In Nietzche and Other Buddhas, author Jason M. Wirth brings major East Asian Buddhist thinkers into radical dialogue with key Continental philosophers through a series of exercises that pursue what is traditionally called comparative or intercultural philosophy as he reflects on what makes such exercises possible and intelligible. The primary questions he asks are: How does this particular engagement and confrontation challenge and radicalize what is sometimes called comparative or intercultural philosophy? How does this task reconsider what is meant by philosophy? The confrontations that Wirth sets up between Dogen, Hakuin, Linji, Shinran, Nietzsche, and Deleuze ask readers to think more philosophically and globally about the nature of philosophy in general and comparative philosophy in particular. He opens up a new and challenging space of thought in and between the cutting edges of Western Continental philosophy and East Asian Buddhist practice.

About the Author

Jason M. Wirth is Professor of Philosophy at Seattle University. He is author of Mountains, Rivers, and the Great Earth: Reading Gary Snyder and Dogen in an Age of Ecological Crisis; Commiserating with Devastated Things: Milan Kundera and the Entitlements of Thinking; and Schelling's Practice of the Wild: Time, Art, Imagination. He is editor of (with Bret W. Davis and Brian Schroeder) Japanese and Continental Philosophy: Conversations with the Kyoto School.

Reviews

Jason Wirth has written a book that is the product of his love for both East-Asian and Western philosophy, and as such a book that bridges differences. In that respect, then, Nietzsche and Other Buddhas is an important book for an age marked by intolerance and disregard for the "other". . . and where the love of thought, spirit, and body that is indeed philosophy has an important role to play.

* Los Angeles Review of Books *

The book is rich in subtle details and inquiries. Slim though it is, this is not a book that will be read quickly and then put down as having been read. It is a demanding and yet inviting text. . . . Highly recommended.

* Choice *

Jason Wirth's Nietzsche and Other Buddhas: Philosophy after Comparative Philosophy is a tour de force that both challenges and expands our understanding of the very practice of philosophy in general, and comparative philosophy in particular.

-- Joseph Markowski * Reading Religion *



Book Information
ISBN 9780253039705
Author Jason M. Wirth
Format Hardback
Page Count 166
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press