Tag: Culture

Buddhism

Western Buddhism as an Immature Tradition

There are Buddhisms for all four cardinal directions: Southern Buddhism, Northern Buddhism, Eastern Buddhism, and Western Buddhism. Southern Buddhism is the Buddhism practiced in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Thailand. The term โ€œNorthern Buddhismโ€ either covers everything else, or only refers to the Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Mongolia. In the latter case, Eastern Buddhism is the Buddhism found in Taiwan, Korea, Japan, China, and Vietnam. In the two-way North/South distinction, India is part of Northern Buddhism. In the three-way North/South/East distinction, on the other hand, India is missing, indicating that this isnโ€™t a classification of historical Buddhisms. However, while Buddhism...
Philosophy

Mythos, Wisdom, and Scavenger Philosophy

According to Karl Jaspers, philosophy arose in the โ€œAxial Ageโ€ as a kind of critical reflection on myth and tradition. Nowadays, there is widespread agreement among historians of ideas that the notion of an โ€œAxial Ageโ€ is itself a myth, but I think that the other part of Jaspersโ€™ idea is right, that is, philosophy indeed originates in critical reflection on myth and tradition. This doesnโ€™t mean that this defines the scope and purpose of philosophy, of course โ€“ as a โ€œmatureโ€ discipline, philosophy mostly reflects on itself โ€“ but I believe that reflection on this idea about the origins...
PhilosophySocial Issues

A Right to Hate?

In August, French blogger Pauline Harmange published a booklet titled Moi les hommes, je les dรฉteste (Me, men, I loathe them), which caused quite a stir in France (and a little bit outside France as well). The book โ€“ supposedly โ€“ is a protest against misogyny (hatred of women), by taking up the opposite point of view of misandry (hatred of men). โ€œSupposedlyโ€, because Iโ€™m not sure exactly about the bookโ€™s arguments as it is no longer available and I have thus been unable to read it. In any case, it is not this book itself that is the topic...
Social Issues

Death, Masculinity, and Hegemony

โ€œAt the center of the symbolic order is the abhorrence of death,โ€ writes Odile Strik in the conclusion of her short essay The Symbolic Order of Life and Manhood. The โ€œsymbolic orderโ€ of the title connects death and masculinity, and (supposedly) structures the way most people understand reality. The essay is terse and almost poetic, and only presents a rough sketch of this symbolic order, but it deals with a number of important themes โ€“ such as masculinity, life and death, and cultural hegemony โ€“ and it deserves credit for bringing those themes together. This article is a (long) commentary...