With its own Netflix program, Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up has received a huge cult following. Considering that clutter sweeps 21st century daily living, what this paper aims to do, is to unravel the philosophical foundations of Kondo's work. Considering the trendiness of the KonMari method, one wonders why and how decluttering modern homes and one's day-to-day existence inspires certain profound reflections and raises social criticisms. Through a sweeping review of Kondo's tenets, this paper tackles common philosophical themes such as joy, human existence, happiness, the environment and extension.

This paper examines the concept of "paradox" in the Liar paradox. The paradox in the "Liar Paradox" arguments is created with the support of law of contradiction. Four arguments consist of different versions of the Liar paradox are analysed. The author explains the issues related to communication, beliefs and the principle of identity in the various arguments of the Liar paradox leading to inconsistencies. There are ambiguities in these arguments and if the ambiguities are removed, then there is no contradiction which constitutes the paradox. Thus, the "paradox" in the "Liar Paradox" arguments is questionable.

Over the years, there are various research on cultural development seen from socio-historical perspective. The uniqueness of Islam in Malay region as it is diverse and open to outside influences is important to be look at; as it differs greatly from "the Islam" that have been practiced in the Middle East. Based on the discussions, the ulemas or Muslim clerics of this region and the Malays themselves have already practiced the supra-madhhab model as proposed by many contemporary scholars. Using Shia influences in the Malay culture, this paper attempt to show how sectarianism within Islam was never entertained by the Muslims in this region. In fact, Shi'ism was so embedded in Malay culture. Although being dominated by Sunnism, most of the Shia doctrines and pillars were widely accepted and embraced. The axiology of Shi'ism in Malay culture reflected in many religious texts, classical literature and cultural events. However, as sectarianism rising in this region, the Shia influence and its axiology slowly eroded and were victimized by unnecessary foreign interventions.

The novelty of this paper is that modus vivendi of 13-14 year old teenagers is viewed from the perspective of the new generation Z teachers. Teachers, belonging to the same generation as students, participated in the qualitative study and ex-pressed their opinions on the modus vivendi of 13-14 year old teenagers. This age range was selected specifically because it is close to the generational boundary of generation Alpha. Teachers from generation Z were purposefully selected as informants, since the researchers noticed a difference in modus vivendi of generation Z members closer to the generation Alpha and the older ones. The study is based on the methodological attitude of social constructivism. Its essence lies in perceiving that individuals construct their own personal understanding and it is not the mirror of their acquired knowledge. It is constructed on the basis of attitudes, experience, relationships between people, things and events. The aim of the study is to elucidate modus vivendi of teenagers from generation Z, as viewed by the teachers from generation Z. The paper contains the results of the conducted qualitative study and formulated conclusions.

The puppet arts in Bali can be found in the wayang Kamasan painting at Kamasan Village, Klungkung Regency. This painting inspired the creation and development of new handicraft in Bali. The objectives this research: 1. To find the wayang Kamasan painting in Klungkung Regency; 2. To find the development of handicraft types in Bali inspired by wayang Kamasan painting. This research used a qualitative descriptive approach, and data collection by observation, interview, and documentation. The results that wayang Kamasan painting is estimated to have existed since the reign of the ancient Bali kingdom, which was during the reign of King Dalem Waturenggong in Semarapura Klungkung. The wayang Kamasan painting character painted on a canvas with a light brown base color, stiff, two-dimensional, and the description follows the applied standards. The figures depicted taken from Ramayana and Mahabharata story. The Balinese handicrafts inspired by wayang Kamasan painting include ceramics, wovens such as sokasi/keben (basket made of woven bamboo), keris sheath, dulang (trays), bokor (bowls), guitars, beruk (coconut shell containers), and others. The authors expect in the future the wayang Kamasan painting can survive, and emerges the world's concern for its preservation.

The study of the scene of a woman grabbing the tail of a horse ridden by a male figure in Yeh Pulu relief is the author's basis of concept in the creation of contemporary painting. Before the concept was discovered, a study was conducted of the scenes in the relief based on Panofsky's iconological theory and three stages of analysis, namely pre-iconography, iconography, and iconology. The attempt to connect the Panji narrative with the scene of a woman pulling a horse's tail aims to enrich the analysis of the interpretation. Both the narration and the scene revolve around a love story of two people separated by distance and time. The Panji narrative tells about a love story between Raden Galuh (Rangkesari), a princess of Daha Kingdom and Prince Panji, the crown prince of Kahuripan Kingdom, who have long been separated before they finally reunite at the end of the story. The scenes in the Yeh Pulu relief revolve around everyday heroism (which includes a love story). This connection is framed as a post-iconological interpretation, which results in three concepts of art creation: reframing, recasting, and globalizing.

Halal means permissible or lawful in Arabic and is applied to both the religious and daily life of Muslims. Islamic Law Shariah requires Muslims to consume halal products only. But with the expansion of supply chains around the world and the development of many new products, Muslim consumers have found it difficult to confirm whether food is halal or not. Also, as many foods are produced in non-Muslim countries and exported to Muslim countries, interest in halal certification in non-Muslim countries is increasing. With several Islamic countries strengthening their halal certification regulation for import in recent years, there is no accurate information on whether halal certification is necessary to export to Muslim countries or the Islamic State, and is lack of clear study of the definition of the Islamic State. Therefore, in this research, we will investigate the constitution and food import regulations of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states, called the Union of Islamic States, to study the definition of Islamic State and whether halal certification is necessary for food exports.

In the discussion whether Confucianism supports human rights, it is necessary to distinguish between the content and the form of human rights. Regarding the content of human rights, only the normative texts in Confucianism can contribute to the discussion. Even though Confucianism concedes that people are equal in nature, this equality is restricted in certain areas of normative justification. Regarding the form of human rights, the Confucian idea of graded love is against the universal nature of human rights. However, the pre-ontology of Heidegger shows us how graded love can actually be the ground of the Confucian approach to universality, which overcomes the opposition between universality and particularity within Western metaphysics. Therefore, in the Confucian approach to universality, graded love can be the motivation to universalizing of human rights. Moreover, as the Confucian approach to universality is not a principle that transcends all particularities, it helps construct an inclusive form of human rights.

As a part of the geographical knowledge introduced by Matteo Ricci from the West into China at the beginning of the 17th century, the concept of “Asia” had undergone a cool reception for over three hundred years and did not become a common idea of world geography until the early 20th century when it was publicized by textbooks and other mass media. As the author points out, Asia is not merely a geographical concept, but also refers to history, culture, and politics. Although early Western missionaries and Chinese scholar-officials like Wei Yuan endowed Asia with a positive meaning as the origin of world civilization, from the mid-19th century on, Chinese intellectuals, out of a sense of crisis caused by the European invasion of Asia, tended to describe Asia as a backward continent subjugated by the white people. In the 1910s, against the background of Japan’s annexation of Korea, Asia was divided into two opposing parts, “the country invading other countries” (Japan) and “the countries being invaded by other countries” (India, Korea, and China). Along with the occupation of other Asian countries by Japan in the name of “the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere” in the 1930s and 1940s, the concept of Asia also lost its charm among Chinese nationals.

Discussing the issues of “Asia,” Takeuchi Yoshimi’s discourse of “Overcoming Modernity” (近代超克) has received broad attention among the international community of scholars. Commentators try to identify the ideological elements of this discourse that, as they hope, could help to solve post-modern problems. After analysing Takeuchi’s understanding of the war and its context, this paper shows that his discourse of “overcoming modernity” has an anti-historical tendency, which stems from the ideological ambiguity of his attitude towards the question of who was responsible for the war.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, European investigations into Chinese geography underwent a process of change: firstly, from the wild imagination of the classical era to a natural perspective of modern trade, then historical interpretations of religious missionaries to the scientific mapping conducted by sovereign nation-states. This process not only prompted new production of maps, but also disseminated a large amount of geographical knowledge about China in massive publications. This has enriched the geographical vision of Chinese civilization while providing a new intellectual framework for Europeans to understand China. Concurrently, it has formed another route for the travel of knowledge and intercultural interactions between the East and the West. Those interactions between space and knowledge have been reflected in the production, publication and dissemination of numerous maps of China in early modern Europe.

The concepts of Minben 民本, Minbensixiang 民本思想, and Minbenzhuyi 民本主义 are rather popular in current Chinese discourse. However, “Minben” was hardly found in Chinese ancient literature as a noun. Around the year of 1916, “Minbenzhuyi” became widely accepted in Japanese intellectual circles, interpreted as one of the Japanese versions of democracy. In 1917, “Minbenzhuyi” was transferred to China as a loanword by Li Dazhao and developed into one of the Chinese definitions of democracy. Nevertheless, Chen Duxiu questioned the meaning of the term in 1919. It was not until 1922 did Liang Qichao bring Minbenzhuyi back into Chinese context and conduct a systematic analysis, which had a lasting impact on Chinese intellectual community. In the following 20 years, Minbenzhuyi was largely accepted in two different senses : 1) interpreted as Chinese definition of democracy; 2) specifically refers to the Confucian idea of “Minshiminting and Minguijunqing” (民视民听, 民贵君轻). Gradually, it became evident that Minbenzhuyi in China had grown distant from the meaning of democracy and returned to its traditional Confucian values.

In 1908, the first and second chapters of Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid were first translated into Chinese by Li Shizeng, greatly influencing Chinese anarchists. Li Shizeng followed Kropotkin’s scientific argument of anarchism and strengthened the viewpoint for praising “public” and suppressing “private”. When translating Kropotkin’s thoughts, Li Shizeng focused on political revolution, glossing over the criticism of the capitalist economy, and barely referenced Kropotkin’s original anarchist communist ideology.

This paper examines the concept of Rendaozhuyi in Late Qing and Early Republican China. Appearing as early as 1903, Rendaozhuyi is the Chinese rendering of both humanism and humanitarianism. For the Chinese intellectuals during the Late Qing and Early Republican period, “rendao” itself represented a modern value of humanity and human dignity. In the wake of the Great War, Rendaozhuyi gained tremendous popularity among the May-Fourth scholars. Some of them held it up as a universal ideal and tool to critique Chinese tradition, while others respectfully disagreed, worrying it would undermine the collective morale of “strengthening the nation”. Finally, the late 1920s saw the rapid ebb of the discussions of Rendaozhuyi. Keywords: Rendaozhuyi, humanism, humanitarianism, conceptual history

This paper focuses on the change of the meaning of “gospel” in Chinese context since the 17th Century. In the late Ming dynasty, Catholic missionaries were the first to translate “gospel” into Chinese with their writings about the Bible. Then the term became intermingled with traditional Chinese belief of seeking blessings. After the ban on Christianity imposed by the Emperor Yong Zheng, Chinese Catholics hid their faith and disguised it as Buddhism, Taoism and folk religions. At the end of the 19th century, “gospel” was connected to colonialism and became a trigger for Sino-Western conflict. The critique of and hostility toward the term abruptly arose. In the 20th century, “gospel” turned into a new concept, which went beyond its religious connotation and gradually referred to all kinds of “good news”.

Owing to Zhu Zhixin’s introduction and Liu Wendian’s translation, Japanese anarchist Kotoku Shusui’s On the Obliteration of Christ came to have a great impact on China’s Anti-Christian Movement following the May Fourth Movement. What these three texts oppose is not only Christian authority, but also political power. In a continuous line, these writings lay the basic framework for Chinese anti-Christian speech in the 1920s, as the combination of scientism and nationalism began to shape people’s perception of Christianity.

This paper focuses on the change of the image of “mouse” which was transformed from the legend of Fifteen Strings of Cash to the other versions. The legend of Fifteen Strings of Cash, written by Zhu Suchen, was a story of the vindication of defendants in a court case and formed the basis for a series adaptations. The legend of Fifteen Strings of Cash provided a frame of imagination about the image of a “mouse”. Meanwhile, the adaptation of the legend in folk opera provided a more ethical narrative than the original. The folk versions not only strengthened the “evil” of the “mouse”, but also heightened the suffering of innocent scholars. In the contemporary versions after 1949, the “mouse” as an animal disappeared in the story, and Lou Ashu (“shu” means “mouse” in Chinese) became a pure villain in this play, which also symbolized “evil” and pointed to the feudal and backward old society.

The conceptual changes of Jian儉 in the pre-Qin period were the results of changes in the social and political structure. It originally referred to Jian virtue, which was a kind of political norm of clan states. This required the aristocrats to be moderate in accordance with the patriarchal hierarchy and generously share their wealth with their own clansmen. The opposite of Jian virtue is Tan (貪greed) and Chi (侈extravagance). In the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, many states formed their politics based on ministerial families. The aristocrats glorified greed and extravagance as Fu (富riches), and stigmatized Jian virtue as Pin (貧poverty). After the collapse of the clan-based state order, the states in the Warring States Period gradually developed into territorial states, and the institutional political norm became a new, abstract concept, indicated by the compound Jian Yue (儉約economy) and was used to describe the consumption attitudes of individuals and families. Meanwhile, with the increase of social mobility, the pursuit of riches was highly popular in the ideological world. The new expression of “means-ends” advocated by Legalists, which stipulated that individuals and families acquire wealth through Jian Yue (economy), took shape and endures to this day.

In this paper, I address the seeming tension found in The Bhagavad Gita in our duties as described in the practice of Karma yoga. The path of Karma yoga involves renunciation and yet we also have an obligation to act righteously. How are we to simultaneously choose a path of duty and let go of what our actions along that path produce? I will argue that the seeming tension is a result of a misunderstanding of renunciation or non-attachment as well as an incomplete view of the dualistic philosophy of yoga theory. I describe the two main paths of yoga that are emphasized in The Bhagavad Gita, Jnana yoga or the path of knowledge and Karma yoga or the path of action, and argue that it is necessary to understand Karma yoga in light of Jnana yoga and to apply Jnana yoga so that it‟s not an abstract school of thought, but a philosophy that can be applied to best live our lives.