Chinese, Indian, Japanese and Korean philosophy

Church doesn't provide a rational, secular argument between the person and the relation to his surroundings, other than relying on some abstract form of worshiping divinity.

Thanks, will definitely look into those.

>Caring for the poor, hopeless and marginalized

>Not a norm originating in the middle east

>nor is Chinese philosophy separate from cultural and political forces

Which are?

edgy

>I'm a student of political science and frankly i'm getting sick of all the libertarian stuff they're teaching us to philosophize, as well as the general philosophy of the left, with freedom, a minimal state, no state at all, and so on. It's a very middle class individual-based philosophy that i simply do not identify with
>picture of a Taoist/Laozi.

Well done OP

it's like pottery

i don't get it

OP if you can't be bothered to read your own cultures history, you won't find what you're looking for in The Analects, The Zhuangzi, The Sutras, The Wumengon, The Shobogenzo, or the Vedas. If you don't know all of what it means to be a Westerner, you'll become a psuedo-Easterner, a joke. Are you using the East's models as an escape from learning the Western counterparts, or are you searching for something you haven't found after leaving through the totality of Western thought?

>if you can't be bothered to read your own cultures history, you won't find what you're looking for in The Analects, The Zhuangzi, The Sutras, The Wumengon, The Shobogenzo, or the Vedas

How do you know? My culture has no significant history in comparison to the west, but at the same time, this part of Europe really has no strong pull to the current western ideals and principles, mostly because those are heavily middle class principles around which society, politics and economics revolve around.

> If you don't know all of what it means to be a Westerner, you'll become a psuedo-Easterner, a joke

I do know what it means to be a westerner actually, and so far we're a joke to actual western countries, because we're not really western, but not eastern at the same time.
We're somewhere in between, and that is manifested in the cultural collectivism of religion, but which is deeply rooted in the mentality of the non-urban population, and that's not really a good starting point in creating a middle ground for a whole new current of thought, which is why no one created anything significant in terms of secular philosophy stemming from that religious and cultural standpoint which was something unique and authentic

>Are you using the East's models as an escape from learning the Western counterparts, or are you searching for something you haven't found after leaving through the totality of Western thought?

Mostly the later. I was wondering if i could find perhaps a synthesis in both asian collectivism and western individualism in regards to how society and politics should work. With more emphasis on family and society as a collective, but at the same time with individual critical thinking and rational governance in politics

And like i said, being a follower of western thought is completely related to the understanding of the middle class, as an individual, as the center of western culture and this relation to politics and society. I'd even dare say, modern western culture is nothing but an expression of a specific socio-economic class of people.

Taoism can either be interpreted as a individual-based philosophy advocating balance, or a political system advocating minimal state influence.

>nationalism
Go soak your head

An Introduction to Chinese Philosophy: From Ancient Philosophy to Chinese by Jeeloo Liu

Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy by Philip J. Ivanhoe, Bryan W. Van Norden

The Principal Upanishads by Radhakrishnan, Sarvapalli

>Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy by Philip J. Ivanhoe, Bryan W. Van Norden

Great book

*to Chinese Buddhism

>OP if you can't be bothered to read your own cultures history, you won't find what you're looking for in The Analects, The Zhuangzi, The Sutras, The Wumengon, The Shobogenzo, or the Vedas.
nigga do you think people are fucking immortal or some shit? fuck man, there's only so much shit one man can read let alone understand

come on, lower your goddamn expectations you slave-driver

The Four Books and Five Classics
Tao Te Ching
Zhuangzi
Heart Sutra
Diamond Sutra
Platform Sutra
Shobogenzo
Journey to the West
Lotus Sutra
Writings of Nichiren, Shinran, and Honen
Tsurezuregusa
Chajing
Ramayana
Mahabharata(or just the Bhagavad Gita)

Nice, thank you user.

No problem, my friends. I really like Confucianism, so I would suggest the Analects and Mencius first; they are both very enjoyable. When you are reading the Zen and Taoist stuff, keep in mind that the latter influenced the former and it is both world-affirming and world denying in that everything is empty. Because everything is empty, everything is real and unreal at the same time. This view point develops from the logic of Nagarjuna and his school of philosophy.The Heart Sutra is very influencial and demonstrative of this, it is also short and you can read it in under ten minutes.
webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/heartsutra.html
The terminology it utilizes derives from Theravada thought, but you do not need to know that in full to understand the Sutra.
When you get to Pure Land stuff like Honen and Shinran, keep in mind that they are operating off of the Lotus Sutra, and that they are writing from a perspective that the world has entered the Mappo (末法), an apocalyptic period wherein Buddhist doctrine can no longer be understood. That is why they emphasize faith in the Amida Buddha for salvation. Nichiren goes even further than this, but you will see. If you need anything on Shinto, I can give you some recommendations but it isn't as philosophically deep for several reasons.

>If you need anything on Shinto, I can give you some recommendations but it isn't as philosophically deep for several reasons.

Why is that?

In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon - Edited by Bhikku Bodhi

Shinto as we know it developed as a mobilizing and nationalizing project in the Meiji era. Before that, it was indistinguishable from Buddhism except at the Ise Shrine, and even then practice is ambiguous. As the Tokugawa government used Buddhism to control the populace in the danka system, those opposing the Tokugawa forcibly divorced Shinto from Buddhist practice; this became more institutionalized after the Meiji government came to power. State Shinto was used to solidify a Japanese national identity and inspire citizens to acts of self-sacrifice and military service. After the dismantling of State Shinto following WW2, it became a quasi-civil religion that offers ways in which citizens can participate in national identity and alleviate current anxieties. Here's a brief reading list, but take everything with a grain of salt because it uses its image of an ancient tradition for authority:
Essence of Shinto - Yamakage
Religion in Contemporary Japan - Ian Reader (The first chapter, Turning to the Gods in Times of Trouble is particularly helpful in demonstrating religious practice in Japan, and if you are studying Japanese religion you will come across Ian Reader a lot)
The History of Shinto in Japanese Religion - Kuroda
Shinto: The Way of the Gods - Aston

political science student is retarded and judgemental, how surprising

'guys all the people in my class are fucking retarded and leftist' 'eww no fuck off Christians i am le too intelligient'

The skinny of it is that Shinto isn't as spiritually deep because Buddhism supplied most of its philosophy until around 1868, and even then it acted as a nationalism which rarely if ever relies on a detailed doctrine.

>Le every ideology and philosophy is right on it's own

Post-modernist, please.

I personally find everything from the enlightenment onward as nothing but a beginning of leftist thinking and conservative thinking as a reaction to that, but none of those movements in intellectual thought have actually tried to justify an empirical reasoning as to why they should be the right mode of thinking. Of course, maybe the thinkers of the enlightenment could justify it because of their social privilege of owning the means of production, and their right to own the means of power too, but we can all see how that ended up, by realising that it led to nothing but the unstable capitalist world of today.

And christianity is just mumbo jumbo based on faith in a divinity, like any other religion of course.. I don't see how anyone could respect it as a legitimate way of social norms, unless they support religious fundamentalism

t. op

Shinto reading list please.

Xunzi is the best Confucian.

edgy [2]

See and add the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. Keep in mind that these are not authoritative texts, and that they were unread until the Tokugawa era where they were translated from ancient into modern Japanese and spread by Norinaga. Although it is at times indirect, Ian Reader's book is effective at displaying how Shinto operates; it is more focused on practice than belief, and on immediate benefit than other-worldly gain. Another scholar that is helpful is John Nelson, his books Year in the Life of a Shinto Shrine and Enduring Identities: The Guise of Shinto in Contemporary Japan are both edifying and entertaining.

Boy, you sure refuted me with hardcore arguments user.

>taking arguments on Veeky Forums seriously

I can tell you're a virgin

not worth my time arguing with fedoras

And i can tell you're a pseudo-intellectual pleb.

There's absolutely nothing i said that sounds like fedoraism. You just suck dicks at trying to explain why religion is in any way a suitable pool of inspiration for socio-political means of governing

This post needs to be screen capped. Holy shit this is pathetic.

Not an argument.

>not an argument

You just posted onto the image board Veeky Forums :)

Foucault went down this route in the 1970s and originally believed that "oriental" societies were fundamentally more authentic in their societies and philosophies

he then realized he was just an ignorant orientalist and abandoned the idea

You sound very post- modernshit to be honest. No hope 4 u

Which book does he deal with this route exactly?

Probably his works on sexuality

Thanks. If you come up with any other suggestions it would be greatly appreciated. The same goes for anyone else here.

bhagavad gita

Bump for Buddha

>'m a student of political science and frankly i'm getting sick of all the libertarian stuff they're teaching us to philosophize, as well as the general philosophy of the left, with freedom, a minimal state, no state at all, and so on. It's a very middle class individual-based philosophy that i simply do not identify with.
>So i know that on the opposite pole of the spectrum is the Orient, with a focus on the group rather than the individual, with the family, society, and so on.

WOW

I can see you don't know shit. Leave this board, pleb.

I do know my shit, actually.

you wanna know how i know you're a pleb?

enlighten me