Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto by Bryan W. Van Norden (PDF)

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Are American colleges and universities failing their students by refusing to teach the philosophical traditions of China, India, Africa, and other non-Western cultures? This biting and provocative critique of American higher education says yes. Even though we live in an increasingly multicultural world, most philosophy departments stubbornly insist that only Western philosophy is real philosophy and denigrate everything outside the European canon. In Taking Back Philosophy, Bryan W. Van Norden lambastes academic philosophy for its Eurocentrism, insularity, and complicity with nationalism and issues a ringing call to make our educational institutions live up to their cosmopolitan ideals. In a cheeky, agenda-setting, and controversial style, Van Norden, an expert in Chinese philosophy, proposes an inclusive, multicultural approach to philosophical inquiry. He showcases several accessible examples of how Western and Asian thinkers can be brought into productive dialogue, demonstrating that philosophy only becomes deeper as it becomes increasingly diverse and pluralistic. Taking Back Philosophy is at once a manifesto for multicultural education, an accessible introduction to Confucian and Buddhist philosophy, a critique of the ethnocentrism and anti-intellectualism characteristic of much contemporary American politics, a defense of the value of philosophy and a liberal arts education, and a call to return to the search for the good life that defined philosophy for Confucius, Socrates, and the Buddha. Building on a popular New York Times opinion piece that suggested any philosophy department that fails to teach non-Western philosophy should be renamed a “Department of European and American Philosophy,” this book will challenge any student or scholar of philosophy to reconsider what constitutes the love of wisdom.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I imagined I would just start this book last night, but instead I was compelled to finished it in one sitting. Van Norden’s Taking Back Philosophy: A Cultural Manifesto argues in a convincing, sharp, and yet charitable tone, that teaching philosophy non multi-culturally is disadvantageous to us all and even downright non philosophical.Van Norden urges us to return to the way of Socrates and Confucius. The way of approaching others and the world in wonder. The way of learning by discussing with diverse others how best we can all live well. The way that we only know is being done well when some start to worry if we might be ‘corrupting the youth.’Unlike Van Norden, many people who write about philosophy offer a murky, abstract, or no definition of philosophy. Or worse yet, they quip that what philosophy is is a philosophical question. Or even more ridiculously, that philosophy is something only Greeks and those influenced by them could do, because the word ‘philosophy’ comes from Greek.Van Norden will have none of this chicanery. He doesn’t mince words. He doesn’t evade us in an inky cloud. He respects us too much. To his credit, Van Norden gives us a clear definition of what he thinks philosophy is that we can openly agree or disagree with:“Philosophy is dialogue about problems that we agree are important, but don’t agree about the method for solving, where ‘importance’ ultimately gets it sense from the question of the way one should live.”This is why philosophy should be studied multiculturally. Not because of what one critic of Van Norden called the ‘ooshy gooshy need to pretend every culture is equally advanced.’ But, because philosophy can only be of best use to us when it offers differing voices with different assumptions from different traditions. Because then, and only then, will it be allowed for the greatest amount of people with differing assumption to disagree, talk with, and learn from each other about how to solve problems, especially the most important one of all, which is what it means to live a good life.Van Norden argues that philosophy dies when we create walls around our own traditions to protect them from other traditions. For we all have assumptions that blind us, and what the study of multicultural philosophy does is to make our assumptions more obvious by showing that other people and cultures do not share them. In a very real sense, all the assumptions we make come from some philosopher or another, whether or not we know this. We are therefore already already doing philosophy whether or not we realize it, or even do philosophy well.As Van Norden memorably put in in an enjoyable rant of his:“Do you think that the purpose of life is to make the most of your intelligence and contribute to your community? You’re an Aristotelian. Do you think there is no purpose to life except for the one each of us chooses for herself? You’re an existentialist. Do you think that morality has to be explained psychologically, by our emotions and other motivations? You’re a Humean. Do you think that what is right is to do whatever produced the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people? You’re a utilitarian. Do you think that there are some actions that are intrinsically wrong and must never be done, even if they would result in desirable consequences? You’re a Kantian. Do you think that government is designed to protect our inalienable rights to life, liberty and property? You’re a Lockean. Do you think that government must protect our freedoms, but wealth inequality is justifiable only insofar as it benefits those most in need? You’re a Rawlsian. Do you think that much of religious belief can be justified by philosophy? Please say hello to my friend Thomas Aquinas. Do you think we can legitimately have religious belief even though most it must be accepted on faith? Go hang out with my buddies Pascal and Kierkegaard. Do you believe that religion is superstition that has had a largely negative influence on the world? Read Bertrand Russell or J.L. Mackie. Or do you dismiss philosophy as nothing but rationalizations for the will to power or structure of domination? Enjoy Nietzsche, Marx, Freud, and Foucault. (Oops! They’re philosophers too!) The question is not whether philosophy is important you. It already is. The only question is whether you choose to become self-aware and critically reflective about the philosophical beliefs you hold.”We do philosophy better when we know what our influences and assumptions are. We do it even better when we are able to (as Van Norden himself does) make our our assumptions respectfully clear to others. We simply blind ourselves to different and perhaps better questions and answers about how we might live well when we ignore or disparage philosophy.This is why Van Norden repeats again and again that the study of philosophy is not incompatible with living well, whether that means something practical, spiritual, or financial for you. Even if you are a scientist who ignorantly despises philosophy as impractical, such as Neil Degrasse Tyson or Stephen Hawking, you need philosophy just as much of the rest of us, because as Einstein himself argued:“So many people today -and even professional scientists- seem to me like somebody who has seen thousands of trees but has never seen a forest. A knowledge of the historic and philosophical background gives that kind of independence from prejudices of his generation from which most scientists are suffering. This independence created by philosophical insight is -in my opinion- the mark of distinction between a mere artisan or specialist and a seeker after the truth.”Or take the words of Schrodinger who (like Einstein also) won a Nobel Prize in physics:“The scientific picture of the real word around me is deficient. It gives a lot of factual information, puts all our experience in a magnificently consistent order, but is ghastly silent about all and sundry that is really near to our heart, that really matters to us. It cannot tell us a word about red and blue, bitter and sweet, physical pain and physical delight; it knows nothing of beautiful and ugly, good or bad, God and eternity. Science sometimes pretends to answer questions in these domains, but the answers are very often so silly that we are not inclined to take them seriously.”Philosophy helps us do everything better when we do it right, and the only reliable way to do it wrong is to exclude learning from others because we assume we are correct, especially if it’s just because they look or sound different. In other words, the only way to always do bad philosophy is when we ignorantly argue against the multicultural learning and teaching of ‘others’ philosophies. If we aren’t worried about corrupting the youth, and inspiring them with questionable ideas about what it means to live well, we aren’t doing philosophy right.Van Norden’s writing is, as a rule, crisp and precise. His manifesto works as a fine introduction to Chinese philosophy and the study of philosophy more generally. I recommend Van Norden’s manifesto to anyone who has ever been interested in studying ‘Non Western philosophy’ and does not know where to begin or feels worried about being disparaged for doing so. Van Norden will equip you with all the arguments you need to make rigid and reactionary defenders of any ‘traditional’ canon look like the silly pedants they are. Van Norden might even make you laugh too, and what more can you want out of a work on philosophy trying to help you live better?

⭐This book expands upon an op-ed in the New York Times by Bryan Van Norden, an expert in Chinese philosophy, and Jay Garfield, a philosopher who teaches Buddhist studies (among other things), arguing that most US philosophy departments ought to state up front their exclusive focus on Western philosophy.Chapter 1 replays the op-ed.Chapter 2 demonstrates the sort of productive dialogue that could take place between Western and non-Western philosophy if academics were only open to it.Chapter 3, the weakest in the book, argues that racism underlies much of academics’ antipathy to non-Western philosophers.Chapter 4 tackles anti-intellectualism and shows that philosophy really does prove useful practically.Chapter 5 explores what philosophy is really for and why we should value it.If you already agree with Van Norden and Garfield (like me), you may not get much out of the book. I found it interesting by way of exploring numerous references to people and events I wasn’t familiar with. But for someone who’s not yet convinced of their point of view and who’s open to learning more, this would make an excellent gift.

⭐I really enjoyed Taking Back Philosophy! The author does a wonderful highlighting the importance of philosophy in general and the benefits of studying Eastern philosophy. If you are looking for a book with lots of practical wisdom, this is the book for you.

⭐This work is a no holds barred, gauntlet throwing indictment of the exclusion of the philosophy of China, India, Africa, and the Americas in the canon of current academia. Dr. Van Norden speaks directly to the reader in a clear, unimpeded prose that is easily absorbed and understood.How arrogant we are in our Anglocentric world to ignore discplines that predate our learning by hundreds of years. I myself was asked to write a book on colonial America, which rapidly turned into Genealogical Encyclopedia of the Colonial Americas, allowing me to include events happening in South America, almost a century before the establishment of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia.Van Norden demonstrates this multicultural vision. He also has a keen grasp of the practical role of philosophy in society, to quote, “What way should one live? Bernard Williams referred to this as the ‘Socrates’ question,’ and identified it as central to ethical philosophy. I would expand upon this and say that it is the ultimate motivating question behind philosophy in every tradition.”I would describe this book as a journey, tying together dialogues that may have been lost or discarded, and weaving them back together into one beautiful patchwork of thought.

⭐Astonishing straightforward and well-argued. It is a timely contribution to exposing the issues that have plagued philosophy departments in the English speaking world. Definitely the most fun I have had with a philosophy book in a while. This book dazzles with wit, as well as subtle humor. Please do yourself a favor and read this book.

⭐Very good at contextualizing academic philosophy’s obsession with “the west” and relates philosophy to this same thought region’s political epoch just as well. I would have liked to dive deeper into how philosophy was/is practiced beyond the west rather than just hear about a few thinkers, so that we could better understand both similar and different world views and engage them for a better world.

⭐An important contribution to the debate about whether philosophy is just a Greek-Roman-Europe-American thing. Jay Garfield does the forward. This was an important simulation to my own thinking about philosophy. I think philosophy has lost it way. We need to take back philosophy.

⭐Great intro for non academic of philosophy. Ethics, morality, how to approach becoming a self examiner are all parts here. In a wide world multiculturalism is lost if we is

⭐Though very much directed to the situation in the United States of America in the second decade of the twenty-first century, van Norden’s “manifesto” is a call for greater open-mindedness in a discipline that too often credits itself with an open-mindedness that is, in reality, rather parochial. The learning and wit deployed made me aware of prejudices that I didn’t recognise in myself. Bracing to the point of chastisement.

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