Quote:
|
Originally Posted by asaris
In part because Christianity is one of very few religions that actually bothers with Philosophy. Islam hasn't produced a first-rate philosopher since the Middle Ages, and I can only think of a handful of Jewish philosophers.
|
That statement is one of cultural arrogance, not fact. Philosophy as a category is western and Christian by definition....so of course, there are only going to be western "philosophers" and a few others we then throw in to that category because they seem to fit more than they don't. Vedic texts consider the nature of being versus non being, the Gita questions of free will and responsibility...Mahayana texts discuss universality and particularity and questions of cosmic unity....Bhuddism in general contains elements that we westerners would probably categorize as philophy in our own cultural frameworks. Dao and Confucianism in their own ways deal with questions of how the individual relates to the cosmos...what the nature of the human being is, and how that being can know truth. Again...content that if packaged in western terminology, we would divide between religion, philopshy, and proverbial wisdom.
And as for Judiasm...i didn't know that you expected more than Buber, Spinoza and Derrida. I'm sure there's more...but they only happen to be three of the giants of the field. i don't mean to be harsh here, but assuming that only Christianity seriously engages in this kind of thought is just not right.