The notion of belongingness in African philosophy has its most profound expression in Pantaleon Iroegbu’s uwa ontology, which stipulates that being is that which exists in the community, or, as he puts it, “To be is to belong.” The main contention of this article is that Jonathan O. Chimakonam’s ezumezu logic is fully equipped to explain this ontology of belongingness. This is due to the trivalent and dynamic nature of this African culture–inspired logic, which adequately captures the African conception of (...) reality. According to this conception, individual entities continue to coexist or to belong in the community without losing their respective identities. (shrink)

A work of and about comparative philosophy that stresses the importance of language in intercultural endeavors.

Traditionally, metaphysical notions of self and other presuppose a dualism that underlies much of Western philosophy. This dualism is opposed by accounts of self and other in recent continental philosophy and classical Chinese philosophy, which I compare. I argue that the self is seen in continental and Chinese thought as embedded in relations and language, and not as transcendent or prior in the metaphysical sense to them. I argue for this by focussing on three themes: self and language, self as (...) relational and embedded in the world or contextual environment, and self and the particular other. These three themes show that the complexity and dynamic of the self-other relation is much more realistically conveyed by continental and classical Chinese thought than by the traditional metaphysical account. (shrink)

_A work of and about comparative philosophy that stresses the importance of language in intercultural endeavors._.

The article analyzes the figure of Indian philosopher Vasubandhu (ca. S. IV), one of the most important representative of the vijñānavāda school of mahāyāna Buddhism. After a brief account on the legendary biography of Vasubandhu and other members of his school, the article focuses on the understanding of two of his seminal works: Trimśikā and Trisvabhāvakārikā through the concepts of vijñāna (showing the different meanings of this widely used concept in Buddhist thought), ālayavijñāna (store consciousness), vāsanā (mental trace), parikalpa (imagination) (...) and trisvabāva (three natures): parikalpita (imaginative), paratantra (dependent) and parinispanna (consummated). It also establishes the links between Vasubandhu and the nāgārjuna’s doctrine of śūnyatā and the Buddhist practice of puöya-praöidhana (dedication of merit) and bodhicitta (thought of awakening), showing, in a coherent fashion, the practical aspects of this philosophy of mind. (shrink)