The Propensity of Things: Toward a History of Efficacy in China

In this strikingly original contribution to our understanding of Chinese philosophy, François Jullien uses the Chinese concept of shi — disposition or circumstance, power or potential — as a touchstone to explore Chinese culture and to uncover the intricate and coherent structure underlying Chinese modes of thinking.

This term — whose very ambivalence and disconcerting polysemy, on the one hand, and simple efficacy, on the other, defy the order of a concept — insinuates itself into the order...