Introductory description

This module offers an introduction to some of the major world philosophies, including those found in Chinese, Indian, Greco-Roman and Buddhist traditions. We will address the ways in which different philosophical traditions confronted basic questions such as: What is the good life and how can we achieve it? How can we come to know and experience the world? What makes humans human? What is the order of reality and how does it impinge on human life? How are mind, body, emotion, and understanding conceptualized, and with what implications for agency and the normative order? We will also consider some metaphilosophical issues raised by the plurality of philosophical traditions as well as the methodological question of how we might bring different philosophical traditions – with their (often) different premises, concerns, and modes of inquiry – into engagement with one another.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Week 1. Introduction
Week 2. Mind and Embodiment
Week 3. Self
Week 4. Knowledge
Week 5. Emotion
Week 6. Reading Week (no classes)
Week 7. Agency
Week 8. Virtue and Self-Realisation
Week 9. Humanity
Week 10. Transcendence

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Have an understanding of the main concepts, concerns and positions articulated by key texts/thinkers of the major world philosophies studied.
• Appreciate the philosophical significance of the ideas and positions we have studied and be able to critically assess them in light of broader philosophical discussions and debates.
• Be able to bring different philosophical traditions into meaningful engagement with one another while being attentive to the methodological issues involved in cross-cultural inquiry.

Indicative reading list

PRIMARY SOURCES
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
Confucius, Analects
Guo Xi, Higher Message of Forests and Streams Collection
Plato, Phaedrus
Murasaki Shikibu, Tale of Genji
Ramayana
Śāntideva, Bodhicaryāvatāra
Zhuangzi
Xunzi
Zhu Xi, Collected Conversations (Zhu zi yu lei)

SECONDARY SOURCES
Julia Annas, ‘Virtue as a Skill’. International Journal of Philosophical Studies 3.2 (1995): 227-43.
Kwame A. Appiah, Cosmopolitanism : Ethics in a World of Strangers. Norton, 2006.
Thomas Dixon, From Passions to Emotions. The Creation of a Secular Psychological Category. Cambridge, 2003.
Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser and Evan Thompson, The Blindspot. Why Science Cannot Ignore Human Experience. MIT, 2024.
Chris Fraser, Ways of Wandering the Way. Oxford, 2024.
Jonardon Ganeri, ‘A Manifesto for Re:emergent Philosophy,’ Confluence. Journal of World Philosophies 4 (2016): 134–43
Jonardon Ganeri, ‘The Tree of Knowledge is Not an Apple or an Oak but a Banyan.’ Aeon
Rupert Gethin, The Foundations of Buddhism. Oxford, 1998.
Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life : Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault. Blackwell, 1995.
Stephen E. Harris, Buddhist Ethics and the Bodhisattva Path: Śāntideva on Virtue and Well-Being. Bloomsbury, 2024.
Maria Heim, Buddhist Ethics. Cambridge, 2020.
Maria Heim, Words for the Heart : A Treasury of Emotions from Classical India. Princeton, 2022.
Jay L. Garfield and William Edelglass, Buddhist Philosophy. The Essential Readings. Oxford, 2009.
Philip J. Ivanhoe. Zhu Xi : Selected Writings. Oxford, 2019.
A.A. Long, Greek Models of Mind and Self. Harvard, 2015.
Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, Human Being, Bodily Being : Phenomenology from Classical India. First edition., Oxford, 2018.
Richard Sorabji, Graeco-Roman Varieties of Self. In P. Remes, and J. Sihvola, eds., Ancient Philosophy of the Self. Spring, 2008.
Aaron Stalnaker, Mastery, Dependence, and the Ethics of Authority. Oxford University Press, 2020.

Research element

Students will be engaged in the close reading and analysis of primary and secondary literature as part of their
preparatory work for both class discussions and for their essays.

Interdisciplinary

Sources studied cross modern disciplinary boundaries of philosophy, textual/literary studies, history and religion.

International

By definition, the analysis of different world philosophies needs to consider different cultural traditions in a multicultural and international context

Subject specific skills

Understanding of the key philosophical ideas and contributions of the texts and figures studied, of how foundational questions of philosophical inquiry have been approached in a number of the world’s major philosophical traditions, and of how the ideas and approaches of these traditions might be brought to bear on issues of broader philosophical concern.

Transferable skills

Development of ability to read, analyse, and think critically about texts from different philosophical traditions, taking into account their historical and conceptual contexts; development of ability to write a clear, argumentative paper; broadening of perspectives and resources for approaching foundational philosophical questions; and the cultivation of new and alternative ways of thinking about how philosophy might be done.