A Companion to World Philosophies

Written by an international assembly of leading philosophers, this volume offers students, teachers and general readers a rich and sophisticated introduction to the major non-Western philosophical traditions - particularly Chinese, Indian, Buddhist and Islamic philosophies. African and Polynesian thinking are also covered by way of historical and contemporary survey articles.The text is organized around a series of central topics concerning conceptions of reality and divinity, of causality, of truth, of the nature of rationality, of selfhood, of humankind and nature, of the good, of aesthetic values, and of social and political ideals. Outstanding scholars present essays that articulate the distinctive ways in which these specific problems have been formulated and addressed in the non-Western traditions against the background of their varied historical and cultural presuppositions.

Eliot Deutsch is past editor (1967-1987) of the international journal Philosophy East and West, Director of the Sixth East-West Philosophers' Conference, and a past president of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy. He is the author of twelve books, including: On Truth; Personhood, Creativity and Freedom; Studies in Comparative Aesthetics; Religion and Spirituality; Essays on the Nature of Art; and many articles and reviews in professional journals.

Ron Bontekoe received his PhD from the University of Toronto. He is author of Dimensions of the Hermenetic Circle (1996) and co-editor of Justice and Democracy.