Looking Back on Problems of Transcultural Methodology in Asian Studies

In previous issues of the journal, its authors have often made it clear that creative philosophers will always seek to improve their own methods. Even those who sincerely respect other cultural values, epistemologies, and methodologies will always retain some of their own preferences, subjective insights, and blind spots (Bunnin 2003, 352). What really matters is only their equality of opportunity, their evaluation regardless of the seemingly pervasive economic, political, and cultural power relations. Regardless of where they originate, and of their individual originators, such subjective inclinations should be checked by an equally reliable culture of academic critique and discussion, rather than silenced by demands for strict conformity in methods, theories, and doctrines.