DLS Foundational 2

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This seminar examines cross-cultural thinking about the nature of knowledge. In Western philosophical terminology, this is a matter of epistemology, which determines the methods and criteria for attaining reliable knowing. In turn, epistemology is significantly determined by ontological assumptions or the determination of what actually exists when one gets beyond mere appearances to view the world correctly. A comparative examination reveals very different ways cultures have approached the nature of knowledge, revealing that there are different ways of defining it. We will explore these different ways of framing knowledge through Western and East Asian Daoist and Buddhist sources. The first half of the course lays out fundamental differences between them, particularly as applied to the realms of social theory, aesthetics, and theories of personhood. The second half of the course looks at how these comparative epistemological traditions play out in the contemporary debate about religion and science, and whether or not they are compatible. This examination triangulates between the voices of Christian theology, contemporary Western philosophy, and Buddhism. ,br> The examination of two different cultural approaches does not presume a neat division between them. Rather, comparison brings out innate tensions within Western tradition itself, which the perspective of a different cultural system helps to highlight. For that reason, comparative study enables greater understanding of one’s home tradition, in addition to expanding one’s knowledge base.