In order respectfully and adequately to compare Confucian and Christian conceptions of creativity, it is necessary to have proper comparative categories. Put roughly, we need to know what creativity is in order to see how Confucianism and Christianity have various versions of it. In respect of what do they agree or differ? So the first order of business is to put forward, however briefly, a theory of creativity in light of which comparisons can be made. Creativity, of course, is a (...) very complicated notion in the West and in East Asia. Two philosophical topics can reveal something of its complication: the problem of the one and the many, and the nature of change. (shrink)

The second volume in a trilogy advancing a systematic philosophical theology, this book explores the realities of human existence articulated by religion. Religion, writes Robert Cummings Neville, articulates existential predicaments and provides venues for ecstatic fulfillment. Like its companion volumes treating ultimacy and religion, Existence advances a systematic philosophical theology to address first-order questions found in the array of Axial Age religions. Issues arising in the major religious traditions are explored through a complex array of philosophical approaches. This (...) second volume shows religion to be the engagement of ultimate realities common to all human beings. Neville finds five problematics relative to ultimate boundary conditions of the human world: the contingency of existence, living under obligation, the quest for wholeness, engagement with others, and the meaning or value in life. Common to all human beings and hence “religion,” the engagement with realities is also historically and culturally bound, becoming simultaneously socially constructed “religions.” Readers will find Neville’s philosophical theology both bold and enlightening, running counter to dominant intellectual trends while richly informed by a long and fruitful engagement with theology, philosophy, and religion, East and West. Robert Cummings Neville is Professor of Philosophy, Religion, and Theology and Dean Emeritus of the School of Theology at Boston University. He is the author of many books, including Realism in Religion: A Pragmatist’s Perspective; Ritual and Deference: Extending Chinese Philosophy in a Comparative Context; and Ultimates: Philosophical Theology, Volume One, all published by SUNY Press. (shrink)

who would have thought that all four of the excellent commentators on Metaphysics of Goodness would have liked and approved its systematic character? Just when I thought I was the last systematic philosopher! The readers of The Pluralist might prepare for discussions of my system now. Nathaniel Barrett would like me to use Whitehead’s notion of intensity rather than Leibniz’s notion of density of being. Lisa Landoe Hedrick would like me to hew closer to Whitehead’s notion of the location of (...) possibilities than I do. Robert Smid would like me to give evil a permanent place in my system rather than turn out to be merely negative. Tyler Tritten would like me to admit that the Ultimate might be personal rather than... (shrink)

Unlike John Cobb, Jr., and others, I argue that the problems of pluralism cannot even be formulated accurately without a far more complicated thoery of religions than usually functions in the pluralism discussions. A thory of religious worldviews is sketched that shows that religious symbols need to the proximate, from the sophisticated to folk religion, from explicit values to implicit functioning values, from tight determination of the life to loose determination, from deep commitment to light commitment.

This book offers a discussion of issues involved in evaluating welfare reforms, and applies those principles to the evaluation of reform in Wisconsin. It opens with an overview of the different types of program evaluation and summarizes the basic issues that are involved in their conduct. A discussion of general evaluation strategies for the reforms, such as the selection and use of counterfactuals, is followed by consideration of both implementation and impact evaluations of the Wisconsin program. The final section considers (...) the specific impacts of the Wisconsin program. Barnow is interim associate director for research at the Institute for Policy Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Moffitt is a professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR. (shrink)

This is a most unusual book. Mao Zedong was one of the most powerful people in the twentieth century. With Chiang Kai-shek he drove out the Japanese from China and then defeated Chiang in turn and carried out a major revolution over which he presided for many years. Everyone knows he was a poet and, like every Marxist leader, he was a philosopher of sorts. His Marxist philosophy evolved from his youth to old age, and he developed differences from the (...) Soviet model of Marxism that were quite significant. He "converted" to Marxism in his twenties and identified himself with that movement until he died in his eighties. But what was his education in philosophy like before he encountered Marxism? Whereas Marx, Lenin, and... (shrink)

Develops a theory of culture based on a metaphysics that elaborates on the Platonic and Confucian traditions. In Metaphysics of Goodness, Robert Cummings Neville extends Alfred North Whitehead’s project of cultural studies, which was based on a new metaphysics that Whitehead developed in Adventures of Ideas. Neville’s focus is value or goodness in many modes. The metaphysics treated in this book derive from the Platonic and Confucian traditions, with significant modifications of Whitehead, Peirce, Dewey, Confucius, Xunzi, and (...) Zhou Dunyi. Part one develops a theory of form based on a metaphysics of harmony. Part two elaborates a theory of art based on a metaphysics of beauty. Part three sketches a theory of personhood based on a metaphysics of obligation. Part four discusses civilization in a systematic way based on a metaphysics of flourishing. Throughout the book, Neville elaborates a theory of interpretation that is inspired by Peirce, Dewey, and Xunzi but is not limited to their ideas. While the reasoning of the book is concise, it employs methodologies from many kinds of philosophy, art criticism, ethics, and cultural studies, and sees philosophy as needing to learn from all these disciplines. “Neville’s work is informed by a lifelong engagement with the most important philosophers in history, including Plato, Aristotle, Whitehead, and Dewey. Here, he offers an important argument that there is beauty not only in how people see the world, but also in the world itself.” — Kevin Schilbrack, Appalachian State University. (shrink)

The chief problematic for contemporary systematic metaphysics is to develop categories for understanding the world as having value at the same time that it is explicable by science. Western philosophical thinking, with major exceptions, has tracked science by understanding the world to be factual but not intrinsically valuable. Chinese philosophy in all periods has understood human beings to be embedded within society which in turn is embedded within nature, all of which bear values of appropriate types. Themes in Chinese philosophy (...) contribute to this problematic of systematic metaphysics in important ways, explored in this article. (shrink)

Promoting multiculturalism through renewed East-West and Confucian-Christian dialogue, Neville (philosophy, religion, and theology, Boston U.) fosters the idea ...

In the January 2020 issue of this journal, Rory Misiewicz penned an excellent review of Brandon Daniel-Hughes's book. His one complaint is that Daniel-Hughes appeals to my theory that the Ultimate is "entirely indeterminate and absolute nothingness that contextualizes all things." This he claims to be inconsistent with Peirce. I do not want to defend Daniel-Hughes's use of my idea, although I surely congratulate him. I do want to correct Misiewicz's understanding of it, however.My idea is that all thought is (...) determinate, at least in part, and is therefore consequent to its creation. I give long, convoluted, but utterly persuasive arguments that the existence of any determinate things is the... (shrink)

Having distinguished the primary philosophers of religion, those whose philosophies of “Everything” entail something about religion, from those who study only or mainly religion, this article discusses the necessary comparative base for the future of the field. It distinguishes the approach that begins with the subject matter from the approach that sticks with a home tradition to which comparison adds new material, arguing for the former. The religions of West Asia, South Asia, and East Asia are discussed, noting the naturalistic (...) form of the last. The fundamental comparative category for philosophy of religion is the Ultimate, of which I give my own version. This version also requires categories defining determinate things, their togetherness of various sorts, and their essential and conditional components. To be plausible, this theory needs to be associated positively and negatively with the main religious traditions and with our relation to nature and society. Religious lives need to be scaled from the primitive and literalistic all the way to the philosophical. Philosophy of religion or philosophical theology of all sorts is fallible and needs to prepare for the next step. (shrink)

This book introduces Robert Corrington’s “ecstatic naturalism,” a new perspective in understanding “sacred” nature and naturalism, and explores what can be done with this philosophical thought. This is an excellent resource for scholars of Continental philosophy, philosophy of religion, and American pragmatism.

This is a response to Wang, Huang, and Frisina's commentary on my book, The Good Is One, Its Manifestations Many. The response generally takes the form of re-emphasizing my peculiar stresses on the Confucian tradition while applauding their alternative stresses. I particularly emphasize my metaphysical claims to defend my support for Xunzi; I set my philosophy of religion in the context of East Asian, South Asian, and West Asian philosophies. First let me thank the three commentators for taking my book (...) so seriously and writing such stimulating commentaries.1 I learned from them all: it is a good thing I did not see them before the book was published because they would have caused me to make the book much longer than it is to deal with their questions. I especially thank Yong Huang for organizing this panel. I apologize to all for being prevented from attending because of the weather. Permit me to respond to each of the comments. (shrink)

This is a response to Wang, Huang, and Frisina's commentary on my book, The Good Is One, Its Manifestations Many. The response generally takes the form of re-emphasizing my peculiar stresses on the Confucian tradition while applauding their alternative stresses. I particularly emphasize my metaphysical claims to defend my support for Xunzi; I set my philosophy of religion in the context of East Asian, South Asian, and West Asian philosophies. First let me thank the three commentators for taking my book (...) so seriously and writing such stimulating commentaries.1 I learned from them all: it is a good thing I did not see them before the book was published because they would have caused me to make the book much longer than it is to deal with their questions. I especially thank Yong Huang for organizing this panel. I apologize to all for being prevented from attending because of the weather. Permit me to respond to each of the comments. (shrink)

Both individually and collectively, the five essays in this groups are brilliant. Each of the authors has worked with extraordinary care and success to represent my position, and they all succeed. The essays work to expound my thought in a progressive order. Bin Song's lays out my approach to comparison, setting it within the larger whole of my philosophy. David Rohr's explores in depth my epistemology and shows its relevance to my philosophy as a whole and also to its application (...) to Christian sermons. Michael Raposa's works through my specific claims about how "praying the ultimate" is its real meaning. Andrew Irvine's carries that thought through to religionless religion, asking: What if that is really... (shrink)

Heuristics -- Pragmatics -- Religious studies -- Philosophical theology -- Players.

On the one hand, Chinese traditions of philosophy are famous for emphasizing that things are changes, that reality is filled with processes rather than substances. This philosophy was present at least from the Yijing onward and was developed in diverse ways by Confucians, Daoists, and then Chinese Buddhists. But there has not been a similar rich development of the idea of eternity, that nontemporal context within which change can be recognized and measured. This article argues, first, that change presupposes an (...) ontological context of eternity and, second, that eternity so conceived can be experienced and even interpreted in terms of the Chinese traditions. (shrink)

This is a philosophic study of theory and practical reason focusing on social obligation and personal responsibility. It draws on Chinese as well as Western Traditions of philosophy.

The author constructs a philosophy of nature dealing with being, identity, value, space, time, motion, and causality, and uses that as a basis for a theory of hermeneutics to address contemporary problems of interpretation.

Religion in Late Modernity runs against the grain of common suppositions of contemporary theology and philosophy of religion. Against the common supposition that basic religious terms have no real reference but are mere functions of human need, the book presents a pragmatic theory of religious symbolism in terms of which the cognitive engagement of the Ultimate is of a piece with the cognitive engagement of nature and persons. Throughout this discussion, Neville develops a late-modern conception of God that is (...) defensible in a global theological public. Against the common supposition that religion is on the retreat in late modernity except in fundamentalist forms, the author argues that religion in our time is a stimulus to religiously oriented scholarship, a civilizing force among world societies, a foundation for obligation in politics, a source for healthy social experimentation, and the most important mover of soul. (shrink)