Comparative Philosophy

ISSN 2151-6014

Comparative Philosophy is a peer-reviewed, open-access/non-profit international journal of philosophy, with emphasis on the constructive engagement of distinct approaches to philosophical issues, problems, themes from various philosophical traditions/styles/orientations of doing philosophy for the sake of their joint contribution to the common philosophical enterprise, and/or on general theory and methodology of comparative philosophy.

Comparative Philosophy is an independent international academic journal. The International Editorial Board of the Journal consists of its Advisory Board and its Editorial Committee. Taking the open-access approach, the Journal is not published by a commercial press but by non-profit university institutions through universal accessibility of the Internet without subscription cost. It is published in English on the World Wide Web by the Center for Comparative Philosophy and the University Library at San Jose State University, California, USA.

The coverage of Comparative Philosophy is not restricted to, but can include, any particular comparative-engagement pairs of distinct approaches from different traditions or styles/orientations of doing philosophy (e.g., the East-West, South-North, or analytic-"Continental", though such labels might be misleading/inaccurate out of context), in view of the common philosophical enterprise and a series of issues and topics of philosophical interest and significance. The emphasis of the Journal, regarding conceptual/explanatory resources and modes of thinking in philosophy, is not exclusive to any ad hoc way of thinking alone (e.g., neither the Greek-style nous alone nor the Chinese-style dao alone) but open-minded and inclusive, generally speaking; however this emphasis is also sensitive to the nature and features of specific philosophical issues/topics and the demand of situations, specifically speaking. On the other hand, the Journal is inclusive but not merely for the sake of being aware of views from other traditions or styles of doing philosophy without critical engagement. The Journal emphasizes critical engagement but does not go without serious consideration of positive constructive contribution. Rather, the Journal explicitly emphasizes the constructive engagement of distinct approaches in light of critical examination. It is to inquire into how, via reflective criticism (including self-criticism) and argumentation/justification, distinct modes of thinking, methodological approaches, visions, insights, substantial points of view, or conceptual and explanatory resources from different philosophical traditions and/or different styles/orientations of doing philosophy (within one tradition or from different traditions) can learn from each other and jointly contribute to our understanding and treatment of a series of issues, theme or topics of philosophical significance, which can be jointly concerned through appropriate philosophical interpretation and/or from a broader philosophical vantage point.

The contents of Comparative Philosophy are to be intrinsically relevant to the philosophical interest and inquiry of philosophy scholars and students, no matter which specific traditions they study (e.g., Chinese or Indian philosophy) and no matter which style of philosophy they instantiate (e.g., analytic or "Continental" philosophy), given that they work on issues and topics under examination in the Journal. For a philosopher would be intrinsically interested in distinct approaches to the issues and topics under her philosophical (instead of merely historical) examination and in their reflective relation to her current working approach, whether or not she takes some other distinct approach also as her (current) working approach, which may be related to her training/specialty background, personal research interest or the need of the current study.

The target reader-audience of Comparative Philosophy, due to its nature and focus, consists primarily of academic philosophers and philosophy students throughout the world and across the boundaries of various traditions or styles of doing philosophy, both in developed countries or areas with relatively sufficient resources and in developing countries with insufficient resources. It is also intended to make excellent scholarship in comparative philosophy (understood in the foregoing broad, constructive way) available to researchers in other fields and non-academic readers who are interested in philosophical issues and topics. With this extensive readership in mind, and in view that some institutions (especially those in developing countries) cannot afford expensive journal subscriptions, Comparative Philosophy takes the open-access approach through universal accessibility of the Internet without cost. The open-access approach taken by the Journal is thus not merely an economic means to philosophy journal production but also a substantial way of maximizing the impact of philosophical research and enhancing constructively-engaging feedback and dialogue.

Comparative Philosophy is to primarily publish original articles of high-quality (‘articles’ for short below). Submissions of articles to Comparative Philosophy are judged through a blind refereeing process and selected for publication on the basis of their academic quality (rigorous argumentation/explanation, clear presentation, etc.), relevance to constructive engagement, and significance to comparative philosophy. Depending on need, the Journal might include a special column of essays on a specific theme; the essays to be included in the column are reviewed by the special column editor and other peers. An issue of the Journal might contain the “Constructive-Engagement Dialogue” section and/or the “Recent Work” section. The “Constructive-Engagement Dialogue” section includes critical discussions of certain views in the published papers in the Journal and their authors’ responses. The “Recent Work” section includes writings on recent work in the constructive-engagement scholarship of comparative philosophy: the writing might be a reflective report of the significant result of a conference, or a “state of the art” survey, or a book review. Contributions to the above two sections will be given editorial and/or peer examinations (due to the nature of the writing) in view of relevant academic expectations and of how they are related to the emphasis of the Journal. Submissions are to be made in clear and accessible English (whenever logical notation is not being used) electronically via internet.

Comparative Philosophy is currently planned to be a biannual journal (to be published in January/February and July/August of each year), starting its first issue (Volume 1, Number 1) in February 2010. With the journal quality as top priority concern, we plan to start steadily without rush. The Editorial team is free to publish as few articles as are judged to meet a high standard of quality. The Journal is to be published in a typeset format that can be read on-screen or printed by the reader. Besides the ISSN of the Journal, the physical appearance and Universal Resource Locator (URLs) are permanently fixed to allow for reliable citations. Interested readers as well as potential authors/reviewers are welcome to register yourself at the section “Register” of this website for a variety of need and convenience.

International Editorial Board

Editor: Bo Mou (San Jose State University, USA)

Advisory Board

Robert Audi (University of Nortre Dame, USA)
Dagfinn Follesdal (Stanford University, USA)
Michael Krausz (Bryn Mawr College, USA)
Ernie Lepore (Rutgers University, USA)
Shu-hsien Liu (Academia Sinica, Taiwan, ROC)
Tommy Lott (San Jose State University, USA)
Rita Manning (San Jose State University, USA)
A.P. Martinich (University of Texas at Austin, USA)
Adam Morton (University of Alberta, Canada)
Thomas Pogge (Yale University, USA)
Graham Priest (University of Melbourne, Australia)
John Searle (University of California at Berkeley, USA)
Kwong-loi Shun (Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)
Richard Tieszen (San Jose State University, USA)
Mary Wiseman (City University of New York, USA)
David Wong (Duke University, USA)
Xianglong Zhang (Peking University, China)

Editorial Committee

Mohammad Azadpur (San Francisco State University, USA)
Karin Brown (San Jose State University, USA)
Christopher Framarin (University of Calgary, Canada)
Yiu-ming Fung (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong)
Steven Geisz (University of Tampa, USA)
Soraj Hongladarom (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand)
Jonathan Ichkawa (University of St. Andrews, UK)
Nevad Kahteran (University of Sarajevo, Bosnia)
Joseph Kaipayil (Jeevalaya Institute of Philosophy, India)
Yuedi Liu (Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China)
Martin Ovens (Oxford University, UK)
Carlos Sanchez (San Jose State University, USA)
Sor-hoon Tan (National University of Singapore, Singapore)
Anand Vaidya (San Jose State University, USA)
Manuel Vargas (University of San Francisco, USA)
Haiming Wen (Renmin University of China, China)
Marshall Willman (New York Institute of Technology, Nanjing-China Campus)
Zhihua Yao (Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

Publisher:

Center for Comparative Philosophy
University Library
San Jose State University, California, USA

Editorial Assistant: Albert Filice (2010)

Acknowledgments:

• Appreciations go to the following expert referees/reviewers who have made substantial contributions in the Journal's peer-review procedure:
  
  Mohammad Azadpur, Karin Brown, Kim-chong Chong, Noam Cook, Christopher Framarin, Yiu-ming Fung, Steven Geisz, Soraj Hongladarom, Nevad Kahteran, Joseph Kaipayil, Carlos Sanchez, William Shaw, Richard Tieszen, Anand Vaidya, Robin Wang, Marshall Willman, Zhihua Yao, Xianglong Zhang  
  
  Note: the above aknowledgement list will be updated after a reasonable period in view of the blind-review feature for those submissions to be considered to appear as "articles" in the Journal.
• Special thanks go to the following persons at San Jose State University for their substantial support and assistance in publishing this international journal:
  
  Karl Toepfer (Dean of College of Humanities & the Arts)
  Ruth Kifer (Dean of University Library)
  Rita Manning (Chair of Philosophy Department)
  Celia Bakke (Digital Repository and Scholarly Communications Librarian, University Library)
  Farrukh Farid (Manager of Information Technology, University Library)
  Lyna Nguyen (Database Analyst/Programmer, Information Technology, University Library)
  Jared Maruskin (Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics)
  
• Thanks go to the following persons who have provided efficient and timely editorial assistance:
  
  Albert Filice, Aron Garcia