Another Phenomenology of Humanity: A Reading of A Dream of Red Mansions

by Xunwu Chen

Overview

Another Phenomenology of Humanity: A Reading of A Dream of Red Mansions is devoted to developing another version of phenomenology of humanity—human nature, human dispositions and human desires—by taking A Dream of Red Mansions, the crown jewel of Chinese culture, as its main literary paradigm of illustration. The version of phenomenology of humanity at issue is a synthesis of the Confucian, Daoist, Buddhist and Western existentialist phenomenological accounts of humanity—for example, what is humanity, what make humans as human, human nature, human feelings, human desires, three core human existential interests, and four basic problems of human existence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498504546
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	09/17/2015
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Xunwu Chen is professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Table of Contents

Chapter One: Introduction: Humanity And The World
Chapter Two: Fate and Ontology of Humanity
Chapter Three: Laws and Others
Chapter Four: Fate and Contingency
Chapter Five: Self, Authenticity and the Sentiment of Being
Chapter Six: Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

Chen's Another Phenomenology of Humanity represents a true scholarship and is an important contribution to the field. Outlining a new version of phenomenology of humanity by taking A Dream of Red Mansions as its main literary paradigm of illustration and drawing from Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, and Western existentialism, Chen explores in depth and width four important subject-matters of humanity: the subject-matter of fate, the subject-matter of the law of existence, the subject-matter of contingency, and the subject-matter of authenticity. The book is a work of brilliance, creativity, lucidity, coherence and plausibility. It is original, engaging and well researched. It should provide the lead for a new stream of explorations of humanity, including exploration of the relation between philosophy and literature with regard to studies of humanity.

John Zijiang Ding

A DREAM OF RED MANSIONS, widely acknowledged as the greatest Chinese novel of all times, has attracted perennial critical attention. Numerous as books on the novel are, however, Professor Chen's study has offered an idiosyncratic prospective of his own. A philosopher, Chen approaches the novel in the context of phenomenology, and his close reading of the novel from such a singular angle has provided the reader with new ways to understand and appreciate the philosophical substance, the characters of the novel, as well as the author's artistic maneuvering.

Yang Ye

Chen has accomplished a very special, unique, and comprehensive inquiry of philosophical implications embedded in every colorful life experience of all protagonists in A Dream of Red Mansions, which is beyond previous commentary works on this classic novel in terms of its argumentative details and philosophical significance behind literacy greatness. Therefore, he definitely makes a significant contribution to fulfilling the gap of this masterpiece study.

Lijun Yuan