Reviewed by Kanavillil Rajagopalan, State University at Campinas, Brazil
The papers contained in this volume were originally presented at Controversy East and West, a conference that took place in Taipei in 2005. The editors justify the change in the title of the volume by explaining that many of these controversies ‘cannot be accommodated by the Procrustean bed East versus West’ (ix). It is only fitting of a volume devoted to controversies that its contributors occasionally dispute one another. Thus, the book opens with ‘Towards a taxonomy of controversies and controversiality: Ancient Greece and China’, in which Geoffrey Lloyd takes issue with Marcelo Dascal’s triadic classification of polemics into discussion, dispute, and controversy. Lloyd argues that cultural differences undercut the alleged universality of Dascal’s thesis.
Part 1, ‘Ancient traditions: East and West’, includes Hanina Ben-Menahem’s ‘Controversy in Jewish law: The Talmud’s attitude to controversy’, which explores controversy in Jewish tradition with an emphasis on the Talmud. In ‘Debates and rhetoric in Sumer’, Simonetta Ponchia delves into ancient Sumerian texts unearthed during excavations in Mesopotamia. Han-Liang Chang revisits controversy in ancient China with ‘Persuasion in the pre-Qin China: The Great Debate revisited’. Chang contrasts the debate over ming ‘name’ and shi ‘substance’ with a similar dispute in Western philosophy over logic and rhetoric. Peng Yi’s ‘“In proper form”: Xunzi’s theory of xinger’ addresses how the ancient Chinese philosopher Xunzi’s (ca. 313–238 BC) polemical stance on human nature cast a shadow on China’s intellectual history well into the modern age. In ‘The right, duty and pleasure of debating in Western culture’, Adelino Cattani asks ‘Is controversy a just war of words or is it just a war of words?’ (125), answering that ‘a “controversial question” is an ambiguous formulation which can mean “ignorance and irresolution” as well as “prudence and criticism”’ (125).
Part 2 concentrates on ‘Medieval and Early Modern traditions: Logic, dialectic, and rhetoric in controversy’. In ‘The medieval disputatio’, Olga Weijers explores the tradition of scholastic disputation that centers round the questio ‘questions’ that arise from the reading of basic texts. Throughout the rise of universities in Europe, the questio constituted an intellectual practice that contributed to both teaching and research. In ‘Disputing about disputing: The medieval procedure of positio and its role in a dispute over the nature of logic and the foundations of metaphysics’, Christopher J. Martin discusses the Great Schism, possibly the most important controversy in medieval Christianity, which led to the separation of the Greek Orthodox Church and Roman Catholicism. In ‘Antibarabarous contra pseudophilosophers: Metaphors in an early modern controversy’, Cristina Marras discusses Mario Nizoli (i.e. the Antibarbarous) and Antonio Maria Conti di Maioragio (i.e. the Pseudophilosopher). Part 2 closes with Merio Scattola’s ‘Dialectics, topology and practical philosophy in early modern times’, which discusses the great interest in the practical disciplines of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Part 3 focuses on ‘Modern traditions: The rise of scientific disciplines’. João Lopes Alves discusses ‘Legal controversy vs. scientific and philosophical controversies’, and Amos Morris-Reich investigates the foundation of sociology in ‘The controversy over the foundation of sociology and its object: Simmel’s form versus Durkheim’s collectivity’. Chaoqun Xie explores ‘Controversies about politeness’. In ‘Controversies over controversies: An ontological perspective on the place of controversy in current historiography’, Ofer Gal details the controversy over the very place of controversy in current historiography. The final paper, ‘Traditions of controversy and conflict resolution: Can past approaches help to solve present conflicts?’, by Marcelo Dascal, contrasts Jewish, Muslim, and Christian views of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The contributors’ insightful analyses and perspectives will make this a useful volume for those interested in controversies across traditions and through the ages.