Overcoming Modernity

Yuasa Yasuo (1925–2005) was Professor Emeritus at Obirin University in Japan and the author of several books, including The Body, Self-Cultivation, and Ki-Energy and The Body: Toward an Eastern Mind-Body Theory, both also published by SUNY Press. At Temple University, Shigenori Nagatomo is Associate Professor of Comparative Philosophy and East Asian Buddhism and John W. M. Krummel teaches religion.

"…the translators have to be commended for producing in collaboration with Yuasa an exciting presentation of his more controversial thought to complement the existing translations of Yuasa's works in the English language and to introduce to the English-speaking audience one of the most fascinating Japanese thinkers of the twentieth century." — Philosophy East & West"I commend Yuasa's conscious commitment to creating a new form of thinking that transcends disciplinary compartmentalization and cultural boundaries. Indeed, Yuasa's creative philosophizing demands that concepts from different disciplines and cultural traditions be removed from the frame of their traditional conceptual determinations and correlated to each other." — Tu Xiaofei, Dao"…this book constitutes a cultural critique of modern Western science using as a point of departure not only Japanese culture but also the ideas of CG Jung … As a whole, the book is a stimulating corrective to the Western lens." — Network Review"The translation, carefully executed by the longtime Yuasa scholar Shigenori Nagatomo and his student John Krummel, gives the book clarity and accessibility while retaining Yuasa's unique flow of thought and way of reasoning." — Dao"This is an outstanding piece of scholarship that breaks new ground in philosophy, science, religion, psychology, and ethics. Rather than treating these areas singly, Yuasa offers a theory that unifies all of them in one brilliant paradigm that establishes a new way of looking at ourselves and our world. Only a superior scholar and thinker like Yuasa could provide such an original perspective. This book stands alone as an innovative synthesis of East/West theory and practice." — Robert E. Carter, author of The Japanese Arts and Self-Cultivation

• Translator’s IntroductionPrefacePart I 1. The Image-Thinking of Ancient People, East and WestThe Four Archai and the Human SoulA Comparison with the Image-Thinking in Ancient IndiaThe Chinese View of Nature Based on Qì-Energy [Jap., Ki: 氣]The Study of "That Which Is Above Form" and MetaphysicsLogic and Being: "What Is" and "That It Is"The Passive Understanding of "Being" [ari]The Eternal and the ChangingThe Future- Direction of Ethics and PhysicsTranslator’s Note2. Image-Thinking and the Understanding of "Being": The Psychological Basis of Linguistic ExpressionChinese, Japanese, and Western Expressions for "Being"The Characteristics of Expressions in the Chinese LanguageThe Relation between Logic and Psychology in the Linguistic Expressions of the Chinese and Western LanguagesLogic and Lived ExperienceThe Cognition and Intuition of Living NaturePart II Translator’s Note3. What Is Synchronicity?IntroductionThe Overlap between the World of Spirit and the World of ObjectsDivination of the Yìjīng and Its WorldviewParapsychology and Its MeaningSynchronicity and Contemporary PhysicsNature’s Psychoid NatureSynchronicity and the Movement of New Age ScienceSummaryPostscriptTranslator’s Note4. Life and Space-Time: Synchronicity and the Psychology of the YìjīngIntroduction The Divination of the Yìjīng and the Mind-Body RelationThe Yìjīng’s Theory of TimeThe Theory of Time and the View of NatureThe Traditional Views of Nature of the East and the West; Are Space and Time Separable?Space and the Energy Immanent in TimeTranslator’s Note5. Synchronicity and SpiritualismThe Birth of the Theory of SynchronicityA Reexamination of the Parapsychological Disputes"Meaningful Coincidence" and Human LifeConclusionPart III Translator’s Note6. Space-Time and Mind-Body Integration: The Resurrection of TeleologyContemporary Science and Eastern ThoughtEinstein and BergsonIs Time an Illusion?Ripening TimeSynchronicity and the Collective UnconsciousWhat Is Present: The Problem of MeasurementMethodological Reflections on SciencePhysics and MetaphysicsSummaryNotesBibliographyIndex