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Three points: 1. The division of philosophy and religion into separate camps is a modern thing. It doesn’t hold up very well to scrutiny, either; much of what
by keiferski 5y ago
Three points:
1. The division of philosophy and religion into separate camps is a modern thing. It doesn’t hold up very well to scrutiny, either; much of what we consider “Western secular” values and ideas are really just modifications and reinterpretations of old Christian and Greco-Roman ideas. I recommend the book A Secular Age by Charles Taylor if you are interested in how this process has gone (and continues to go.)
2. There are extensive and thorough philosophical traditions in the Islamic world, Russian world, Indian world, and East Asia (especially China and Japan.) I really wouldn’t brush all of these away so quickly.
3. You might find the Kyoto School interesting and a good entry point. They attempted to synthesize much of Eastern and Western thought.
- cyber_kinetist 5y agoThanks for the suggestions. Reading up on the Kyoto School right now. Also added A Secular Age on the reading list, it seems really interesting.
- keiferski 5y agoNo problem! Also, A Secular Age is a huge tome, so you might want to start with How Not to Be Secular by James K. A. Smith. It's essentially a summary and reading guide to the book.
- throw0101a 5y ago> much of what we consider “Western secular” values and ideas are really just modifications and reinterpretations of old Christian and Greco-Roman ideas. Tom Holland goes over this in his recent book Dominion as well: * https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/21/dominion-making-western-mind-tom-holland-review https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/21/dominion-makin... * https://historyforatheists.com/2020/01/tom-holland-dominion/ https://historyforatheists.com/2020/01/tom-holland-dominion/ See also from a sociological perspective as well: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_WEIRDest_People_in_the_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_WEIRDest_People_in_the_Wor...