On the "Logic" of Togetherness: A Cultural Hermeneutic (Philosophy of History and Culture)

Building bridges between Asian and Western philosophies, Kuang-ming Wu provides a novel approach to the “self-other” issue, casting it in terms of togetherness. ‘On the “Logic" of Togetherness’ is a natural sequel to ‘On Chinese Body Thinking’ (Brill, 1997). It is an essay on a cultural hermeneutics of togetherness, and of the homo-ecological community of differences, cultural and otherwise. “Togetherness” is the concrete primal “that” by which we explain and analyze concrete things and situations: an intrinsic interactive principle of integrity, growth, reflection, and behavior. In five sections, this book describes cultural, personal, argumentative, religious and philosophical situations of togetherness, thus providing an imaginative examination of its varieties. Kuang-ming Wu (Ph.D., Yale) is multiculturally at home in Asia and the West. He has written extensively on their interactions and on Chang Tzu's poetic philosophy. His On Chinese Body Thinking (Brill, 1997) won the National Distinguished Award in Philosophy (Taiwan) Cover Half title Imprint Contents Foreword Preface l. Cultural hermeneutic 2. The title 3. Togetherness Prologue: Togetherness: the Priority P.0. Exigencies P.1. The priority mixup P.2. Analytical units-thinking P.3. Communal togetherness-thinking P.4. Togetherness as concrete, primal Section 1: Cultural Togetherness: Cultural Inside, Outside 1.1. Thinking as cultural 1.2. Culture and universality 1.3. Insiders and outsiders of culture 1.4. The “logic” of cultural togetherness 1.5. Political togetherness 1.6. Intercultural traffic Section 2: Personal Togetherness: the Other 2.1. The Other as being, relation, mode of thinking 2.2. The Other as the self 2.3. Reversibility 2.4. Understanding the Other 2.5. Face and the Other 2.6. Face and the transversal 2.7. Definitional configuration of the Other, togetherness, and differences 2.8. Time-lag as identity-creative dynamism (growth) 2.9. Identity-growth as play with arguments 2.10. Radical Other-thinking as togetherness-thinking 2.11. Existential co-making: the ontology of literature Section 3: Argumentative Togetherness: Playing With Arguments A. Argument can be played with 3.1. What: to argue, to play 3.2. What: to play, to metaphor 3.3. How (1): flying like the bird 3.4. How (2): flopping like the clown 3.5. Result: truths of co-responses 3.6. New meaning and understanding 3.7. Three implications 3.8. Playing with meanings of “argument” B. Life itself is a play C. Play and actuality are interfused 3.9. The playful and the actual 3.10. Play and game 3.11. “Use” and playing with arguments 3.12. Quest and playing with arguments 3.13. Music and playing with arguments 3.14. Relativism, deconstructionism, and playing with arguments 3.19. Play and life (1) 3.16. Play and this Section 3.17. Play and life (2) 3.18. Religion and playing with arguments Section 4: Religious Togetherness: Taoism within Christianity 4.0. The Problem 4.1. Their coming together 4.2. Miracles: the Christian “koans” 4.3. Zen Christianity 4.4. Temptations 4.5. Jonah the only sign for us 4.0. Why not conflicts among religions 4.7. Reason and religion 4.8. What is not “this circle” Section 5: Inner Touch— World Philosophy in the Making 5.1. Inner touch with Sartre 5.2. Symbiosis —philosophical inner touch 5.9. The “self” in Descartes, Confucius, and Chuang Tzu 5.4. The spirit of pragmatism and the pragmatic spirit 5.9. “Time” in China Epilogue: We Learn Together E.l. Review E.2. Concrete fivefold way E.3. Togetherness E.4. No arrangement of threads E.5. Negativities E.6. The future of togetherness E.7. Play and togetherness E.8. The "logic" of togetherness Appendixes Indices I. Index of Names II. Index of Subjects Building bridges between Asian and Western philosophies, Kuang-ming Wu provides an approach to the "self-other" issue, casting it in terms of togetherness. This text is an essay on a cultural hermeneutics of togetherness, and of the homo-ecological community of differences, cultural and otherwise. By Kuang-ming Wu. A Companion And Sequel To My Previous Volume, On Chinese Body Thinking--a Cultural Hermeneutic--pref. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes.