User:Owenpmoore/subpage

=Preparatory Assignment=

Nishi Amane
The Wikipedia entry for Nishi Amane provides extensive coverage of most his basic biographical information. Specifically, the article does a good job of covering Amane's relationship with Western philosophy, including the time he spent in the Netherlands studying the work of Western thinkers. However, while the article does a good job connecting this part of his history to his later role as a sort of liaison and translator between Eastern and Western philosophy, its focus on the historical details of his life far outweighs any information provided about the details of his actual philosophical beliefs. The article could include more details regarding the following:
 * How Amane's views on utilitarianism informed his beliefs about social morality
 * This should include some mention to the three treasures of health, knowledge, wealth
 * A more explicit reference to Amane's disapproval of the feudal system and influence on planting the seeds for capitalism in Japan, as discussed by Barry Steben

Zhang Taiyan
Compared to that of Nishi Amane, the coverage of Zhang Taiyan and his philosophy is a little more in depth and useful. Looking specifically at the section covering Zhang's connection to Yogacara Buddhism, the article does a good job exposing the reader to the main concepts and terms that informed Zhang Taiyan's unique beliefs and theories. However, the article seems to assume the reader already has a base knowledge of Yogacara Buddhism as it provides terms and concepts with no further explanation of their meaning. For instance, the article mentions the theory of eight consciousnesses and implies Zhang Taiyan's acceptance of the theory, but it does nothing to elaborate on the details of the concept itself nor Zhang Taiyan's views on it. Such information is important to further understand not only the subject matter informing Zhang's beliefs, but also how he interacted with them and made them his own. This issue could be solved in a few different ways: This issues expose a sort of trend within these Wikipedia articles where the actual details of the philosophy seem to be overshadowed by basic historical details. While this background information is helpful to further understand the lives and inspirations for these philosophers, it is equally important to see exactly what it is these writers theorized and promoted in their lives.
 * 1) Simply by providing a link to the page on Yogacara embedded within the text, allowing the reader to quickly jump to a separate article and quickly learn any information they may need
 * 2) Provide a brief explanation of the concept within the article itself so that the reader does not even need to leave the Zhang Taiyan article to gain all of the information they need
 * 3) Finally, regardless of which of the first two solutions are used, the article should provide a brief summary of some of the issues Zhang Taiyan took with the original theory (particularly with the importance given to the eighth consciousness despite the false understandings it can lead to), as discussed by John Makeham . This would naturally lead into the slight changes Zhang made to the belief to adapt to his own personal theories.

Liang Shuming
Liang Shuming's entry, while comparatively short, is actually probably the best at elaborating on the actual details of his philosophy. The article clearly breaks down the philosopher's Buddhist influences, including the link between the Yogacara concept of the three natures and his own idea of three cultures. The article also does a good job connecting these concepts to his critique of Eastern and Western thinking, explaining the view that the West is stuck in first, more self-centered "culture," while the East was existing in the more compassionate, community-orientated second culture, but lacked the knowledge and experience of ever existing within the first culture. While this information is covered very clearly, the article could speak a little more directly towards Liang's Confucian beliefs and how they laid the groundwork for his own writings. Particularly, it is important to note that Liang Shuming believed the Confucian idea of ritual helped cultivate people into more caring and selfless beings (similar to the people living in the Second Culture), and that eventually these rituals could guide society until a civilization was successfully governed simply by every individual's feelings of respect towards the rest of the community.

Using Wikipedia to Discuss Chinese Philosophy
Discussing Chinese Philosophy on Wikipedia comes with its share of inherent advantages and disadvantages. On one hand, the community-oriented design of Wikipedia creates a dynamic where information is constantly being shared, discussed, and therefore reevaluated. When adding to an existing page, the writer is exposed to the information provided by others on top of the what has already been discovered in his own research. This creates an environment in which the contributor is able to compare his own research to that of others and use that readily available information to inform his own ideas and broaden his knowledge on the topic at hand. While this dynamic helps to heighten each contributor's grasp of the subject being discussed, naturally creating an increasingly expansive documentation of the subject, it also presents certain pitfalls due to the "encyclopedic entry" format Wikipedia pages demand. The point of a Wikipedia page is to provide readers with objective, factual information that is easily accessible to an extensive community of readers. However, as contributors are exposed to the research and findings of the rest of the Wikipedia community, it becomes harder to separate interpretation and opinion from the entries. Especially when studying a subject like Chinese philosophy, where insight and analysis are a natural part of the learning process, it is difficult to present the information in a purely factual manner. Contributors have to be careful to include just the objective details of a philosopher's beliefs, avoiding the temptation to elaborate on them with any subjective form of insight and exploration into the ideas. Avoiding personal interpretation and opinion when contributing to Wikipedia is probably the biggest challenge to writers, however this challenge presents an opportunity to explore a less practiced form of purely objective writing.