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Nothingness at the Crossroads of Minor Canons: A Dialogue between Wang Fuzhi and Charles de Bovelles
Get PDFIt is a mainstream assumption that Asian thinkers, and Chinese in particular, have devoted
much of their speculative energies to investigating emptiness and nothingness, whereas
these philosophical concepts would have been neglected (if not abhorred) in Western
thought. As Sorensen (2022, 77) says: “Having climbed to the precipice of being, the
Chinese and Indians pan across the vista of nothingness. They see an open horizon of
opportunity. The Greeks look down the cliff. They suffer vertigo”. In this article, we set
ourselves the task of questioning this assumption by presenting two authors who represent
opposing tendencies within their respective traditions. On the one hand, Wang
Fuzhi 王夫之 (1619–1692), normally described as a “materialist” and a bitter opponent
of the “emptiness” and “nothingness” of Buddhists and Daoists. On the other, Charles de
Bovelles (1479–1566), author of the short treatise Liber de Nihilo, in which nothingness
is posited as necessary to God for his existence and the unfolding of his power. Despite
being in different traditions and with different visions of nothingness, we will see how
their respective thoughts can meet and engage in dialogue in a productive manner
Introduction
Get PDFThis special issue of Asian Studies is dedicated to a relocation of Chinese thought outside of closed definitions and disciplines so as to return to this rich and varied tradition to its authentic, inclusive power. The introduction of Western systems of knowledge classifications, based on Melvil Dewey’s (1851‒1931) library system introduced in China in 1909, imposed entirely different models from the earlier imperial classifications. Moreover, the Dewey decimal model presents philosophy under nine categories (metaphysics; epistemology; parapsychology and occultism; psychology; logic; ethics; ancient, medieval, and eastern philosophy; modern Western philosophy), each with nine subcategories. Therefore the history of philosophy is split into two groups: thinking produced before the 19th century and that which followed. Eastern philosophy is actually the first subcategory of the first historical period (decimal no. 181). This view is highly conservative, and implies that Chinese and Indian philosophies are ancient but unprogressive and not rationally advanced compared to Western philosophy. It is perhaps unnecessary to say that this difference becomes irreconcilable when these Asian philosophies are compared with modern Western philosophy, as the supposedly pre-philosophical nature of non-Western philosophies is implied in the classification
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