Mind and Body in Early China: Beyond Orientalism and the Myth of Holism

Mind and Body in Early China challenges the notion that the early Chinese held a holistic view of the mind and body, arguing that weak mind-body dualism is a psychological universal and essential for human sociality. It employs digital humanities methods and integrates the sciences and humanities to interpret texts and artifacts from the past and other cultures.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 384 pages
\n Publication date: 28 February 2019
\n Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
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Early China's Mind and Body in Critique

Orientalist accounts of early China often portray the region as a radical and holistic entity, where the boundaries between mind and body were blurred. However, traditional archeological and qualitative textual evidence has consistently contradicted this notion. In recent years, with the advent of new digital humanities methods and a deeper understanding of human cognition, this position has become increasingly untenable.

A substantial body of empirical evidence suggests that weak mind-body dualism is a psychological universal, inherent in the human condition. This implies that human sociality would be fundamentally impossible without this dualistic framework. Edward Slingerland, in his book "The Mind and Body in Early China," argues that the humanities must transcend social constructivist views of culture and adopt a perspective that integrates the sciences and the humanities. He advocates for a view of human cognition and culture that recognizes the shared, species-specific embodied commonalities among all humans.

This book employs a range of qualitative coding methods and computer-aided distant reading of texts to broaden the scope of humanistic methodologies. It draws upon our current best understanding of human cognition to transform our basic starting point and offers insights into comparative religion, early China, cultural studies, digital humanities, and science-humanities integration. By challenging traditional narratives and embracing a more holistic understanding of human existence, this book contributes to a richer and more nuanced understanding of our past and the diverse cultures that have shaped our world.

\n Weight: 674g\n
Dimension: 170 x 243 x 32 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9780190842307\n \n