816650750Publication Date: 2008-03-26In August 1996 President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act that fulfilled his campaign promise to "end welfare as we know it," and one month later the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act passed, deepening restrictions on immigrant and welfare provisions. These acts harshly and disproportionately affected Asian immigrants who continue to experience the legacy of this legislation today. Lynn Fujiwara reveals a neglected aspect of the Asian immigrant story: the ill effects of welfare reform on Asian immigrant women and families. Mothers without Citizenship intertwines the issues of social and legal citizenship, arguing that these draconian measures redefined immigrants as outsiders whose lack of citizenship was used to deem them ineligible for public benefits. Fujiwara shows how these people are both a vulnerable, invisible group and active agents of change. At once astute policy analysis and insightful research, Mothers without Citizenship is a significant contribution to this country's immigration controversy, offering much-needed nuance to the discussion of the consequences of social policy on Asian immigrant communities and complicating debates solely focused around the politics of the border.
Between Foucault and Derrida by ISBN: 9780748697717Publication Date: 2016-09-20Explores the biographical, historical and philosophical connections between Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault Derrida and Foucault are unquestionably two of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century. Both share a similar motivation to challenge our fundamental structures of meaning - in texts, political structures, and epistemic and discursive practices - in order to inspire new ways of thinking. Between Foucault and Derrida explores the notorious Cogito debate and includes: the central articles, an important piece by Jean-Marie Beyssade, along with a letter Foucault wrote to Beyssade in response - both these pieces available for the first time in English translation. In the second part of the book, 10 essays written by some of the most well-known scholars working in contemporary continental philosophy address the various philosophical intersections and divergences of these two profoundly important thinkers. The first collection of the central essays involved in the Cogito debate between Foucault and Derrida Includes the first English translations of Jean-Marie Beyssade's important 1973 article on the debate and Foucault's letter in response to it Some of the best-known scholars working in continental philosophy today examine where Foucault and Derrida converge and diverge, and how they ultimately shaped each other's projects.
Contemporary Feminist Pragmatism by ISBN: 9780415899918Publication Date: 2012-04-17The notion of "feminist pragmatism" or "pragmatist feminism" has been around since Charlene Haddock Seigfried introduced it two decades ago. However, the bulk of the work in this field has been directed toward recovering the feminist strain of classical American philosophy, largely through renewed interest in the work of Jane Addams. This exploration of the origins of feminism and pragmatism has been fruitful in building a foundation for theoretical considerations. The editors of this volume believe the next logical step is the contemporary application to both theory and experience. Contemporary Feminist Pragmatism is the first book to address the modern significance of the nexus of feminism and pragmatism. The issues explored here include the relationship between community and identity, particularly around the impact of gender and race; reframing political practice regarding feminist pragmatist commitments including education, sustainability movements, and local efforts like community gardens; and the association between ethics and inquiry including explorations of Buddhism, hospitality, and animal-human relationships.
Mind in a Physical World by ISBN: 0262112345Publication Date: 1998-11-01This book, based on Jaegwon Kim's 1996 Townsend Lectures, presents the philosopher's current views on a variety of issues in the metaphysics of the mind -- in particular, the mind-body problem, mental causation, and reductionism. Kim construes the mind-body problem as that of finding a place for the mind in a world that is fundamentally physical. Among other points, he redefines the roles of supervenience and emergence in the discussion of the mind-body problem. Arguing that various contemporary accounts of mental causation are inadequate, he offers his own partially reductionist solution on the basis of a novel model of reduction. Retaining the informal tone of the lecture format, the book is clear yet sophisticated.
Physicalism, or Something near Enough by ISBN: 0691113750Publication Date: 2005-03-27Contemporary discussions in philosophy of mind have largely been shaped by physicalism, the doctrine that all phenomena are ultimately physical. Here, Jaegwon Kim presents the most comprehensive and systematic presentation yet of his influential ideas on the mind-body problem. He seeks to determine, after half a century of debate: What kind of (or "how much") physicalism can we lay claim to? He begins by laying out mental causation and consciousness as the two principal challenges to contemporary physicalism. How can minds exercise their causal powers in a physical world? Is a physicalist account of consciousness possible? The book's starting point is the "supervenience" argument (sometimes called the "exclusion" argument), which Kim reformulates in an extended defense. This argument shows that the contemporary physicalist faces a stark choice between reductionism (the idea that mental phenomena are physically reducible) and epiphenomenalism (the view that mental phenomena are causally impotent). Along the way, Kim presents a novel argument showing that Cartesian substance dualism offers no help with mental causation. Mind-body reduction, therefore, is required to save mental causation. But are minds physically reducible? Kim argues that all but one type of mental phenomena are reducible, including intentional mental phenomena, such as beliefs and desires. The apparent exceptions are the intrinsic, felt qualities of conscious experiences ("qualia"). Kim argues, however, that certain relational properties of qualia, in particular their similarities and differences, are behaviorally manifest and hence in principle reducible, and that it is these relational properties of qualia that are central to their cognitive roles. The causal efficacy of qualia, therefore, is not entirely lost.
Race As Phenomena by ISBN: 9781786605368Publication Date: 2019-07-09This book introduces and explores the relation between race and phenomenology through varied African American, Latina, Asian American, and White American perspectives. Phenomenology is best known as a descriptive endeavor to more accurately describe our experience of the world. These essays examine the ways in which this relation between phenomenology and race acts as a site of racial meaning. Philosophy of race conceives race as a social construction. Because of the sedimentation of racial meaning into the very structure and practices of society, the socially constructed meanings about features of the body are mistaken as natural. Hence although racial meaning is theoretically recognized as socially constructed, during an every-day interaction, racial meaning is mistaken as inevitable and natural. Ideal for advanced students in phenomenology and philosophy of race, this volume pushes the phenomenological method forward by exploring its relation to questions within philosophy of race.
Waves of Knowing: A Seascape Epistemology by ISBN: 9780822362128Publication Date: 2016-11-02In Waves of Knowing Karin Amimoto Ingersoll marks a critical turn away from land-based geographies to center the ocean as place. Developing the concept of seascape epistemology, she articulates an indigenous Hawaiian way of knowing founded on a sensorial, intellectual, and embodied literacy of the ocean. As the source from which Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) draw their essence and identity, the sea is foundational to Kanaka epistemology and ontology. Analyzing oral histories, chants, artwork, poetry, and her experience as a surfer, Ingersoll shows how this connection to the sea has been crucial to resisting two centuries of colonialism, militarism, and tourism. In today's neocolonial context—where continued occupation and surf tourism marginalize indigenous Hawaiians—seascape epistemology as expressed by traditional cultural practices such as surfing, fishing, and navigating provides the tools for generating an alternative indigenous politics and ethics. In relocating Hawaiian identity back to the waves, currents, winds, and clouds, Ingersoll presents a theoretical alternative to land-centric viewpoints that still dominate studies of place-making and indigenous epistemology.
Living Alterities by ISBN: 9781438450155Publication Date: 2014-04-01Philosophers consider race and racism from the perspective of lived, bodily experience.
Substantive Perspectivism by ISBN: 9789048126224Publication Date: 2009-09-21I have been thinking about the philosophical issue of truth for more than two decades. It is one of several fascinating philosophical issues that motivated me to change my primary re ective interest to philosophy after receiving BS in mathem- ics in 1982. Some serious academic work in this connection started around the late eighties when I translated into Chinese a dozen of Donald Davidson's representative essays on truth and meaning and when I assumed translator for Adam Morton who gave a series of lectures on the issue in Beijing (1988), which was co-sponsored by my then institution (Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Science). I have loved the issue both for its own sake (as one speci c major issue in the phil- ophy of language and metaphysics) and for the sake of its signi cant involvement in many philosophical issues in different subjects of philosophy. Having been attracted to the analytic approach, I was then interested in looking at the issue both from the points of view of classical Chinese philosophy and Marxist philosophy, two major styles or frameworks of doing philosophy during that time in China, and from the point of view of contemporary analytic philosophy, which was then less recognized in the Chinese philosophical circle.
Semantic-Truth Approaches in Chinese Philosophy by ISBN: 9781498560412Publication Date: 2018-11-06This book explains a distinctive pluralist account of truth, jointly-rooted perspectivism ('JRP' for short). This explanation unifies various representative while philosophically interesting truth-concern approaches in early Chinese philosophy on the basis of people's pre-theoretic "way-things-are-capturing" understanding of truth. It explains how JRP provides effective interpretative resources to identify and explain one unifying line that runs through those distinct truth-concern approaches and how they can thus talk with and complement each other and contribute to the contemporary study of the issue of truth. In so doing, the book also engages with some distinct treatments in the modern study of Chinese philosophy. Through testing its explanatory power in effectively interpreting those representative truth-concern approaches in the Yi-Jing philosophy, Gongsun Long's philosophy, Later Mohist philosophy, classical Confucianism and classical Daoism, JRP is also further justified and strengthened. Mou defends JRP as an original unifying pluralist account in the context of cross-tradition philosophical engagement, which can also effectively engage with other accounts of truth (including other types of pluralist accounts) in contemporary philosophy. The purpose of this book is dual: (1) it is to enhance our understanding and treatment of the truth concern as one strategic foundation of various movements of thought in classical Chinese philosophy that are intended to capture "how things are"; (2) on the other hand, it is to explore how the relevant resources in Chinese philosophy can contribute to the contemporary exploration of the philosophical issue of truth in philosophically interesting and engaging way.
Caring to Know by ISBN: 9780199464760Publication Date: 2016-05-31As a venture in the emerging field of comparative feminist philosophy, this work goes against the current trend of considering caring and knowing as independent of each other. It argues for what can be called a care-based epistemology modelled on the now-familiar care ethics. Using critical insights from the Mahabharata, the book proposes that knowing and caring can be fruitfully theorized together, while keeping the argument firmly rooted in mainstream Anglo-Western virtue epistemology. What emerges is a feminist epistemology that uses the methods of creative comparative philosophy to come up with a concept of relational humility as the fulcrum of a new theory of knowing.On the one hand, the epistemic and ethical paradigms given in the Mahabharata are interrogated though the political lens of contemporary feminist theory. On the other, the scope of traditional care ethics and virtue epistemology is broadened through a dialogue with an epics narrative meditations on living well and knowing well in a very different context. Such a cross-cultural exploration gives us a robust conception of a good knower who is both an ethical agent as well as ready to make interventions in various forms of epistemic injustices.
Epistemology of the Quran by ISBN: 9783030175573Publication Date: 2019-07-30This book examines all verses of the Quran involving knowledge related concepts. It begins with the argument that an analysis of the Quranic concept of ignorance points to epistemic virtues that can pave our way towards gaining knowledge and/or understanding. It deals with the Quranic concepts of perceptual, rational, and revelatory knowledge as well as understanding and wisdom in the light of recent discussions in Western analytic epistemology. It also argues that the relevant Quranic verses seem to involve concept of an epistemic conscience whose proper exercise can yield knowledge or understanding. While not overlooking the Quranic emphasis on revelation as a source of knowledge, the book draws our attention to a remarkable overlap between some strains of contemporary virtue epistemology and Quranic approach to knowledge. It shows that the Quranic verses suggest a progressive sequence from propositional knowledge to understanding to wisdom.
Scientific Composition and Metaphysical Ground by ISBN: 9781137562159Publication Date: 2016-11-17We find "vertical" relations in many different realms, whether between atoms and molecules, words and sentences, neurons and brains, or individuals and societies. This book is the first to bring together, and comparatively assess, the exciting array of philosophical approaches to vertical relations that have independently sprung up in analytic metaphysics, the metaphysics of mind, and the philosophy of science. Analytic metaphysicians have recently focused on a relation of 'Ground' that is claimed to be found in aesthetics, ethics, logic, mathematics, science, and semantics. Metaphysicians of mind have focussed on a vertical relation of 'realization' between properties, whilst philosophers of science associated with the rise of the 'New Mechanism' have renewed interest in vertical relations of scientific composition found in so-called "mechanistic explanations". This volume analyses the inter-relations between these different approaches to spark a range of new debates, including whether the various frameworks for vertical relations are independent, complementary or in even competition.
Logic by ISBN: 0155511815Publication Date: 1980-04-16Logic: Techniques of Formal Reasoning, 2/e is an introductory volume that teaches students to recognize and construct correct deductions. It takes students through all logical steps--from premise to conclusion--and presents appropriate symbols and terms, while giving examples to clarifyprinciples. Logic, 2/e uses models to establish the invalidity of arguments, and includes exercise sets throughout, ranging from easy to challenging. Solutions are provided to selected exercises, and historical remarks discuss major contributions to the theories covered.
The Philosophical Computer by ISBN: 0262071851Publication Date: 1998-05-14Philosophical modelling is as old as philosophy itself; examples range from Plato's Cave and the Divided Line to Rawls's original position. What is new are the computational resources now available for philosophical modelling. Although the computer cannot offer a substitute for philosophical research, it can offer an new environment within which to do that research.
From Mathematics to Philosophy by ISBN: 0391003356Publication Date: 1974-01-01Despite the tendency of contemporary analytic philosophy to put logic and mathematics at a central position, the author argues it failed to appreciate or account for their rich content. Through discussions of such mathematical concepts as number, the continuum, set, proof and mechanical procedure, the author provides an introduction to the philosophy of mathematics and an internal criticism of the then current academic philosophy. The material presented is also an illustration of a new, more general method of approach called substantial factualism which the author asserts allows for the development of a more comprehensive philosophical position by not trivializing or distorting substantial facts of human knowledge.
Beyond Analytic Philosophy by ISBN: 0262231247Publication Date: 1985-10-08This cogent and knowledgeable critique of the tradition of modern analytic philosophy focuses on the work of its central figures—Russell, Carnap, and Quine—and finds it wanting. In its place, Hao Wang unfolds his own original view of what philosophy could and should be. The base of any serious philosophy, he contends, should take as its point of departure the actual state of human knowledge. He explains the relation of this new tradition to mathematical logic and reveals the crucial transitions and mistakes in mainstream Anglo-American philosophy that make a new approach so compelling. Equally at home in philosophy and mathematics, Wang is uniquely qualified to take on the task of critically examining modern philosophy. He carefully traces the path of ideas from Russell and Wittgenstein through the Vienna Circle to modern British and American philosophy, and makes use of his familiarity with the profound thought of Kurt Godel with whom he has had numerous discussions. He also presents the broader significance of Russell's philosophy, provides a comprehensive and unified treatment of Quine's work in logic and in philosophy, and delineates what is common between Carnap and Quine.
The Systematicity Arguments by ISBN: 1402072716Publication Date: 2002-11-30This book addresses a part of a problem. The problem is to determine the architecture of cognition, that is, the basic structures and mechanisms underlying cognitive processing. This is a multidimensional problem insofar as there appear to be many distinct types of mechanisms that interact in diverse ways during cognitive processing. Thus, we have memory, attention, learning, sensation, perception, and who knows what else, interacting to produce behavior. As a case in point, consider a bit of linguistic behavior. To tell a friend that I think Greg won a stunning victory, I must evidently rely on various bits of information stored in my memory, including who my friends are, who Greg is, what he won, and what natural languages I share with my friend. I must sense and perceive that my friend is within hearing distance, how loud I need to speak, how loud I am speaking, and whether my friend is paying attention. I must avail myself of what I know about the language I share with my friend, along with innumerable principles about human "folk psychology. " This book does not address the full range of contemporary theorizing about cognitive architecture, but only a part. It addresses theories of cognitive architecture that hypothesize that there exist cognitive representations, then begins to explore the possible structure of these representations. One of the leading hypotheses concerning the structure of cognitive representations is that it is akin to that found in symbolic logic.
The Bounds of Cognition by ISBN: 9781444391701Publication Date: 2010-09-09An alarming number of philosophers and cognitive scientists have argued that mind extends beyond the brain and body. This book evaluates these arguments and suggests that, typically, it does not. A timely and relevant study that exposes the need to develop a more sophisticated theory of cognition, while pointing to a bold new direction in exploring the nature of cognition Articulates and defends the "mark of the cognitive", a common sense theory used to distinguish between cognitive and non-cognitive processes Challenges the current popularity of extended cognition theory through critical analysis and by pointing out fallacies and shortcoming in the literature Stimulates discussions that will advance debate about the nature of cognition in the cognitive sciences
Scholarly Work
- Huffer, E., & Qalo, R. (2004). Have We Been Thinking Upside-Down? The Contemporary Emergence of Pacific Theoretical Thought. The Contemporary Pacific, 16(1), 87–116.
- Kim, D.H., & Sundstrom, R.R. (2014). Xenophobia and Racism. Critical Philosophy of Race 2(1), 20-45.
- Lee, C. J. (2014). Asian Americans, Positive Stereotyping, and Philosophy. American Philosophical Association Newsletters: Asian and Asian American Philosophers and Philosophies, 14(1), 2–7.
- Lee, K. (2017). Toward a (M)oral Theory of Sex, its Lipkinkiness: On Oral, Labial, Dental Caesura, Fermata, Aria. Feminist Formations 29 (3), 172-178. Winter 2017. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Aizawa, K. (2018). Extended Cognition, Trust and Glue, and Knowledge. Oxford University Press.
- Aizawa, K. (2019). Is perceiving bodily action? Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 18(5), 933-946–946.
- Bardwell-Jones, C. T. (2018). Placental ethics: Addressing colonial legacies and imagining culturally safe responses to health care in Hawai'i. Pluralist, 13(1), 97-114–114.
- Dalmiya, V. (2022). Measure for Measure: Exploring the Virtues of Vice Epistemology. Journal of Philosophical Research, 47, 67–81.
- Hominh, Y. (2021). Dewey and the Tragedy of the Human Condition. The Pluralist, 16(1), 26.
- Kim, J. (2001). Lonely Souls: Causality and Substance Dualism. In Soul, Body, and Survival: Essays on the Metaphysics of Human Persons. Cornell Univ Pr.
- Lee, E. S. (2011). The Epistemology of the Question of Authenticity, in Place of Strategic Essentialism. Hypatia, 26(2), 258–279.
- Matapo, J. (2021). Tagata o le Moana – The people of Moana: Traversing Pacific Indigenous philosophy in Pasifika education research. [Doctoral dissertation, Auckland University of Technology].
- Mou, B. (1998). An Analysis of the Ideographic Nature and Structure of the Hexagram in Yijing: From the Perspective of Philosophy of Language. Journal of Chinese Philosophy, 25(3), 305–320.
- Sellmann, J. D. (2020). Correlative Thinking in Pacific Island (Micronesian) Cultural Philosophies. Pacific Asia Inquiry, 11(1), 153–175.
- Stewart, G. T., MacDonald, L., Matapo, J., Fa’avae, D. T. M., Watson, B. K., Akiu, R. K., Martin, B., Mika, C., & Sturm, S. (2023). Surviving academic Whiteness: Perspectives from the Pacific. Educational Philosophy & Theory, 55(2), 141–152.
- Vaughn, K., Saelua, N., & Taione-Filihia, ’Asena. (2021). Cultivating a Cultural Kipuka: Pacific Islander Practitioner Reflections. About Campus, 26(1), 30–35.
- Bardwell-Jones, C. (2010). The space between: the politics of immigration in Asian/Pacific Islander America. The Pluralist, 5(3), 49.
- Hominh, Y. (2022). In Defense of Political Equality: On Bai Tongdong’s Against Political Equality. The Journal of Confucian Philosophy and Culture, 37, 59–90.
- Kim, D. H. (2019). Alterity, Analectics, and the Challenges of Epistemic Decolonization. Southern Journal of Philosophy, 57, 37–62.
- Kim, D. H. (2009). The Unexamined Frontier: Dewey, Pragmatism, and America Enlarged. In Pragmatism, Nation, and Race: Community in the Age of Empire. Indiana Univ Pr.
- Lee, E. S. (2016). Postcolonial Ambivalence and Phenomenological Ambiguity: Towards Recognizing Asian American Women’s Agency. Critical Philosophy of Race, 4(1), 56–73.
- Lee, E. S. (2017). A Problem with Conceptually Relating Race and Class, Regarding the Question of Choice. Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, 38(2), 349–368.
- Lee, E. S. (2021). The Possibility of Emotional Appropriateness for Groups Identified with a Temperament. In Jerome Melancon (ed.), Transforming Politics with Merleau-Ponty. Lanham, MD: pp. 13-32.
- Stewart, G. T. (2021). Academic-Maori-Woman: The impossible may take a little longer. Educational Philosophy and Theory.
- Mar, G., & St. Denis, P. (1999). What the Liar Taught Achilles. Journal of Philosophical Logic, 28(1), 29–46.
- Mar, G., & Stdenis, P. (1994). Chaos in Cooperation: Continuous-Valued Prisoners Dilemmas in Infinite-Valued Logic. International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos, 4(4), 943–958.
- Mou, B. (2016). How the Validity of the Parallel Inference is Possible: From the Ancient Mohist Diagnose to a Modern Logical Treatment of Its Semantic-Syntactic Structure. History & Philosophy of Logic, 37(4), 301–324.
- Adeel, M. A. (2015). Moderation in Greek and Islamic Traditions, and a Virtue Ethics of the Qur’an. The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, 32(3), 1–28.
- Bandyopadhyay, P. S. (2019). The Modernist Turn in Indian Philosophy. Sophia, 58(1), 1–5.
- Hanink, J. G., & Mar, G. R. (1987). What Euthyphro couldn’t have said. Faith and Philosophy, 4(3), 241–261.
- Kim, J. (2008). Being Realistic about Emergence. Oxford University Press.
- Song, B. (2019). Comparative Metaphysics and Theology as a Scientific Endeavor: A Ruist (Confucian) Perspective. Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry, 1(2), 203–224.
AAPI Philosopher Experience
The voices of Asian American and Pacific Islander individuals on their experiences in the field of philosophy.
- Asian, American, Woman, Philosopher (The New York Times)
- The Invisible Asian (The New York Times)
- What is it like to be a philosopher of Asian descent? (Asian and Asian American Philosophers and Philosophies Newsletter)
- A Strong Voice for Pacific Islander Students (University of Washington)
- A passion for ignorance? Not knowing the half of it (Georgina Stewart, Auckland University of Technology)
The Pacific Islander Student Experience
Video: The Pacific Islander Student Experience. Student Affairs Now Host (2022).
Xenophobia, Xenophilia, and Anti-Asian Racism
Video: David Kim (University of San Francisco): Xenophobia, Xenophilia, and Anti-Asian Racism. CU Denver Philosophy Department (2022).