Confucian exegesis, hermeneutic theory, and comparative thought

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2 Scopus citations

Abstract

The article explores the conceptual nexus of Chinese exegesis and Western hermeneutics, including their commensurability, commonality, and concordance on the one hand, and divergence, difference, and dissonance, on the other. Such an exercise throws into relief the import of the act of reading in varying cultural contexts, while bringing to light the imperative of reading-cum-understanding as an englobing universal human pursuit, especially the apprehension of the lessons and truths that seem to inhere in the oldest and most precious of our cultural capital: the classics. Comparative readings of the Chinese classics may generate a new Chinese theory of reading while ensuring their plural cultural significances in a global world. Such is the basis and raison d’être of hermeneutics, or in this case, intercultural hermeneutics, which is the commerce between different cultural traditions of reading, an encounter that cannot elide the Eurotropic orientation that is, from our vantage point in the West, an epistemological component of transcultural inquiry.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationWhy Traditional Chinese Philosophy Still Matters
Subtitle of host publicationThe Relevance of Ancient Wisdom for the Global Age
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages118-132
Number of pages15
ISBN (Electronic)9781351356015
ISBN (Print)9781138562714
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2018

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Arts and Humanities
  • General Social Sciences

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