Oliver Leaman

Through key readings from primary and secondary sources this book communicates at first hand the principal features of a remarkable range of Eastern thought - from Buddhism, Confucianism, and Hinduism to Islam, Shinto, and Zoroastrianism. Passages from key texts guide the reader through over ninety major terms, from abhidharma to Zen. Material is drawn not only from such cornerstone texts as the Bhagavad-gita and the Lao-tzu, but also from modern writings on Eastern philosophy and religion.

Key Concepts in Eastern Philosophy provides an extensive glossary of the main terms and concepts used in Eastern philosophy. The book includes definitions of philosophical ideas linked to the national traditions of:* Persia* India* Islamic world* China* Japan* Tibetincluding concepts from:* Zoroastrianism* Hinduism* Sufism* Islam * Confucianism* Shintoism* Taoism* BuddhismEach entry includes a guide for further reading and critical analysis, and is cross-referenced with associated concepts and is in easy-to-use A-Z format.

Key Concepts in Eastern Philosophy provides an extensive glossary of the main terms and concepts used in Eastern philosophy. The book includes definitions of philosophical ideas linked to the national traditions of:* Persia* India* Islamic world* China* Japan* Tibetincluding concepts from:* Zoroastrianism* Hinduism* Sufism* Islam * Confucianism* Shintoism* Taoism* BuddhismEach entry includes a guide for further reading and critical analysis, and is cross-referenced with associated concepts and is in easy-to-use A-Z format.

Despite his important stature in the history of philosophy, Averroes is a thinker whose work has been left largely unexplored in this century. It is the aim of this book to rectify this omission, and to argue that his philosophical output is of considerable philosophical as well as historical significance.

Moses Maimonides (1135--1204) is recognized both as a leading Jewish thinker and as one of the most radical philosophers of the Islamic world. The study reveals the significance of Maimonides to contemporary philosophical and theological problems.

The problems of evil and suffering have been extensively discussed in Jewish philosophy, and much of the discussion has centred on the Book of Job. In this study Oliver Leaman poses two questions: how can a powerful and caring deity allow terrible things to happen to obviously innocent people, and why have the Jewish people been so harshly treated throughout history, given their status as the chosen people? He explores these issues through an analysis of the views of Philo, Saadya, Maimonides, Gersonides, Spinoza, Mendelssohn, Hermann Cohen, Buber, Rosenzweig, and post-Holocaust thinkers, and suggests that a discussion of evil and suffering is really a discussion about our relationship with God.

There has been renewed interest in the concept of friendship in contemporary philosophy. Many of the existing treatments of the topic have been limited to Western notions of friendship, yet there is a far wider perspective available to us through an examination of a more extended cultural examination of the topic. Cultures other than those in Christian Europe have had important and interesting observations to make on the nature of friendship, and in this collection there is treatment not only of Greek and Christian ideas of friendship, but also of Islamic, Jewish, Chinese, Japanese and Indian perspectives. A rich and extended view of the concept of friendship results from these various examinations.