After Appropriation: Explorations in Intercultural Philosophy and Religion

Philosophic approaches to comparative religion with a specific focus on issues of appropriation and misappropriation of non-Western traditions by Western academics.

While there have been a number of specialized books in the field of comparative philosophy, and many in the field of comparative religion, there are few scholars who can address both disciplines. Furthermore, when these disciplines are virtually mutually exclusive, as in Western academia, a full appreciation of non-Western approaches to either religion or philosophy is not easily attained, and distortions, such as appropriation, often occur. Within the last ten years, there has been a concerted effort on the part of a number of Western scholars to try to address these deficiencies.

After Appropriation consists of thirteen essays, each of which addresses an issue or illustrates a problem in the interdisciplinary field of comparative religion and philosophy as it is presently conceived. Many misappropriations and exclusions have arisen from the Western tendency to reduce and manipulate the ideas and values of non-Western religions and philosophies to fit within Western concepts and categories.

How might comparative philosophy and religion change if the concepts and categories of non-Western philosophies and religions were taken as primary?

This book explores this question through analytic and phenomenological Western approaches, infused with fresh strategies and modalities derived from or inspired by non-Western traditions. In a world of increasing pluralism and continuing globalization, there is a growing need to elevate discussion of these issues to a more sophisticated level.

A truly groundbreaking collection, After Appropriation inaugurates an entirely new integrative discipline of comparative religion and philosophy, and the exceptional calibre and wide spectrum of the book’s scholarship will stimulate and propel further interest in this pivotal and fruitful direction.

With Contributions By: Tamara Albertini, Arindam Chakrabarti, Francis X. Clooney, Christopher G. Framarin, Katrin Froese, Morny Joy, Chen-kuo Lin, Dan Lusthaus, Michael McGhee, Michael Oppenheim, Tinu Ruparell, Vincent Shen, and Ahmad F. Yousif

About the Editor:

Morny Joy is University Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary and has published extensively in the area of women, philosophy, and religion. She is author of Divine Love: Luce Irigaray, Women, Gender and Religion.

Introduction
Morny Joy

Comparative Studies in Philosophy/Religion and Dialogue as Mutual "Strangification" (Waitui)
Vincent Shen

The Philosopher as Stranger: The Idea of Comparative Philosophy
Michael McGhee

Locating Intercultural Philosophy in Relation to Religion
Tinu Ruparell

The Connecting Manas: Inner Sense, Common Sense, or the Organ of Imagination
Arindam Chakrabarti

Studying the "Other": Challenges and Prospects of Muslim Scholarship on World Religions
Ahmad F. Yousif

The Vices of Ethics: The Critique of morality in Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Daoism
Katrin Foese

Comparative Philosophy and Modern Jewish Philosophy: A Conversation
Michael Oppenheim

Philosophy, Medicine, Science, and Boundaries
Dan Lusthaus

Religious Intellectual Texts as a Site for Intercultural Philosophical and Theological Reflection: The Case of Srimad Rahasyatrayasara and the Traité de l’Amour de Dieu
Francis X. Clooney, S.J.

Phenomenology of Awakening in Zhiyi’s Tianti Philosophy
Chen–Kuo Lin

Ibn Rushd or Averroës? Of Double Names and Double Truths: A Different Approach to Islamic Philosophy
Tamara Albertini

The Use of Laksana in Indian Exegesis
Christopher G. Gramarin

Women’s Rights as Human Rights: Explorations in Intercultural Philosophy and Religion
Morny Joy

Notes on Contributors
Index