Episode 3: Oneness

In this episode we explore the fascinating topic of Oneness with our guest Philip J. Ivanhoe, a distinguished scholar and translator of East Asian philosophy.

Join the discussion of episode 3 here!

We thank Lena Li (LI La 李拉 ) for her expert editing and sound engineering. We also thank the blog Warp, Weft & Way for hosting the discussion for this episode.

Co-hosts:
Richard Kim's website
Justin Tiwald's website

Chapters

• 0:00 Part I -- Introduction
• 4:40 • Justin's quick summary of Neo-Confucianism
• 22:59 Part II -- Oneness
• 23:00 • Introducing our guest: Philip J. Ivanhoe
• 25:32 • Three motivations for the book on oneness
• 33:30 • A pragmatic alternative to Neo-Confucian metaphysics
• 43:36 • The truth-value of oneness: neither "strictly true," nor a groundless hallucination
• 52:42 • Oneness as a source of security, spontaneity, and metaphysical comfort
• 1:03:55 • The worry that the oneness view can't make sense of genuine altruism
• 1:11:05 • Whether life is required for a sense of mutual identity (biocentric views vs. Wang Yangming's view)
• 1:17:59 • Closing questions for our guest