Tertium comparationis? Comparative Philosophy and the Philosophy of Comparison

Oberassistent (2009–2014): Prof. Dr. Ralph Weber (habilitation 2016)
Funded by: URPP Asian and Europe
Project duration: 2009 - 2013

This project consists of several studies which examine theoretical and methodical questions at the core of comparative philosophy. How is the tertium comparationis reflected and problematized in existing comparative scholarship? What ways are there to conceive of the tertium comparationis (similarity as a primitive concept; metaphor and analogy, family resemblances, etc.)? Reflections on these questions will be complemented with single case studies, e.g. on comparing comparisons between Plato's Euthyphro and the Confucian Analects 13:18 (together with Tim Murphy, in Philosophy East and West) or on comparing the rhetorics of authority in Leviticus and the Analects (together with Garrett Barden, in Asiatische Studien).