Philosophy is still predominantly considered a theoretical discipline. In Self-Cultivation Philosophies in Ancient India, Greece, and China, Christopher W. Gowans pushes back against this narrow conceptualization of philosophy by arguing that the ancient traditions it treats are best understood as self-cultivation philosophies, meaning programs of transformation for improving the lives of human beings.
The introduction explains and defends the concept of self-cultivation philosophy. Gowans's careful account of a cross-cultural concept of self-cultivation accommodates the diverse conceptions found across the texts he examines. A fully fledged self-cultivation philosophy has four key elements: an underlying account of human nature (and our place in the world), a depiction of our existential starting point, a portrayal of the ideal state to be attained, and a program of transformation by which individuals may move from the starting point to the ideal. Gowans refers to these as the four-part structure of self-cultivation philosophies. The book...
