Description: Bryan W. Van Norden lambastes academic philosophy for its Eurocentrism and insularity and challenges educational institutions to live up to their cosmopolitan ideals. Taking Back Philosophy is at once a manifesto for multicultural education, an accessible introduction to Confucian and Buddhist philosophy, and a defense of the value of philosophy.
Brief description: Bryan van Norden (PhD, Philosophy, Stanford) is Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple Professor of Humanities and Head of Studies, Yale-NUS College; Chair Professor of Philosophy and International Director, Center for Comparative Philosophy, Wuhan University; and Professor of Philosophy, Vassar College. He is the author of Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto (Columbia, 2017), Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy (Hackett, 2011), Virtue Ethics and Consequentialism in Early Chinese Philosophy (Cambridge, 2007); he has also edited and translated A number of titles. I chose him as a reader for his broad interests and frequent publications in popular media (Huffington Post, The Conversation. Aeon, The Stone).
Review Quotes: A powerful call for a global approach to philosophy, demonstrating in practice what it would mean to bring philosophical ideas from different traditions together to rethink the field of philosophy and to rethink the world around us. A wonderful, highly important, and tremendously exciting work.--Michael Puett, author of The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life