World Philosophies - Softcover

Smart, Ninian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415228522 ISBN 13: 9780415228527

Publisher: Routledge, 2000

Synopsis

World Philosophies is a comprehensive survey of the world's philosophical and religious traditions by one of our foremost religious thinkers. Ninian Smart discusses notable figures such as Plato and Kierkegaard in the West, the Buddha and Mao Zedong in Asia, Tempels and Knibanga in Africa, and Rodo and Royce in America. Covering a wide range of topics including Indian ideas of testimony and evidence, Chinese notions of moral development, Buddhist concepts of cosmology and Latin American critiques of materialism, Smart sheds new light on the astonishing diversity of philosophies that have developed throughout history.

About this title

About the Author:

Ninian Smart is Chairperson of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of numerous books, including The World's Religions (1996),Reflections in the Mirror of Religion (1997) and The Religious Experience (1996).

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0415228522
• ISBN 13: 9780415228527
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 464