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Western Philosophy: An Anthology



Scholars of Japanese and comparative philosophy will enjoy this anthology for its exciting new work on Shintō, Zen, Pure Land Buddhism, and Kyoto School philosophy, in dialogue with major figures in the history of Western philosophy such as Plato, Heidegger, Whitehead, Leopold, and many others. Those working within environmental philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics will benefit from a sustained engagement with this volume because of the valuable insights afforded by the Japanese tradition. The scope of the ecological crises facing the planet in the twenty-first century are monumental and global, making it imperative that we all reflect on and critique the ideologies and cultural practices that have brought us to this point. In order to do this effectively we must [End Page 1] consider the issues from a variety of cultural perspectives. As the editors write in their introduction to Environmental Philosophy in Asian Traditions of Thought, "The comparative study of very different ways of viewing the world and different values concerning the world can reveal deep assumptions that might escape critical reflection in the absence of alternative assumptions."1 Often times what might seem self-evident within a given intellectual sphere is conceived differently or may even be absent in another. Callicott and McRae use the example of the concept of wilderness, which upon examination proves to be a distinctly Western concept. Imposing the Western value of wilderness preservation on other parts of the world has the potential to be harmful, especially to indigenous peoples. By expanding the conversation to include diverse cultural perspectives, not only will our philosophical understanding of nature and environmental problems be enriched, our approach to addressing these problems will be better informed.


There are many cultures whose views on nature and environment are fascinating and useful for understanding the relationship between humans and nature and are deserving of an anthology devoted to them. Japanese culture is certainly one of them. In the foreword to Japanese Environmental Philosophy Carl B. Becker explains how Japan's traditional, rural ways of life that valued humility, simplicity, and closeness to nature have shifted over time, becoming more modernized and conforming to the economic demands of the globalized world, often to the physical and spiritual detriment of its people. The need for environmental philosophy in Japan is as strong as anywhere, but there are unique resources in the Japanese tradition for cultivating ecological ways of thinking and living that have relevance beyond Japan. A central insight of WATSUJI Tetsurō, one of Japan's most prominent ethical thinkers who receives a...




Western Philosophy: An Anthology



This paper appears in an anthology addressing the concept of "the messianic" employed in a number of recent strands of Continental political philosophy. My chapter is part of the initial, "stage-setting" section of the book, which consists of a first chapter by Richard Beardsworth that challenges the theoretical utility of "the messianic" in any form, this response, and a reply by Beardsworth. Using Jacques Derrida's late writings as his target, Beardsworth attacks the concept as out of date - tied to the post-war period that ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall - and, more important, as too formal and abstract to provide the concrete guidance required for political theory to point the way beyond the pathologies of globalized market capitalism. In this Response, I generally defend the use of quasi-religious concepts like "the messianic" in contemporary political theory, and show that Beardsworth's initial charge of anachronism is specious under his own criteria. I agree, however, with Beardsworth's more important point that "the messianic" is too abstract and too formal to guide progressive political theory toward any particular goals or methodologies. Nevertheless, I also try to show that criticizing the concept on that ground misses the point. The "messianic" is not a category of understanding or a regulative idea intended to guide theory or practice. It is an attempt to articulate the pre-theoretical condition of possibility presupposed by every progressive political theory or practice, the condition that subtends the existence both of every class interest in and individual desire for a different political future, and of the possibility of that future itself. Rather than a theoretical category in the traditional sense, the "messianic" is thus a category of philosophical motivation or ethics (in Emmanuel Levinas's sense of ethics as non-normative first philosophy) - a philosophical defense of getting out of bed in the morning to fight for a better political future for all and not just for oneself. I conclude by suggesting that, in the face of the pervasive market ideology that has insinuated itself into philosophy along with every other cultural sphere, providing philosophical - and not just subjective - dignity to the will to fight that good fight is itself a significant political contribution. 2ff7e9595c


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