Nature in Asian Traditions of Thought: Essays in Environmental Philosophy

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For our environmental problems what is needed is a new way of looking at nature. Here, the authors turn to the Asian tradition. Asking if they can provide us with conceptual resources for addressing environmental concerns. Western environmental philosophers and some of our most distinguished representatives of Asian and comparative philosophy critically consider what Asia has to offer. The first section provides an ecological world view as a basis for comparison. Subsequent section include chapters by leading contemporary scholars in Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and Buddhist thought that explore the Western perception of Asian traditions- the perception that Asian philosophy is a rich conceptual resource for contemporary environmental thinkers.

This book promises to provide an intellectual and an ethical incentive which will encourage its Western audience to reflect on the course of Western history that has led to the concerns addressed within. It would serve as valuable reading for anyone who is interested in the environment and in exploring new and traditionally Asian approaches to this crucial subject" - Shigenori Nagatomo, Temple University.

J. Baird Callicott is Professor of Philosophy and Natural Resources at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point. Roger T. Ames is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hawaii.

Nature in Asian Traditions of Thought: Essays in Environmental Philosophy grew out of discussions begun at the first Institute for Comparative Philosophy held at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu in the summer of 1984. We, its editors, are J. Baird Callicott and Roger T. Ames- respectively, an environmental philosopher and a comparative philosopher. The former was an Institute fellow and the latter a member of the faculty.

At one of the initial Institute sessions. Callicott strongly averred that Ames was making a straw man of Plato-a phony foil for his Confucius. With eight weeks to go and an opportunity for mutual growth at stake, each of us came immediately, but independently, to the conclusion that we had better seek common ground both personally and philosophically. Ames was motivated by an oriental sense of appropriateness (yi) and ritual deference (li), and Callicott by an ecological attitude of synergy and symbiosis.

As a distinct scholarly activity, environmental philosophy is little more than a decade and a half old. Nevertheless, research in this new field has been intensive. Book-length treatments, as well as collections of articles. now appear on a regular basis. Although over the years, repeated allusions to Asian philosophy as a panacea for environmental ills have crept into popular literature on ecological issues, little sustained and professional attention has so far been given to the potential role of Eastern attitudes toward nature and the human-nature relationship in environmental philosophy. This book is consciously designed to make up for that neglect.

**Contents and Sample Pages**