World Philosophies - Softcover

Smart, Ninian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415411890 ISBN 13: 9780415411899

Publisher: Routledge, 2008

Synopsis

World Philosophies presents in one volume a superb introduction to all the world’s major philosophical and religious traditions. Covering all corners of the globe, Ninian Smart’s work offers a comprehensive and global philosophical and religious picture.

In this revised and expanded second edition, a team of distinguished scholars, assembled by the editor Oliver Leaman, have brought Ninian Smart’s masterpiece up to date for the twenty-first century. Chapters have been revised by experts in the field to include recent philosophical developments, and the book includes a new bibliographic guide to resources in world philosophies. A brand new introduction which celebrates the career and writings of Ninian Smart, and his contribution to the study of world religions, helps set the work in context.

About this title

Review:

"In a work of amazing breadth and cogency, the acknowledged master of the study of world civilization leads us through the philosophies that have guided some corners of humanity and today lay claim to a hearing everywhere. Ninian Smart has studied languages and histories, philosophies and literatures, east and west, north and south, and with panache and verve he introduces in a profound way worlds that, before our time have rarely collided. This is a masterpiece of lucid description, analysis, and interpretation of the ways people have made sense of things - choices that today face us all."
-Jacob Neusner, University of South Florida and Bard College
"Ninian Smart is one of the few public religious intellectuals who can be compared to the late Joseph Campbell."
-"Library Journal
"I thought this was an excellent book. All the chapters are both interesting and of an equally high standard. There is a lot of interest in nowadays, especially in the US, in world philosophy...Ninian Smart is one of the best writers on the topic working today."
-Oliver Leaman, Liverpool John Moores University
"Ninian Smart has once again brought his considerable skills--philosophy, phenomenology of religion, cross-cultural comparisons, and theology--to bear on a much needed compendium on philosophies of the world. And all the more urgent as we move towards a fecundation of global civilizations. It indeed is a garland 'woven out of the differing flowers of many traditions'
."
-Purushottama Bilimoria, Editor of "Sophia
"As a work of reference, this will be invaluable. Smart's analysis of such crucial thinkers as Buddha, Confucius, Descartes and Derrida is impeccable."
-The Times

About the Author:

Ninian Smart (1927 - 2001) was Emeritus Professor of Comparative Religion and of Religious Studies at the Universites of California and Lancaster.  He was recognised as one of the world's foremost scholars in religious studies and was President of the American Academy of Religion for the year 2000.  He authored many acclaimed books, including The Religious Experience, Dimensions of the Sacred and The World's Religions. 

Oliver Leaman is Zanker Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kentucky.  He has written and edited numerous books, including Key Concepts in Eastern Philosphy (Routledge, 1999) and the Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy (2001).

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0415411890
• ISBN 13: 9780415411899
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 576