Life History and Cross-cultural Thought: Engaging an Intercultural Curriculum

Abstract

This paper provides a cross-cultural reading of two contemporary philosophers’—Feng Youlan (1895-1990) and Alan Watts’s (1915-1973)—life and thought to inform today’s cross-cultural and intercultural education. This paper discusses Feng and Watts’s openings to another culture and their contributions to integrating Eastern and Western thought, and in particular focuses on their intellectual transitional periods when the connections and the tension between life and thought were highlighted. This life history analysis initiates an East/West dialogue at the level of educational thought through an experiential approach.