- Paperback: 464 pages
- Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (Jun 5 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0415228522
- ISBN-13: 978-0415228527
- Product Dimensions: 24.5 x 17.5 x 3.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 894 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,734,610 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
From Library Journal
Smart (The World's Religions, LJ 11/1/98) presents a narrative history arranged geographically. After an introductory outline chapter, the concepts that arose on the ancient subcontinent of India, in Chinese antiquity, and so on, are developed culture by culture and epoch by epoch. Smart weaves an explanation of religious developments among Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, and Christians into nearly as thorough a tapestry as his presentation of secular thought. This seems wholly appropriate, given how religious ideas traditionally suffuse philosophical ones, but, in many cases, the author's interest in religious nuance downplays the distinction between religion and philosophy. Most troubling in this large and academic text is the complete lack of quotation and, too often, the absence of particular vocabulary developed by the philosophers and movements under discussion. The exhaustive chapter-by-chapter bibliographies range widely to include reference works, primary sources, and popular works. For academic collections.?Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley P.L., CA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
As usual, Smart writes clearly, simply and with an evident relish for his subject. An excellent, 65-page bibliography is included. The book is in some ways a remarkable tour de force.
–Murdith McLean, St. Johns College, The University of Manitoba, Philosophy in Review
–Murdith McLean, St. Johns College, The University of Manitoba, Philosophy in Review
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A delightful read,
By Sreenivas K "SriniK" (Potomac, MD) - See all my reviews
This review is from: World Philosophies (Hardcover)
"Philosophy" has suffered from a Western-only myopia and this delightful read is impressive for its breadth. Under one cover the quintessence of every significant philosophical development, both "Western" and "Eastern" is presented. A must read for further study. The paperback ... is very good value.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The author knows his material inside and out,
By
This review is from: World Philosophies (Hardcover)
Ninian Smart is a noted philosopher of religion, and apparently fluent in Chinese and Sanskrit. I'm particularly impressed by his summary of Zhang Zai, who is often introduced, mistakenly, as a materialist by some Chinese textbooks, but who is very much concerned with self-cultivation, and whose doctrine of sympathy with all things is the noblest of views.In response to one previous commentator, who complained that the author mentioned God too frequently - ancient philosophy is very different from modern philosophy. The ancients lived in a time when philosophy and religion are not differentiated, nor science and spirituality. Philosophy for them is very much what we would call religion and spirituality today. Hence the titles, Hindu philosophy, Taoist philosophy, Buddhist philosophy, etc. This was true in the West also, until the end of the Renaissance, when Descartes introduced the unfortunate trend, which overestimates reason and its search for certainty. I also enjoyed the author's chapter on philosophy in modern China and Japan, and his analysis, that much of modern East Asian philosophy is preoccupied with national defense. Because Japan modernised so much more successfully than China, her philosophers were under less pressure to criticise her ancient traditions. They felt at ease claiming Confucianism as the key to success. Whereas in China, until relatively recently, philosophers put all the blame for national failings on ancient traditions. This culminated in the tragic events of the Cultural Revolution, when misguided youth compelled Confucian scholars to denounce their ancient scriptures, and burnt Taoist and Buddhist temples, and injured many spiritual leaders. It is my hope, that as China slowly regains her confidence as a world power, her people will reexamine their ancestral heritage, and discover what a treasure trove it is. There is an interview with Ninian Smart online called "The Future of Religion" by Scott London. The potential customer may perhaps read that before buying.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The ideal coffee-table book for philosophers,
By
This review is from: World Philosophies (Paperback)
Unlike so many meretricious books which purport to be about philosophy but are actually limited to Western philosophy, Smart's book really takes on the philosophical traditions of well nigh the entire human race. It is incredible how any single scholar's mind could be so encyclopedic. From antiquity down to the present day, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Islamic and even African philosophy are covered side by side with Western thought (which is subdivided into its Greek/Roman, European and North American camps), with no partiality being shown towards any tradition. Even 20th-century developments of the non-Western traditions are discussed. Due to the vast scope of this 454-page book, though, individual philosophers are necessarily and somewhat regrettably given only brief treatment (about one-and-a-half pages per thinker on average), the focus being on the larger picture of the development of ideas and of cultures. Still, it would probably be too much to ask for more from a single author, besides which as a compensation hardly a single important philosopher from any tradition has been left out (except Asanga and Vasubandhu from the Buddhist tradition) -- even the less well-known thinkers such as Feuerbach, Merleau-Ponty and Nishida Kitaro are included. (If only two or more authors could co-author this book, so that more could be written about each thinker.) Smart is always fair and sympathetic towards the different traditions as well: you don't find his language changing from cold, dry academic analysis when discussing, say, Africa, to glowing adulation and praise when looking at, say, the ancient Greeks (who else). And if the book appears to have strong religious leanings, hey, what do you expect, a lot of philosophy was and still is tied in to religious concerns. A small number of typographical errors can be found scattered throughout the book, and Smart also seemed to have some trouble with the proper Pinyin romanization of Chinese names and terms, but on the whole these faults are negligible. So all things said, if you simply want to wallow in the enormous wealth of human thought (and not just Western thought, please, for heaven's sake), this is the book.
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