Nicholas F. Gier's Books

Wittgenstein and Phenomenology

A Comparative Study of the Later Wittgenstein, Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty

By: Nicholas F. Gier

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Wittgenstein and Phenomenology

A Comparative Study of the Later Wittgenstein, Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty

By: Nicholas F. Gier

In the first in-depth philosophical study of the subject, Nicholas Gier examines the published and unpublished writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein, to show the striking parallels between Wittgenstein and phenomenology. Between 1929 and 1933, the philosopher proposed programs that bore a detailed resemblance to dominant themes in the phenomenology of Husserl and some "life-world" phenomenologists. This sound, thoroughly readable study examines how and why he eventually moved away from it. Gier demonstrates, however, that Wittgenstein's phenomenology continues as his "grammar" of the post-1933 works, which continue to present instructive parallels with Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty.

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Page Count

292

Publisher

State University of New York Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1438404042

ISBN 13

9781438404042

Spiritual Titanism

Indian, Chinese, and Western Perspectives

By: Nicholas F. Gier

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Spiritual Titanism

Indian, Chinese, and Western Perspectives

By: Nicholas F. Gier

This work in comparative philosophy uses the concept of Titanism to critique certain trends in both Eastern and Western philosophy. Titanism is an extreme form of humanism in which human beings take on divine attributes and prerogatives. The author finds the most explicit forms of spiritual Titanism in the Jaina, Samkhya, and Yoga traditions, where yogis claim powers and knowledge that in the West are only attributed to God. These philosophies are also radically dualistic, and liberation involves a complete transcendence of the body, society, and nature. Five types of spiritual Titanism are identified; and, in addition to this typology, a heuristic based on Nietzsche's three metamorphoses of camel, lion, and child is offered. The book determines that answers to spiritual Titanism begin not only with the Hindu Goddess religion, but also are found in Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism, especially Zen Buddhism and Confucianism.

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Page Count

331

Publisher

State University of New York Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0791492826

ISBN 13

9780791492826

The Virtue of Nonviolence

From Gautama to Gandhi

By: Nicholas F. Gier

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The Virtue of Nonviolence

From Gautama to Gandhi

By: Nicholas F. Gier

A study in comparative virtue ethics.

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Page Count

246

Publisher

SUNY Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0791459497

ISBN 13

9780791459492

The Origins of Religious Violence

An Asian Perspective

By: Nicholas F. Gier

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The Origins of Religious Violence

An Asian Perspective

By: Nicholas F. Gier

Religiously motivated violence caused by the fusion of state and religion occurred in medieval Tibet and Bhutan and later in imperial Japan, but interfaith conflict also followed colonial incursions in India, Sri Lanka, and Burma. Before that time, there was a general premodern harmony among the resident religions of the latter countries, and only in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries did religiously motivated violence break out. While conflict caused by Hindu fundamentalists has been serious and widespread, a combination of medieval Tibetan Buddhists and modern Sri Lankan, Japanese, and Burmese Buddhists has caused the most violence among the Asian religions. However, the Chinese Taiping Christians have the world record for the number of religious killings by one single sect. A theoretical investigation reveals that specific aspects of the Abrahamic religions—an insistence on the purity of revelation, a deity who intervenes in history, but one who still is primarily transcendent—may be primary causes of religious conflict. Only one factor—a mystical monism not favored in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—was the basis of a distinctively Japanese Buddhist call for individuals to identify totally with the emperor and to wage war on behalf of a divine ruler. The Origins of Religious Violence: An Asian Perspective uses a methodological heuristic of premodern, modern, and constructive postmodern forms of thought to analyze causes and offer solutions to religious violence.

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