Comparative philosophy brings into focus relationships found across philosophies of disparate cultures. In the contemporary globalizing world, this perspective is vital – it ensures that diverse voices have the opportunity to be heard and refines the understanding of the many varieties of philosophical thought. Philosophy departments around the world are beginning to see the import of this broader perspective. Recent years have seen tremendous growth in the areas of Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Islamic, African, Latin American, and indigenous philosophies. Every year, graduate students from around the world gather at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, the defining center of this comparative movement, in order to attend the Uehiro Graduate Student Philosophy Conference. These students bring a range of philosophical interests that converge to a definite theme over the course of the conference. At the 2012 meeting, this theme revolved around human beings’ recognition of themselves as selves, the discovery of the nature of these selves, and their relation to the world at large. These issues are comparative in the best sense of the word, drawing on the interests of canonical Western philosophy, as well as reflecting the fundamental concerns of non-Western philosophies. The three sections of this volume capture the stages of thought moving from self-awareness to self-transcendence, and leading to the general theme of the volume: locating and losing the self in the world. The papers in this volume represent diverse philosophical viewpoints, from canonical Western figures such as Immanuel Kant and Simone de Beauvoir, to those of non-Western philosophers who have been gaining interest in the English-speaking world, such as Nāgārjuna and Nishida Kitarō. By gaining familiarity with these figures’ perspectives, readers will become better able to distinguish and think through issues including linguistic and phenomenological understanding of the self, the self’s full engagement with the world, and the world’s reciprocal determination of the self.

“An intriguing amalgam of personal memoir, philosophical speculation, natural lore, cultural history, and art criticism.” —Los Angeles Times From the award-winning author of Orwell's Roses, a stimulating exploration of wandering, being lost, and the uses of the unknown Written as a series of autobiographical essays, A Field Guide to Getting Lost draws on emblematic moments and relationships in Rebecca Solnit's life to explore issues of uncertainty, trust, loss, memory, desire, and place. Solnit is interested in the stories we use to navigate our way through the world, and the places we traverse, from wilderness to cities, in finding ourselves, or losing ourselves. While deeply personal, her own stories link up to larger stories, from captivity narratives of early Americans to the use of the color blue in Renaissance painting, not to mention encounters with tortoises, monks, punk rockers, mountains, deserts, and the movie Vertigo. The result is a distinctive, stimulating voyage of discovery.

Comparative philosophy refines the inter-cultural and inter-regional development of philosophical thought that is imperative for a globalizing world. The influence of comparative philosophy can be seen in the growing number of departments that include one or more comparative specialists in their ranks, and this is no longer only a trend in philosophy. Playing no small part in this growth is the fact that training in comparative thought provides one with a methodological backdrop against which rapidly diversifying sets of topics are being addressed from a broad range of perspectives. This volume illustrates precisely that trend by gathering together original work first presented at the Uehiro Graduate Philosophy Conference, an annual conference held in the spring at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. The campus that has been the epicenter of comparative philosophy has, through this conference, become a meeting place for new philosophical talent. Organized by the graduate students of UH Mānoa, the conference routinely attracts presenters from Asia, Europe and North America, and has featured keynote speakers hailing from universities in Japan, China, and the US. This volume publishes for the first time the standout papers from the 2013 meeting of the conference, the theme of which was “Convergence and Alterity”. Presenters were asked to submit their finest work that demonstrated the far-reaching nature of comparative thought. The result is a collection of novel voices emerging within the field. As can be seen in the uniqueness and vigor with which they approach the discipline, these writers demonstrate the ever-enlarging boundaries of comparative analysis. The volume includes papers covering figures such as Kant, Plato, Dewey and Merleau-Ponty in the Western tradition, and Miki Kiyoshi, Zhuangzi, and Confucius in the Eastern traditions. From boredom and cynicism to imagination and feminism, the topics treated are also of much interest to contemporary research. Throughout its pages, the reader will find not only a resurgence of the comparative methodology, but also a detailed analysis of both fresh ideas and classical texts.

“A mock self-help book designed not to help but to provoke . . . to inveigle us into thinking about who we are and how we got into this mess.” (Los Angeles Times Book Review). Filled with quizzes, essays, short stories, and diagrams, Lost in the Cosmos is National Book Award–winning author Walker Percy’s humorous take on a familiar genre—as well as an invitation to serious contemplation of life’s biggest questions. One part parody and two parts philosophy, Lost in the Cosmos is an enlightening guide to the dilemmas of human existence, and an unrivaled spin on self-help manuals by one of modern America’s greatest literary masters.

One of the world's most esteemed and influential psychologists, Roy F. Baumeister, teams with New York Times science writer John Tierney to reveal the secrets of self-control and how to master it. "Deep and provocative analysis of people's battle with temptation and masterful insights into understanding willpower: why we have it, why we don't, and how to build it. A terrific read." —Ravi Dhar, Yale School of Management, Director of Center for Customer Insights Pioneering research psychologist Roy F. Baumeister collaborates with New York Times science writer John Tierney to revolutionize our understanding of the most coveted human virtue: self-control. Drawing on cutting-edge research and the wisdom of real-life experts, Willpower shares lessons on how to focus our strength, resist temptation, and redirect our lives. It shows readers how to be realistic when setting goals, monitor their progress, and how to keep faith when they falter. By blending practical wisdom with the best of recent research science, Willpower makes it clear that whatever we seek—from happiness to good health to financial security—we won’t reach our goals without first learning to harness self-control.

Kristin Neff, Ph.D., says that it’s time to “stop beating yourself up and leave insecurity behind.” Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave Insecurity Behind offers expert advice on how to limit self-criticism and offset its negative effects, enabling you to achieve your highest potential and a more contented, fulfilled life. More and more, psychologists are turning away from an emphasis on self-esteem and moving toward self-compassion in the treatment of their patients—and Dr. Neff’s extraordinary book offers exercises and action plans for dealing with every emotionally debilitating struggle, be it parenting, weight loss, or any of the numerous trials of everyday living.

We tend to feel that works of fiction give us special access to lived experience. But how do novels cultivate that feeling? Where exactly does experience reside? The Location of Experience argues that, paradoxically, novels create experience for us not by bringing reality up close, but by engineering environments in which we feel constrained from acting. By excavating the history of the rise of experience as an important category of Victorian intellectual life, this book reveals how experience was surprisingly tied to emotions of remorse and regret for some of the era’s great women novelists: the Brontës, George Eliot, Margaret Oliphant, and Elizabeth Gaskell. It shows how these writers passed ideas about experience—and experiences themselves—among each other. Drawing on intellectual history, psychology, and moral philosophy, The Location of Experience shows that, through manipulating the psychological dimensions of fiction’s formal features, Victorian women novelists produced a philosophical account of experience that rivaled and complemented that of the male philosophers of the period.