Abstract
This paper focuses on the trilogy of comparative study of Sino-Western thought co-authored by David L. Hall and Roger T. Ames to make a critical survey of their methodology of cultural comparison. This paper regroups the barriers Hall and Ames find to be in urgent want of clearing and then it briefly describes and interprets the rationale behind the four groups. The paper proceeds to summarize the two scholars' neo-pragmatic concept of cultural comparison before analyzing the implications of their concept of determinants in culture and contextualized approach in relation to the two different frameworks of problematization in the two cultures. Since the second half of the 19th century, new ideas began appearing in the Western culture, attempting to bridge the "ontological gaps" between being and representation, which influenced Hall and Ames' methodology but provoked their reflection on these ideas' effectiveness in remedying the Western tradition. Therefore Hall and Ames' interpretation of Chinese culture has showed their appropriation of postmodernist thoughts and their reference to Chinese culture, which reveals their anticipation that Eastern culture might remedy "the transcendental partiality" of the Western tradition.
First Page
146
Last Page
156
Recommended Citation
Liu, Yunhua. 2013. "Clearing a Path to China: A Probe into Hall and Ames' Methodology of Sino-Western Cultural Comparison." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 33, (6): pp.146-156. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol33/iss6/7
