Dr. Jana S. Rošker: The Method of Transcultural Philosophical Sublation: Theory and Practice

About the author

Dr. Jana S. Rošker is one of Slovenia’s leading sinologists and philosophers, and an internationally recognized scholar of Chinese philosophy, comparative philosophy, and transcultural philosophy. As a professor at the Department of Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, she has for many years researched Chinese thought, its epistemology, ethics, logic, and the methodology of comparative research. Through her work, she has made an important contribution to the development of transcultural philosophy and to the contemporary understanding of dialogue between European and East Asian philosophical traditions.

The editorial board of the section Daoist Studies within SDT  considers the work of Dr. Jana S. Rošker to be one of the important contemporary methodological starting points for the study of Daoism in dialogue with other philosophical and religious traditions. For this reason, with her kind permission, we are presenting it to our readers as well. This summary is based on the author’s original text, supplemented with an emphasis on the significance of her method for religious studies and, in particular, Daoist studies.

The method of transcultural philosophical sublation and its significance for Daoist studies

The book The Method of Transcultural Philosophical Sublation: Theory and Practice presents an original methodological approach to the study of different philosophical and cultural traditions. In it, Dr. Jana S. Rošker develops the concept of transcultural philosophical sublation, which is based on a processual understanding of reality and on several fundamental principles of the Chinese dialectic of correlative complementarity.

The method does not proceed from an understanding of cultures as closed and unchanging systems, but treats them as living processes shaped through historical contacts, internal changes, and mutual influences. In this context, the concept of sublation denotes a process in which certain oppositions are overcome, yet not annulled: their important aspects are preserved and can contribute to a new understanding.

The central premise of the method is that a genuine encounter between different traditions of thought does not mean the dominance of one over another, nor their simplified fusion. It is a creative process in which both the concepts being studied and the researcher themselves are transformed. The encounter of different perspectives is therefore not merely a comparison of already formed systems, but a space of mutual learning and the emergence of new insights.

Although the method was developed primarily within comparative philosophy, it also has significant potential for religious studies. It enables the study of different religious traditions without reducing them to a single conceptual framework. Instead of searching for universal similarities or emphasizing insurmountable differences, it encourages the exploration of relations, tensions, and possibilities of mutual illumination between traditions.

For Daoist studies, such an approach is especially interesting, as it opens methodological possibilities for studying a tradition that understands reality as a continuous process of arising and transformation. The Daoist emphasis on the relationality of phenomena, on the balance of complementary forces, and on the constant flow of change creates important parallels with the processual approach of transcultural philosophical sublation.

The method calls us toward an approach in which the encounter of Daoism with other philosophical and religious traditions is not conceived as the subordination of one tradition to another, nor as their simplified merging. Differences do not appear as an obstacle, but as a possibility for creative encounter and deeper understanding, which in certain respects resonates with the Daoist conception of the Dao as an ineffable source that reveals itself in the world of phenomena as an immanent process of relationality, balance, and transformation.

The e-book is available at:
https://ebooks.uni-lj.si/ZalozbaUL/catalog/view/939/1411/13373