319 | Bryan Van Norden on Philosophy From the Rest of the World

What It Covers

Bryan Van Norden argues Western philosophy departments systematically exclude Chinese, Indian, African, and indigenous philosophical traditions, limiting understanding of global thought systems that inform billions of people and offering valuable alternative perspectives on fundamental questions.

Key Questions Answered

• •Historical revisionism: Philosophy departments trace lineage exclusively to ancient Greece only since the eighteenth century, coinciding with pseudo-scientific racism and imperialism. Earlier European philosophers like Plato and Aristotle assumed philosophy originated in Africa or India and was transmitted to Greece, not invented uniquely there.
• •Structural barriers: American philosophy departments employ more experts on narrow debates like whether the present king of France is bald than scholars covering all non-European philosophy combined. This creates systematic exclusion where professors dismiss Chinese or Indian philosophy without reading any of it, perpetuating ignorance through institutional design.
• •Buddhist no-self doctrine: The Questions of King Melinda presents the chariot argument, demonstrating that just as a chariot cannot be identified with wheels, axle, or their sum, the self cannot be located in any component or collection of physical and mental states, challenging Cartesian assumptions about substance and identity.
• •Chinese language philosophy: The School of Names developed sophisticated arguments that reference itself cannot be referred to without already deploying reference mechanisms, prefiguring Wittgenstein and Quine by millennia. This explains Daoist claims that ways spoken of are not constant ways, addressing fundamental problems in fixing meaning.
• •Relational metaphysics: Huayan Buddhism and later Confucian thinkers like Zhu Xi propose reality consists entirely of relational properties without ultimate substrata, contrasting with Western philosophy's assumption that individuals are metaphysically fundamental. This difference shapes contemporary political thought about community versus individual rights across cultures.