THE SOCIOLOGY
OF PHILOSOPHIES
THE SOCIOLOGY
OF PHILOSOPHIES
A Global Theory
of Intellectual Change
£
RANDALL COLLINS
THE BELKNAP PRESS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England
Copyright © 1998 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America Fourth printing, 2002
First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 2000
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Collins, Randall, 1941–
The sociology of philosophies : a global theory of intellectual change / Randall Collins.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-674-81647-1 (cloth)
ISBN 0-674-00187-7 (pbk.)
1.Knowledge, Sociology of. 2. Philosophy—History.
3.Comparative civilization. 4. Philosophers—Social networks.
I.Title.
BD175.C565 1998 306.4′2′09—dc21 97-18446
In every hair there are an infinite number of lions, and in addition all the single hairs, together with their infinite number of lions, in turn enter into a single hair. In this way the progression is infinite, like the jewels in Celestial Lord Indra’s net.
Fa-tsang (T’ang Dynasty)
Homer was wrong in saying, “Would that strife might perish from among gods and humans.” For if that were to occur, all things would cease to exist.
Heraclitus
Contents
Preface xvii
Acknowledgments xxi
Introduction 1
THE SKELETON OF THEORY
1 |
Coalitions in the Mind |
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19 |
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General Theory of Interaction Rituals |
20 |
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The Interaction Rituals of Intellectuals |
24 |
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The Opportunity Structure |
37 |
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The Sociology of Thinking |
46 |
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2 |
Networks across the Generations |
54 |
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The Rarity of Major Creativity 54 |
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Who Will Be Remembered? 58
What Do Minor Philosophers Do? 61
The Structural Mold of Intellectual Life: Long-Term Chains
in China and Greece |
64 |
The Importance of Personal Ties 68 |
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The Structural Crunch |
74 |
3 Partitioning Attention Space: |
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The Case of Ancient Greece |
80 |
The Intellectual Law of Small Numbers |
81 |
The Forming of an Argumentative Network and the Launching of Greek Philosophy 82
How Long Do Organized Schools Last? 89 Small Numbers Crisis and the Creativity of the
Post-Socratic Generation 97
viii • Contents |
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The Hellenistic Realignment of Positions |
103 |
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The Roman Base and the Second Realignment |
109 |
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The Stimulus of Religious Polarization |
119 |
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The Showdown of Christianity versus the Pagan United |
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Front |
123 |
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Two Kinds of Creativity |
131 |
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COMPARATIVE HISTORY OF |
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INTELLECTUAL COMMUNITIES |
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Part I: Asian Paths |
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4 Innovation by Opposition: Ancient China |
137 |
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The Sequence of Oppositions in Ancient China |
137 |
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Centralization in the Han Dynasty: The Forming of Official |
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Confucianism and Its Opposition |
153 |
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The Changing Landscape of External Supports |
158 |
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The Gentry-Official Culture: The Pure Conversation |
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Movement and the Dark Learning |
168 |
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Class Culture and the Freezing of Creativity in Indigenous |
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Chinese Philosophy |
174 |
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5 External and Internal Politics of the Intellectual |
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World: India |
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177 |
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Sociopolitical Bases of Religious Ascendancies |
178 |
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Religious Bases of Philosophical Factions: Divisions and |
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Recombination of Vedic Ritualists |
193 |
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The Crowded Competition of the Sages |
195 |
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Monastic Movements and the Ideal of Meditative |
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Mysticism |
200 |
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Anti-monastic Opposition and the Forming of Hindu Lay |
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Culture |
208 |
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Partitioning the Intellectual Attention Space 213 |
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The Buddhist-Hindu Watershed 224 |
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The Post-Buddhist Resettlement of Intellectual |
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Territories |
255 |
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Scholasticism and Syncretism in the Decline of Hindu |
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Philosophy |
268 |
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Contents • ix |
6 Revolutions of the Organizational Base: |
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Buddhist and Neo-Confucian China |
272 |
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Buddhism and the Organizational Transformation of |
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Medieval China |
274 |
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Intellectual Foreign Relations of Buddhism, Taoism, and |
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Confucianism 279 |
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Creative Philosophies in Chinese Buddhism |
281 |
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The Ch’an (Zen) Revolution |
290 |
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The Neo-Confucian Revival |
299 |
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The Weak Continuity of Chinese Metaphysics 316 |
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7 Innovation through Conservatism: Japan |
322 |
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Japan as Transformer of Chinese Buddhism |
326 |
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The Inflation of Zen Enlightenment and the |
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Scholasticization of Koan |
341 |
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Tokugawa as a Modernizing Society |
347 |
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The Divergence of Secularist Naturalism and |
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Neoconservatism |
361 |
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Conservatism and Intellectual Creativity 367 |
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The Myth of the Opening of Japan |
369 |
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Conclusions to Part I: |
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The Ingredients of Intellectual Life |
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379 |
COMPARATIVE HISTORY OF
INTELLECTUAL COMMUNITIES
Part II: Western Paths
8 Tensions of Indigenous and Imported Ideas:
Islam, Judaism, Christendom |
387 |
Philosophy within a Religious Context |
388 |
The Muslim World: An Intellectual Community Anchored |
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by a Politicized Religion 392 |
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Four Factions 395 |
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Realignment of Factions in the 900s |
407 |
The Culmination of the Philosophical Networks: Ibn Sina |
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and al-Ghazali 417 |
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Routinization of Sufis and Scholastics |
423 |
Spain as the Hinge of Medieval Philosophy 428
Coda: Are Idea Imports a Substitute for Creativity? 446
x • Contents
9 Academic Expansion as a Two-Edged Sword: |
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Medieval Christendom |
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451 |
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The Organizational Bases of Christian Thought |
455 |
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The Inner Autonomy of the University |
463 |
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The Breakup of Theological Philosophy |
485 |
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Intellectuals as Courtiers: The Humanists |
497 |
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The Question of Intellectual Stagnation |
501 |
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Coda: The Intellectual Demoralization of the Late |
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Twentieth Century |
521 |
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10 Cross-Breeding Networks and |
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Rapid-Discovery Science |
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523 |
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A Cascade of Creative Circles |
526 |
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Philosophical Connections of the Scientific Revolution 532 |
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Three Revolutions and Their Networks |
556 |
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The Mathematicians |
557 |
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The Scientific Revolution |
559 |
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The Philosophical Revolution: Bacon and Descartes |
562 |
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11 Secularization and Philosophical |
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Meta-territoriality |
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570 |
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Secularization of the Intellectual Base |
573 |
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Geopolitics and Cleavages within Catholicism |
574 |
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Reemergence of the Metaphysical Field |
587 |
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Jewish Millennialism and Spinoza’s Religion of |
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Reason 589 |
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Leibniz’s Mathematical Metaphysics |
591 |
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Rival Philosophies upon the Space of Religious |
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Toleration |
594 |
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Deism and the Independence of Value Theory |
600 |
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The Reversal of Alliances |
603 |
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Anti-modernist Modernism and the Anti-scientific |
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Opposition |
609 |
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The Triumph of Epistemology |
613 |
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12 Intellectuals Take Control of Their Base: |
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The German University Revolution |
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618 |
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The German Idealist Movement |
622 |
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Philosophy Captures the University 638 |
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Idealism as Ideology of the University Revolution |
650 |
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Political Crisis as the Outer Layer of Causality |
661 |
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The Spread of the University Revolution |
663 |
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Contents • xi
13 The Post-revolutionary Condition: Boundaries as
Philosophical Puzzles |
688 |
Meta-territories upon the Science-Philosophy Border 694 |
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The Social Invention of Higher Mathematics 697 |
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The Logicism of Russell and Wittgenstein |
709 |
The Vienna Circle as a Nexus of Struggles |
717 |
The Ordinary Language Reaction against Logical |
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Formalism 731 |
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Wittgenstein’s Tortured Path 734
From Mathematical Foundations Crisis to Husserl’s
Phenomenology 737
Heidegger: Catholic Anti-modernism Intersects the
Phenomenological Movement 743 |
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Division of the Phenomenological Movement |
748 |
The Ideology of the Continental-Anglo Split |
751 |
14 |
Writers’ Markets and Academic Networks: |
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The French Connection |
754 |
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The Secularization Struggle and French Popular |
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Philosophy 757 |
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Existentialists as Literary-Academic Hybrids |
764 |
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Envoi: Into the Fog of the Present 782 |
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META-REFLECTIONS |
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15 |
Sequence and Branch in the Social Production |
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of Ideas |
787 |
The Continuum of Abstraction and Reflexivity 787
Three Pathways: Cosmological, Epistemological-
Metaphysical, Mathematical 800
The Future of Philosophy 856
Epilogue: Sociological Realism |
858 |
The Sociological Cogito 858 |
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Mathematics as Communicative Operations |
862 |
The Objects of Rapid-Discovery Science 870
Why Should Intellectual Networks Undermine
Themselves? 875
xii • Contents |
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Appendices |
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1. |
The Clustering of Contemporaneous Creativity |
883 |
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2. |
The Incompleteness of Our Historical Picture |
890 |
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3. |
Keys to Figures |
893 |
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Notes 947 |
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References 1035 |
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Index of Persons |
1069 |
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Index of Subjects |
1089 |
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Figures, Maps, and Tables
FIGURES
2.1 Network of Chinese Philosophers, 400–200 b.c.e. |
55 |
2.2Network of Greek Philosophers from Socrates to
Chrysippus |
56 |
3.1Forming the Network of Greek Philosophers,
600–465 b.c.e. |
83 |
3.2Centralization of the Greek Network in Athens,
465–365 b.c.e. |
88 |
3.3Organized Schools of Greek Philosophy,
600 b.c.e.–100 c.e. |
91 |
3.4Proliferation and Recombination of the Greek
Schools, 400–200 b.c.e. |
96 |
3.5Realignment of Schools in the Roman Conquest,
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200 b.c.e.–1 c.e. |
110 |
3.6 |
Syncretisms and Skepticism, 1–200 c.e. |
117 |
3.7 |
Showdown of Neoplatonists and Christians, 200–400 |
124 |
3.8 |
Neoplatonists under Christian Triumph, 400–600 |
130 |
4.1Emergence of Chinese Network, 500–365 b.c.e.:
Rival Confucian Lineages, Mohists, Primitivists |
139 |
4.2 Intersecting Centers of the Warring States, |
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365–200 b.c.e. |
144 |
4.3Han Dynasty Transition and Forming of Official
Confucianism, 235 b.c.e.–100 c.e. |
159 |
4.4Later Han Dynasty Disintegration and the Dark
Learning, 100–300 c.e. |
170 |
5.1Indian Network, 800–400 b.c.e.: The Founding
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Rivalries |
201 |
5.2 |
India, 400 b.c.e.– 400 c.e.: Age of Anonymous Texts |
210 |
5.3 |
Lineages of Buddhist Sects, 400 b.c.e.–900 c.e. |
214 |
5.4 |
Conflict of Buddhist and Hindu Schools, 400–900 c.e. |
225 |
xiv • Figures, Maps, and Tables
5.5Hindu Oppositions, 900–1500: Nyaya Realists,
Advaita Idealists, Vaishnava Dualists |
258 |
6.1Taoist Church and Imported Buddhist Schools,
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300–500 |
284 |
6.2 |
T’ien-t’ai, Yogacara, Hua-yen, 500–800 |
287 |
6.3 |
Cascade of Ch’an (Zen) Schools, 635–935 |
294 |
6.4Neo-Confucian Movement and the Winnowing of
Zen, 935–1265 |
300 |
6.5Neo-Confucian Orthodoxy and the Idealist
Movement, 1435–1565 |
315 |
7.1Network of Japanese Philosophers, 600–1100:
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Founding of Tendai and Shingon |
328 |
7.2 |
Expansion of Pure Land and Zen, 1100–1400 |
334 |
7.3 |
Zen Artists and Tea Masters, 1400–1600 |
340 |
7.4Tokugawa Confucian and National Learning Schools,
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1600–1835 |
351 |
7.5 |
Meiji Westernizers and the Kyoto School, 1835–1935 |
373 |
8.1 |
Islamic and Jewish Philosophers and Scientists, |
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700–935: Basra and Baghdad Schools |
396 |
8.2AshÀarites, Greek Falasifa, and the Syntheses of Ibn
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Sina and al-Ghazali, 935–1100 |
409 |
8.3 |
Mystics, Scientists, and Logicians, 1100–1400 |
424 |
8.4 |
Islamic and Jewish Philosophers in Spain, 900–1065 |
435 |
8.5 |
Spain, 1065–1235: The Hinge of the Hinge |
438 |
9.1 |
Islamic Factions and Combinations |
452 |
9.2 |
Proliferation of Cistercian Monasteries, 1098–1500 |
457 |
9.3 |
Christian Philosophers, 1000–1200: Forming the |
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Argumentative Network |
464 |
9.4 |
Franciscan and Dominican Rivalries, 1200–1335 |
470 |
9.5Jewish Philosophers within Christendom, 1135–1535:
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Maimonidists, Averroists, and Kabbalists |
478 |
9.6 |
Scholastics, Mystics, Humanists, 1335–1465 |
489 |
9.7 |
Reformers, Metaphysicians, Skeptics, 1465–1600 |
498 |
10.1European Network: The Cascade of Circles,
1600–1735 |
527 |
10.2Network Overlap of Greek Mathematicians and
Philosophers, 600 b.c.e.–600 c.e. |
544 |
11.1French and British Network during the
Enlightenment, 1735–1800 |
607 |
12.1German Network, 1735–1835: Berlin-Königsberg and
Jena-Weimar |
624 |
12.2Network of American Philosophers, 1800–1935:
German Imports, Idealists, Pragmatists |
673 |
Figures, Maps, and Tables • xv
13.1German Network, 1835–1900: Neo-Kantians,
Historicists, Positivists, Psychologists |
690 |
13.2British Philosophers and Mathematicians, 1800–1935: University Reform, Idealist Movement,
Trinity-Bloomsbury Circle |
710 |
13.3Realignment of the Networks in the Generation
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of 1900 |
718 |
13.4 |
Neo-Kantians and the Vienna Circle |
720 |
13.5 |
Physicists’ Methodological Controversies |
723 |
13.6 |
Network of Mathematical Logic and Foundations |
726 |
13.7 |
Vienna Circle: Composite Network |
728 |
13.8Network of Phenomenologists and Existentialists,
1865–1965 |
740 |
14.1 Network of French Philosophers, 1765–1935 |
759 |
14.2Young Hegelians and Religious/Political Radicals,
1835–1900: Die Freien and the Nihilists |
766 |
E.1 Sung Dynasty Celestial Element Algebra |
864 |
MAPS |
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Philosophical Schools in the Mediterranean Region |
84 |
Intellectual Centers in the Warring States, 350 b.c.e. |
142 |
Han Dynasty, 200 b.c.e.–200 c.e. |
153 |
Second Period of Division, 250 c.e. |
161 |
Ganges States, 500 b.c.e. |
179 |
Height of Maurya Empire, 250 b.c.e. |
181 |
Balance of Power, 150 c.e. |
183 |
Gupta Empire, 400 c.e. |
185 |
Eve of Mogul Invasion, 1525 |
192 |
Principal Chinese Buddhist Monasteries |
282 |
Intellectual and Religious Centers of Japan |
330 |
Height of the ‘Abbasid Caliphate, 800 c.e. |
393 |
Cathedral Schools of Northern France, 1100 c.e. |
514 |
Geopolitical Crisis of the Spanish-Habsburg Empire, 1559 |
576 |
German Universities, 1348–1900 |
648 |
TABLES |
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2.1 Distribution of Philosophers for All Networks |
77 |
9.1 University Foundations and Failures, 1000–1600 |
517 |