Brook Ziporyn is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 sinologist

Sinology

Sinology in general use is the study of China and things related to China, but, especially in the American academic context, refers more strictly to the study of classical language and literature, and the philological approach...

 and philosopher, as well as the leading English language

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 scholar of Tiantai Buddhism

Tiantai

Tiantai is an important school of Buddhism in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. In Japan the school is known as Tendai, and in Korea it is known as Cheontae. Tiantai is also called the "Lotus School", due to its emphasis on the Lotus Sūtra as its doctrinal basis...

. His research focuses on Taoism

Taoism

Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...

, Confucianism

Confucianism

Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...

, Chinese Buddhism, Chinese intellectual history, and comparative philosophy. He is also known for publishing the most recent and definitive English language translation and commentary of the Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BCE during the Warring States Period, a period corresponding to the philosophical summit of Chinese thought — the Hundred Schools of Thought, and is credited with writing—in part or in whole—a work known by his name,...

. He is a professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 at Northwestern University

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

.

Life

Ziporyn attended the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

 and earned a Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 from the University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

 in 1994. He has taught there, as well as at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, the Chung-hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies in Taiwan, and at Northwestern University (since 1998).

Philosophy

Ziporyn's philosophical work, expressed most extensively in his book Being and Ambiguity, has focused on the development of a comprehensive "Neo-Tiantai" ontology and epistemology derived from categories of traditional Tiantai Buddhist thought. In that work, the reconfiguration of the Tiantai "Three Truths" into the basic ontological conception of all experiencable entities as "local coherence as global incoherence as intersubsumption" is applied fruitfully to a broad range of traditional philosophical problems.

Non-fiction books

• Being and Ambiguity: Philosophical Experiments with Tiantai Buddhism (2004)
• The Penumbra Unbound: The Neo-Taoist Philosophy of Guo Xiang (2003)
• Evil and/or/as the Good: Omnicentrism, Intersubjectivity, and Value Paradox in Tiantai Buddhist Thought (2000)

Translations

• Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings with Selections from Traditional Commentaries (2009)

External links

• Bio at Northwestern University faculty page