A Tripartite Self by Lisa Raphals

A Tripartite Self by Lisa Raphals

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Summary

A Tripartite Self explores relations between body and mind, spirit, or soul in early Chinese texts from the Warring States and early Han dynasty period.

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A Tripartite Self by Lisa Raphals

Chinese philosophy has long recognized the importance of the body and emotions in extensive and diverse self-cultivation traditions. Philosophical debates about the relationship between mind and body are often described in terms of mind-body dualism and its opposite, monism or some kind of "holism." Monist or holist views agree on the unity of mind and body, whereas mind-body dualists take body and mind as essentially different. Debates about mind-body dualism have become important in Chinese and comparative philosophy because of claims that there was no mind-body dualism in early China, in contrast to Western traditions. This book argues that there was an important divergence in early China between two views of the self. In one, mind and spirit are closely aligned, and are understood to rule the body as a ruler rules a state. But in the other, the person is tripartite, and mind and spirit are independent entities that cannot be reduced to a material-non-material binary. In some cases, body and spirit are even aligned in opposition to mind. A Tripartite Self addresses both philosophical and technical literatures (including evidence from Chinese excavated texts) to broaden a type of inquiry that frequently is applied only to philosophical texts. Lisa Raphals surveys this divergence and argues for the importance of a tripartite model of the person or self in early Chinese texts through the Han dynasty. The book will shed light on not only important contemporary debates of mind-body dualism within Chinese philosophy but also within East-West comparative approaches to understanding the self.
Lisa Raphals is Director of the Classics Program and the Program in Comparative Ancient Civilizations at the University of California, Riverside. Her previous books include Divination and Prediction in Early China and Ancient Greece; Sharing the Light: Representations of Women and Virtue in Early China; Knowing Words: Wisdom and Cunning in the Classical Traditions of China and Greece; and, as coeditor with Tom Angier, Skill in Ancient Ethics: The Legacy of China, Greece and Rome.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9780197630877
ISBN 10 0197630871
Title A Tripartite Self
Author Lisa Raphals
Condition Unavailable
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Year published 2023-05-26
Number of pages 280
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note Unavailable