Modern Japanese Buddhist Philosophy

Buddhism ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gereon Kopf
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Buddhist Philosophy ◽  
American Philosophy ◽  
Meiji Restoration ◽  
Buddhist Tradition ◽  
Japanese Buddhism ◽  
Japanese Word ◽  
Intellectual Traditions ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

Recent years have seen an increased presence of Japanese Buddhist philosophy in the world of Anglophone scholarship. In 2013 the first issue of the Journal of Japanese Philosophy (SUNY Press) appeared, in 2015 the first issue of the Journal of Buddhist Philosophy (SUNY Press) was released, and in 2016 the first issue of the European Journal of Japanese Philosophy (Chisokudō Publications) was published. Japanese Buddhist philosophy emerges and exists at the intersection of Buddhist and Japanese philosophy. The history of the term “Buddhist philosophy” in Japan commences with the encounter between the Japanese and Euro-American intellectual traditions during the Meiji period (1868–1912). As is well known, Nishi Amane 西周 (b. 1829–d. 1897) coined the Japanese word for “philosophy”: tetsugaku哲学. He utilized this concept to refer to European and American philosophy and to distinguish these traditions from the works of the Japanese traditions, including Japanese Buddhism, which he classified as “thought” (shisō思想). Today’s understanding of “philosophy” has somewhat shifted. Rein Raud suggests that “[w]hat matters” for philosophers . . . is “interpretations, their quality, their productivity for further thought.” “Buddhist philosophy,” Dale Wright proposes, “is that form of reflection [the effort to ‘understand how things in the broadest possible sense of the term hang together’] as practiced by participants who are Buddhists”; that is, “philosophy practiced by those who regard themselves as Buddhist.” By the same token, Inoue Enryō 井上円了 (b. 1858–d. 1919) asserted with the very title of his 1893 work Buddhist Philosophy (Bukkyō tetsugaku仏教哲学) that there is Buddhist philosophy in Japan, premodern, modern, and contemporary. This bibliographic essay includes Anglophone texts in the Japanese Buddhist tradition published after the Meiji restoration (1868 ce). The titles are divided into four categories: (1) Translations, (2) Collections, (3) English-Language Works, and (4) Crossover Works. Unfortunately, a lot of brilliant philosophy produced in Japan is only accessible in the Japanese language. Recent years have seen exciting trends and stimulating ideas in the field of Japanese Buddhist philosophy. The disaster of 3/11, for example, has even given rise to the category of “post-Fukushima” philosophy. The purpose of this bibliographical essay is thus twofold. It is the hope of the editors that this bibliography will help raise the awareness of the wealth and significance of the Japanese Buddhist traditions. At the same time, this essay on modern and contemporary Japanese Buddhist philosophy is designed to encourage scholars to generate more translations in this field.

The Oxford History of the Novel in English

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
English Language ◽  
Book History ◽  
World Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Novel ◽  
History Of The Novel ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

Volume Nine of this series traces the development of the ‘world novel’, that is, English-language novels written throughout the world, beyond Britain, Ireland, and the United States. Focusing on the period up to 1950, the volume contains survey chapters and chapters on major writers, as well as chapters on book history, publishing, and the critical contexts of the work discussed. The text covers periods from renaissance literary imaginings of exotic parts of the world like Oceania, through fiction embodying the ideology and conventions of empire, to the emergence of settler nationalist and Indigenous movements and, finally, the assimilations of modernism at the beginnings of the post-imperial world order. The book, then, contains chapters on the development of the non-metropolitan novel throughout the British world from the eighteenth to the mid twentieth centuries. This is the period of empire and resistance to empire, of settler confidence giving way to doubt, and of the rise of indigenous and post-colonial nationalisms that would shape the world after World War II.

Buddhist philosophy, Japanese

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John C. Maraldo
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Buddhist Philosophy ◽  
Japanese Culture ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Cultural Complex ◽  
Buddhist Tradition ◽  
Japanese Buddhism ◽  
Confucian Philosophy ◽  
To Come

Buddhism transformed Japanese culture and in turn was transformed in Japan. Mahāyāna Buddhist thought entered Japan from the East Asian continent as part of a cultural complex that included written language, political institutions, formal iconography and Confucian literature. From its introduction in the sixth century through to the sixteenth century, Japanese Buddhism developed largely by incorporating Chinese Buddhism, accommodating indigenous beliefs and reconciling intersectarian disputes. During the isolationist Tokugawa Period (1600–1868), neo-Confucian philosophy and Dutch science challenged the virtual hegemony of Buddhist ways of thinking, but served more often as alternative and sometimes complementary models than as incompatible paradigms. Only since the reopening of Japan in 1868 has Japanese Buddhist thought seriously attempted to come to terms with early Indian Buddhism, Western thought and Christianity. Through the centuries, Buddhism gave the Japanese people a way to make sense of life and death, to explain the world and to seek liberation from suffering. When it engaged in theorizing, it did so in pursuit of religious fulfilment rather than of knowledge for its own sake. As an extension of its practical bent, Japanese Buddhist thought often tended to collapse differences between Buddhism and other forms of Japanese religiosity, between this phenomenal world and any absolute realm, and between the means and end of enlightenment. These tendencies are not Japanese in origin, but they extended further in Japan than in other Buddhist countries and partially define the character of Japanese Buddhist philosophy. In fact, the identity of ‘Japanese Buddhist philosophy’ blends with almost everything with which we would contrast it. As a development and modification of Chinese traditions, there is no one thing that is uniquely Japanese about it; as a Buddhist tradition, it is characteristically syncretistic, often assimilating Shintō and Confucian philosophy in both its doctrines and practices. Rituals, social practices, political institutions and artistic or literary expressions are as essential as philosophical ideas to Japanese Buddhism. Disputes about ideas often arose but were seldom settled by force of logical argument. One reason for this is that language was used not predominately in the service of logic but for the direct expression and actualization of reality. Disputants appealed to the authority of Buddhist sūtras because these scriptures were thought to manifest a direct understanding of reality. Further, as reality was thought to be all-inclusive, the better position in the dispute would be that which was more comprehensive rather than that which was more consistent but exclusive. Politics and practical consequences did play a role in the settling of disputes, but the ideal of harmony or conformity often prevailed. The development of Japanese Buddhist philosophy can thus be seen as the unfolding of major themes rather than a series of philosophical positions in dispute. These themes include the role of language in expressing truth; the non-dual nature of absolute and relative, universal and particular; the actualization of liberation in this world, life or body; the equality of beings; and the transcendent non-duality of good and evil.

Researching World Englishes in HEL Courses

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Percy
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
American English ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
Online Newspapers ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Final Essay

This chapter describes assignments used to teach the History of the English Language (HEL) and its contemporary counterpart the English Language in the World. In both of these courses, linguistic concepts can be linked to literary analysis, which helps students learn how to analyze code-switching and/or style-shifting in the context of a literary argument. For discovering and interpreting issues about the status and use of English around the world, students have a number of options. For example, after reading specific articles about slang generally and analyzing examples chosen in class, some students choose to write a final essay on slang or jargon used within online newspapers or films that represent different World Englishes (e.g., in Nigerian “Nollywood” films). Thus, World Englishes become realer for students rather than exotic abstractions or curious variants of English or American English.

scholarly journals Present and future of Francophony, or Battle for French

2021 ◽  
pp. 41-48
Author(s):  
Marina N. Vetchinova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
International Organization ◽  
French Language ◽  
Special Role ◽  
World Languages ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Other World

The article analyzes the place and role of the French language in the linguistic picture of the world, provides figures that characterize its position. The article shows the history of the creation and modern activities of the International Organization of Francophone Countries, as well as the history of the emergence of the term “Francophonie”, the angles of its use are noted. It contains data on the use of the French language on the African continent, and makes reasonable guesses about where it will occupy in Africa in the future. The article deals with the activities of the French state and international public institutions to popularize the French language in the world. It draws attention to initiatives to promote French. Information about the study of the French language in various countries is presented, the special role of teachers in its study is emphasized, the difficulties of competing with the English language are highlighted. Thanks to given mathematical calculations one can already assume an important role and significant place of French among other world languages in the middle of the XXI century.

History of Western sources on Japanese art

1986 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 8-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy S. Allen
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
East India Company ◽  
Japanese Culture ◽  
Dutch East India Company ◽  
The West ◽  
Meiji Restoration ◽  
Japanese Art ◽  
History Of

Learning about Japanese art has been difficult for Westerners. Limited access, language barriers, and cultural misunderstanding have been almost insurmountable obstacles. Knowledge of Japanese art in the West began over 150 years before the arrival of Commodore Perry in 1853. Englebert Kaempfer (1657-1716), sent to Japan as a physician for the Dutch East India Company, befriended a young assistant who provided information for a book on Japanese life and history published in 1727. By 1850, more ethnographic information had been published in Europe. Catalogs of sales of Japanese art in Europe exist prior to 1850 and collection catalogs from major museums follow in the second half of that century. After the Meiji Restoration (1867) cultural exchange was possible and organizations for that purpose were formed. Diaries of 19th century travellers and important international fairs further expanded cross-cultural information. Okakura Kakuzo, a native of Japan, published in English about Japanese art and ultimately became Curator of the important collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The advent of photography made visual images easily accessible to Westerners. Great collectors built up the holdings of major American museums. In the 20th century, materials written and published in Japan in English language have furthered understanding of Japanese culture. During the past twenty years, travelling exhibitions and scholarly catalogs have circulated in the West. Presently monographs, dissertations and translated scholarly texts are available. Unfortunately, there is little understanding in the West of the organization of Japanese art libraries and archives which contain primary source material of interest to art historians.

An Ecological Account of the Emergence and Evolution of English

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salikoko S. Mufwene
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle English ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
English Language ◽  
Ecological Model ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
The World ◽  
Population Structures ◽  
History Of

What follows is a contact-based account of the emergence of English. Though the role of language contact in the development of World Englishes is often addressed as a coda within History of the English Language (HEL) courses, this chapter presents an alternative story, highlighting contact situations in Old English, Middle English, and Early Modern English. The creolist perspective offered here suggests that History of English instructors should look closer at the received doctrine of HEL and consider whether an ecological model should not be used to make sense of the story of Englishes. A periodized history of colonization and of the ensuing population structures that influence language contact appears to explain a great deal about the differential evolution of English in various parts of the world, including what distinguishes colonial English dialects from their creole counterparts.

scholarly journals Ukrainian Diaspora in the Struggle with Russian Falsifiers of the History of Ukraine after World War II

2021 ◽  
pp. 200-209
Author(s):  
Mykola Tymoshyk
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Positive Solution ◽  
English Language ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
World War ◽  
Soviet People ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

The article is based on the author’s processing of the archives of Ukrainian emigration during his research internship in Great Britain. His task was to find out and clarify the means and ways used by the Ukrainian diaspora in its struggle against Moscow’s information and propaganda offensive against the Western community’s positive resolution of the “Ukrainian question” after World War II.That was the time when the Russian governmental machine intensified its counter-propaganda work in the Western direction. Under those conditions, the world continued to perceive Ukrainians as part of the “great Soviet people” who unanimously built communism, and Ukraine itself as only a formal state declaratively writing its name in UN documents as a country with a significant contribution to the victory over fascism.Under the conditions of statelessness, Ukrainian public institutions abroad replaced state embassies and official representations and took on the responsible task to constantly plant the Ukrainian information field.The Ukrainian diaspora used the following means in its struggle against Moscow’s information and propaganda offensive against the Western community’s positive solution of the “Ukrainian question”.In particular, it was a matter of checking the presence of materials on Ukrainian studies in the main libraries of the countries where Ukrainian emigrants lived compactly. Foreign authors’ interpretation of mentions was said about Ukraine and Ukrainians in those few texts was analyzed.Representatives of Ukrainian public organizations established personal contacts with directors of libraries in cities with a compact residence of Ukrainians. The goal was to create Ukrainian book and press departments there. In 1948, a centralized network was established in Munich to provide major foreign libraries with Ukrainian publications.The successful breakthrough of the Moscow information blockade on the issue of the Holodomor of 1933 happened due to publication of a series of English-language brochures on this issue at the expense of the Ukrainian Youth Association abroad.

scholarly journals ENGLISH PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS OF LATIN AND FRENCH ORIGIN: COMPONENT “WILDLIFE”

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (9(77)) ◽  
pp. 26-30
Author(s):  
Dmytro Bihunov ◽  
Svitozara Bihunova ◽  
Kateryna Tretiakova
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
English Language ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

Borrowings enrich the English language during the whole history of its development and the extent of borrowings in the lexico-graphic stock of the language is rather big. In its turn, the English phraseological stock is characterised by the great number of Romance elements due to the certain historical conditions of the development of Great Britain. But despite the fact that phraseological units are highly informative units which keep the knowledge and experience of different nations, the problem of the borrowed phraseological units remains an unstudied sphere within the cognitive linguistics. As the problem of the phraseological borrowing has not been examined properly in the linguistic literature, the article deals with English phraseological units of Latin and French origin with component “wildlife”. The authors have singled out English phraseological units with wildlife components. Then the etymological investigation of the borrowed phraseological units has been conducted. Also an attempt has been made to analyze the inner form of the wildlife component in English phraseological units of Latin and French origin. It has been noticed that they contain the human knowledge of the world and the role of people in it. Besides, the similarity of the images and associations, connected with the investigated wildlife component, is caused by rather identical cognition of the world around – the world of nature.

scholarly journals THE COMPARISONS AND CONTRASTS BETWEEN ENGLISH AND MALAY LANGUAGES

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohd Nazri Latiff Azmi ◽  
Lidwina Teo Pik Ching ◽  
Norbahyah Binti Jamaludin ◽  
Muhammad Nur Haziq Bin Ramli ◽  
Muhammad Habibbullah Bin Razali ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Language History ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

English and Malay languages are categorized as popular languages in the world.  However, both languages underwent different history and composition. This study investigates the languages in terms of history, phonology, loanwords, grammar, morphology and semantics. The purposes of studying the comparisons and contrasts of both languages are not only to analyze the uniqueness of the languages but also to identify the process of understanding the languages especially the view of second language learners. It is found that two languages come from different background; somehow they share similar characteristics such as the vowels sounds, loanwords and semantics. However, the learners face difficulty in learning both languages especially in pronunciations and spelling.Keywords: English language, Malay language, history of language

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