The work of François Jullien is indispensable for anyone who wants to understand Chinese thought. To be sure, in his many books Jullien repeats the same argument: Chinese thought is based on a notion of immanent efficacy and is nearly ungraspable from the point of view of European philosophy, which is directed toward transcendent meaning. This repetitiveness, however, is not redundancy but reflects the peculiar predicament of the philosopher, who constantly fails to say what he means and must return to his topic again and again. This philosophical difficulty of expressing oneself is rendered particularly acute by Jullien's attempt to explain what the Chinese sage means and use this saying to destabilize European philosophy. For, on Jullien's own account, the Chinese sage does not mean to say anything in particular, and it is precisely this (non-)saying that is destabilizing. This speculative approach proves productive, and Jullien's work yields a wealth...
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Book Review|
August 01 2008
Vital Nourishment: Departing from Happiness
Vital Nourishment: Departing from Happiness
. By François Jullien. New York
: Zone Books
, 2007
. 1047
pp. $25.95 (cloth)
.Journal of Asian Studies (2008) 67 (3): 1047–1048.
Citation
Eske Mollgaarrd; Vital Nourishment: Departing from Happiness. Journal of Asian Studies 1 August 2008; 67 (3): 1047–1048. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021911808001253
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