Environmental Narratives in the Huainanzi and the Anthropocene

by Matthew James Hamm
Environmental Narratives in the Huainanzi and the Anthropocene
Author: Matthew James Hamm
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2024-08-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1666914363
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Environmental Narratives in the Huainanzi and the Anthropocene analyzes the contemporary discourse of the Anthropocene using the Huainanzi 淮南子, an eastern Eurasian text from the second century BCE. Written to preserve and strengthen the Han Empire (202 BCE–220 CE), the Huainanzi describes a mode of rulership premised on periodizing the present as the end of history that domesticates humans and non-humans. Matthew James Hamm provides a contextualized reading of the Huainanzi’s argument and uses it as a theoretical lens to read Anthropocene scholarship in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Hamm argues that—irrespective of the name or historical narrative used to describe it—the idea of the Anthropocene as a new epoch not only lacks empirical evidence, but also empowers the existing periodization of modernity to provide ideological support for environmentally destructive neoliberal structures rooted in Western European imperial orders. By doing so, the Anthropocene framework actively inhibits the transformative social change needed to address global environmental crises such as climate change and mass extinction. Consequently, this book rejects periodization as a conceptual framework for addressing those issues and advocates for greater scholarly engagement with environmental theories outside the European and Anglo-American traditions, such as the Huainanzi.

A Theory of Environmental Leadership

by Mark Manolopoulos
A Theory of Environmental Leadership
Author: Mark Manolopoulos
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2021-03-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1000360970
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In A Theory of Environmental Leadership, Mark Manolopoulos draws on his original model of leading outlined in his cutting-edge book Following Reason to derive and develop the first properly systematic model of eco-leadership. Suppose humanity’s relation with the Earth may be described in terms of leadership "stages" or modalities: once upon a time, the Earth led or ruled humanity, and now we humans rule or lead the Earth. When the Earth led, the Earth flourished; now that humankind leads, the Earth flounders - ecological crises multiply and intensify. However, there might be a third stage or modality of leadership: humanity leading for the Earth, leading in a way that allows the world, including humans, to re-flourish. What would be the nature of this truly environmental form of leadership? A Theory of Environmental Leadership identifies and critically analyzes the two basic and incompatible positions associated with the way we construe and interact with the non-human: anthropocentrism (human supremacism) and ecocentrism (ecological egalitarianism). By rigorously analyzing and leveraging this polarity, this book outlines an innovative theory of eco-leadership together with some of its confronting-but-necessary measures. Expansive and incredibly timely, A Theory of Environmental Leadership is ideal for a range of audiences, from scholars and students of environmental leadership studies to activists and policymakers. The book’s remarkable clarity and engaging character also makes it suitable for the general public.

Daoism and Environmental Philosophy

by Eric S. Nelson
Daoism and Environmental Philosophy
Author: Eric S. Nelson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2020-10-01
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0429678223
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Daoism and Environmental Philosophy explores ethics and the philosophy of nature in the Daodejing, the Zhuangzi, and related texts to elucidate their potential significance in our contemporary environmental crisis. This book traces early Daoist depictions of practices of embodied emptying and forgetting and communicative strategies of undoing the fixations of words, things, and the embodied self. These are aspects of an ethics of embracing plainness and simplicity, nourishing the asymmetrically differentiated yet shared elemental body of life of the myriad things, and being responsively attuned in encountering and responding to things. These critical and transformative dimensions of early Daoism provide exemplary models and insights for cultivating a more expansive ecological ethos, environmental culture of nature, and progressive political ecology. This work will be of interest to students and scholars interested in philosophy, environmental ethics and philosophy, religious studies, and intellectual history.

The Huainanzi

by John S. Major
The Huainanzi
Author: John S. Major
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 1003
Release: 2010-04-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 0231520859
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Compiled by scholars at the court of Liu An, king of Huainan, in the second century B.C.E, The Huainanzi is a tightly organized, sophisticated articulation of Western Han philosophy and statecraft. Outlining "all that a modern monarch needs to know," the text emphasizes rigorous self-cultivation and mental discipline, brilliantly synthesizing for readers past and present the full spectrum of early Chinese thought. The Huainanzi locates the key to successful rule in a balance of broad knowledge, diligent application, and the penetrating wisdom of a sage. It is a unique and creative synthesis of Daoist classics, such as the Laozi and the Zhuangzi; works associated with the Confucian tradition, such as the Changes, the Odes, and the Documents; and a wide range of other foundational philosophical and literary texts from the Mozi to the Hanfeizi. The product of twelve years of scholarship, this remarkable translation preserves The Huainanzi's special rhetorical features, such as parallel prose and verse, and showcases a compositional technique that conveys the work's powerful philosophical appeal. This path-breaking volume will have a transformative impact on the field of early Chinese intellectual history and will be of great interest to scholars and students alike.

China and the Founding of the United States

by Dave Xueliang Wang
China and the Founding of the United States
Author: Dave Xueliang Wang
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2021-10-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 1793644365
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This book discusses examples of how the U.S. Founding Fathers were influenced and inspired by Chinese agriculture, architecture, and philosophy. China, then one of the most stable and powerful civilizations in the world, offered unique perspectives on various aspects of society which were distinct from the Founding Fathers’ European heritage. China provided an alternative set of social and political frameworks which supported the Founding Fathers’ efforts to craft a unique heritage for their young nation. These Founders sought to establish a political identity that was distinct from European aristocratic traditions.

Chinese Metaphysics and its Problems

by Chenyang Li
Chinese Metaphysics and its Problems
Author: Chenyang Li
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2015-04-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1107093503
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The first English-language contributory volume on Chinese metaphysics, covering all major traditions from pre-Qin to the modern period.

The Golden Age of Piracy in China, 1520–1810

by Robert J. Antony
The Golden Age of Piracy in China, 1520–1810
Author: Robert J. Antony
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 181
Release: 2022-03-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1538161540
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The Golden Age of Piracy in China, 1520–1810 exposes readers to the little-known history of Chinese piracy in the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries through a short narrative and selection of documentary evidence. In this three-hundred-year period, Chinese piracy was unsurpassed in size and scope anywhere else in the world. The book includes a carefully selected and wide range of Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, English, and Japanese sources—some translated for the first time—to illustrate the complexity and variety of piratical activities in Asian waters. These documents include archival criminal cases and depositions of pirates and victims, government reports and proclamations, memoirs of coastal residents and pirate captives, and written and oral folklore handed down for generations. The book also illuminates the important role that pirates played in the political, economic, social, and cultural transformations of early modern China and the world. An historical perspective provides an important vantage point to understand piracy as a recurring cyclical phenomenon inseparably connected with the past.

Knowledge Production in Mao-Era China

by Rui Kunze
Knowledge Production in Mao-Era China
Author: Rui Kunze
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 197
Release: 2021-10-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1498584624
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This book traces and analyzes the transformation of the public discourse of science and technology in Mao-era China. Based on extensive primary sources such as science dissemination materials and technical handbooks, as well as mass media products of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution periods, this book delineates the emergence of a pragmatic approach to knowledge in society. To achieve the goal of fast modernization with limited financial, human, and material resources, the party-state accommodated Western and local, "modern" and "traditional" knowledges in the fields of agricultural mechanization, steel production and Chinese veterinary medicine. The case studies demonstrate that scientific knowledge production in the Mao-era included various social groups and was entangled with political and cultural issues. This reveals and explains the continuity of scientific thinking across the historical divides of 1949 and 1978, which has hitherto been underestimated.

Emotion in Discourse

by J. Lachlan Mackenzie
Emotion in Discourse
Author: J. Lachlan Mackenzie
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 411
Release: 2019-03-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027262772
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Interest in human emotion no longer equates to unscientific speculation. 21st-century humanities scholars are paying serious attention to our capacity to express emotions and giving rigorous explanations of affect in language. We are unquestionably witnessing an ‘emotional turn’ not only in linguistics, but also in other fields of scientific research. Emotion in Discourse follows from and reflects on this scholarly awakening to the world of emotion, and in particular, to its intricate relationship with human language. The book presents both the state of the art and the latest research in an effort to unravel the various workings of the expression of emotion in discourse. It takes an interdisciplinary approach, for emotion is a multifarious phenomenon whose functions in language are enlightened by such other disciplines as psychology, neurology, or communication studies. The volume shows not only how emotion manifests at different linguistic levels, but also how it relates to aspects like linguistic appraisal, emotional intelligence or humor, as well as covering its occurrence in various genres, including scientific discourse. As such, the book contributes to an emerging interdisciplinary field which could be labeled “emotionology”, transcending previous linguistic work and providing an updated characterization of how emotion functions in human discourse.