As you sow (comparisons)…

The directions of comparative philosophy and the outline of the theory of comparative reception history

Abstract

Comparative philosophy has a history stretching back thousands of years. However, it emerged as a more or less distinct and institutionalised field of philosophy in the 1950s. Scholars in the field approach the comparison of European and non-European texts from a variety of perspectives. In the first part of this paper, I examine different interpretations of comparative philosophy, grouping them into three main categories. I argue that although comparison presupposes a certain degree of similarity between the thinkers compared, in the vast majority of cases such similarity is lacking. Thus, the comparative endeavour is grounded, so to speak, on a conjecture. In the second part, drawing on Max Weber’s concept of ideal types, I outline an approach to intercultural comparison that attempts to overcome this difficulty and, on that basis, the methodology of comparative reception history. This approach is based on the idea of analysing intellectual traditions that evolved independently from one another through their reception of a third tradition external to both — which thereby becomes a real intersection. In the final section, I test this methodology by comparing the interpretation of feelings in the work of Motoori Norinaga — a prominent thinker of eighteenth-century Japan — and G.W.F. Hegel, based on their respective understandings of Confucianism.