Asian and Feminist Philosophies in Dialogue ― Liberating Traditions

In this collection of original essays, international scholars put Asian traditions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism, into conversation with one or more contemporary feminist philosophies, founding a new mode of inquiry that attends to diverse voices and the complex global relationships that define our world.

These cross-cultural meditations focus on the liberation of persons from suffering, oppression, illusion, harmful conventions and desires, and other impediments to full personhood by deploying a methodology that traverses multiple philosophical styles, historical texts, and frames of reference. Hailing from the discipline of philosophy in addition to Asian, gender, and religious studies, the contributors offer a fresh take on the classic concerns of free will, consciousness, knowledge, objectivity, sexual difference, embodiment, selfhood, the state, morality, and hermeneutics. One of the first anthologies to embody the practice of feminist comparative philosophy, this collection creatively and effectively engages with global, cultural, and gender differences within the realms of scholarly inquiry and theory construction.

Jennifer McWeeny is associate professor of philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Her research and teaching interests concern feminist philosophy, phenomenology, philosophy of mind, comparative methodology, decolonial theory, environmental philosophy, and Buddhism. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Oregon and her M.A. from the University of Hawai'i, Manoa.

Ashby Butnor teaches philosophy and religion at Metropolitan State University of Denver and serves as the faculty coordinator for Learning Communities and First Year Success. Her research focuses on ethics, feminist theory, phenomenology, Buddhism, East Asian philosophies, comparative methodologies, and philosophical pedagogy. She earned her doctorate from the University of Hawai'i, Manoa.