Online research in philosophy

The West has long had an ambivalent attitude toward the philosophical traditions of the East. Voltaire claimed that the East is the civilization "to which the West owes everything", yet C.S. Peirce was contemptuous of the "monstrous mysticism of the East". And despite the current trend toward globalizations, there is still a reluctance to take seriously the intellectual inheritance of South and East Asia. Oriental Enlightenment challenges this Eurocentric prejudice. J. J. Clarke examines the role played by the ideas of Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism in the intellectual life of the West and how these ideas, far more than exotic distractions, or even instruments of colonial domination, have been the means towards serious self-questioning and self-renewal, used to dispute and even to undermine Western orthodoxies.

as a major force in the establishment of Hua-yen studies in Korea. A major component of Wŏnhyo's career that is sometimes overlooked in these characterizations, however, is the fact that he easily stands as one of the greatest Yogācāra scholars in the entire history of East Asian Buddhism, having demonstrated a mastery of the Yogācāra doctrine equaled by probably no more than three or four individuals in the entire East Asian tradition. 1 Indeed, after K'uei-chi 窺基 and Hsüan-tsang 玄奘 , there does not seem to be an East Asian scholar who produced the volume of Consciousness-only related materials comparable to Wŏnhyo.

From Abhidharma to Zurvan, this important new resource identifies and defines the principal concepts and individuals in Asian philosophy throughout the world. The comprehensive geographic coverage encompasses China, Japan, India, the Middle East, the United States and Australasia, with an emphasis on contemporary developments and movements. Featuring 650 signed A-Z entries, the Encyclopedia emphasises the present-day vitality of Asian philosophy, and provides extensive coverage of trends such as the reciprocal exchange of theories between East and West, and new schools of thought such as orientalism. Entries include: * Confucius and Confucianism * karma * shamanism * no-self * Madhyamaka School of Buddhism * hungry ghosts * orientalism * Ramanuja * simplicity * Yi Yulgok * Wantokism * Chuang-tzu/Zhuangzi * tantra * harmony * Sufism * Yin-Yang * Mulla Sadra * Zen * and much more. Cross-references; bibliographies and annotated suggestions for further reading; variants provided for all foreign terms (e.g. Pali/Sanskrit, Arabic/Persian).

William F. Lynch, S. J. An Approach to the Metaphysics of Plato through the Parmenides, Georgetown University Press, 1959, 255 pp. $ 6.00 Robert S. Brumbaugh, Plato on the One. The Hypotheses in the Parmenides, Yale University Press, New Haven 1961, 365 pp. $ 6.50.

John Palmer presents a new and original account of Plato's uses and understanding of his most important Presocratic predecessor, Parmenides. Adopting an innovative approach to the appraisal of intellectual influence, Palmer first explores the Eleatic underpinnings of central elements in Plato's middle-period epistemology and metaphysics and then shows how in the later dialogues Plato confronts various sophistic appropriations of Parmenides.

This book is the first comprehensive treatment of the Huayan school of East Asian Buddhism in a Western language.

A review of Plato's Parmenides, The Conversion of the Soul, by Mitchell H. Miller Junior. The Parmenides is seen as offering readers a chance to appropriate fully by critical and conceptual inquiry what was given in the Republic in the modes of image and analogy.