Book Review, Chen Shaoming 陳少明, ed., Embodied Knowledge and the Humanities 體知與人文學

Abstract

Body, embodiment, embodied knowing, embodied knowledge, and their cognates or derivatives have recently become fashionable and yet contested subjects in various fields of academic studies. In the field of Chinese philosophy, TU Weiming is one of those early pioneers who introduced this cluster of concepts to the circle of Chinese scholars. Some of his seminal articles published in the 1980s and 1990s, now conveniently compiled in the fifth volume of Literary Collection of TU Weiming 杜維明文集(2002), have inspired many Chinese scholars to explore the contents, meanings, and relevance of “embodied knowledge,” tizhi 體知, in Chinese philosophical traditions. It is in line with this trend that in 2006, the Philosophy Department of Zhongshan University, funded by Harvard- Yenching Institute, hosted a conference on “Embodied Knowledge and the Humanities.” The result of this conference was rather fruitful: sixteen essays were collected and published in a book under the same title as the conference. As the discussion of this new subject is still in an inchoate phase, the appearance of this book, representing a collective effort and marking an advancement of the Chinese scholarship of philosophy, is indeed timely and welcome. Its editor, CHEN Shaoming 陳少明, should be credited for bringing a heuristic attempt to the public attention.