{"product_id":"living-chinese-philosophy-roger-t-ames-9781438499529","title":"Living Chinese Philosophy: Zoetology as First Philosophy","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eContrasts classical Greek ontology (\"the science of being in itself\") with Confucian \"zoetology\" (\"the art of living\").\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eLiving Chinese Philosophy\u003c\/i\u003e, Roger T. Ames uses comparative cultural hermeneutics as a method for contrasting classical Greek ontology (\"the science of being in itself\") with classical Chinese \"zoetology\" (\"the art of living\"), which is made explicit in the \u003ci\u003eYijing\u003c\/i\u003e易經or \u003ci\u003eBook of Changes\u003c\/i\u003e. Parmenides, Plato, and Aristotle give us a substance ontology grounded in \"being \u003ci\u003equa\u003c\/i\u003e being\" or \"being \u003ci\u003eper se\u003c\/i\u003e\" (\u003ci\u003eto on he on\u003c\/i\u003e) that guarantees a permanent and unchanging subject as the substratum for the human experience. This substratum or essence includes its purpose for being (\u003ci\u003etelos\u003c\/i\u003e) and defines the \"what-it-means-to-be-a-thing-of-this-kind\" (\u003ci\u003eeidos\u003c\/i\u003e) of any particular thing, thus setting a closed, exclusive boundary and the strict identity necessary for a particular thing to be \"this\" and not \"that.\" In the \u003ci\u003eBook of Changes\u003c\/i\u003e, we find a vocabulary that makes explicit cosmological assumptions that are a stark alternative to this substance ontology. It also provides the interpretive context for the canonical texts by locating them within a holistic, organic, and ecological worldview. To provide a meaningful contrast with this fundamental assumption of \u003ci\u003eon\u003c\/i\u003e or \"being,\" we might borrow the Greek notion of \u003ci\u003ezoe\u003c\/i\u003e or \"life\" and create the neologism \"\u003ci\u003ezoe\u003c\/i\u003e-tology\" as \"the art of living\" (\u003ci\u003eshengshenglun\u003c\/i\u003e生生論). This cosmology begins from \"living\" (\u003ci\u003esheng\u003c\/i\u003e生) itself as the motive force behind change and gives us a world of boundless \"becomings\" not \"things\" that \u003ci\u003eare\u003c\/i\u003e but \"events\" that are \u003ci\u003ehappening\u003c\/i\u003e, a contrast between an ontological conception of human \"beings\" and a process conception of what the author calls human \"becomings.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Roger T. Ames\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1438499523\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781438499529\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e State University of New York Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/02\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 389\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.15lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.87d","brand":"Roger T. Ames","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46721505558783,"sku":"9781438499529","price":36.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_a2b8d251-3051-4e57-a96b-6e31206e12d1.jpg?v=1742753066","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/living-chinese-philosophy-roger-t-ames-9781438499529","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}