Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Philosophy
(Asian Philosophy or Asian Religion)
The School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, invites qualified academics to apply for a newly created position of tenure-track assistant professor in Asian Philosophy or Asian Religion.
Continue reading “Position in Asian Philosophy at Nanyang”
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May 16, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Job Opening |
no comments
The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) announces a new initiative supporting research and teaching in Buddhist studies funded by a $1.9 million grant from the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation. Working with the Foundation, ACLS will offer an articulated set of fellowship and grant competitions that will expand the understanding and interpretation of Buddhist thought in scholarship and society, strengthen international networks of Buddhist studies, and increase the visibility of innovative currents in those studies. ACLS will organize competitions for the following:
These are global competitions. There are no restrictions as to the location of work proposed or the citizenship of applicants.
Applications must be submitted through the ACLS Online Fellowship Application system (OFA). Sample applications and a link to OFA will be available in July 2013. Further details may be found here: http://www.acls.org/programs/buddhist-studies/
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May 15, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Opportunities |
no comments
Last weekend, Wesleyan hosted an interdisciplinary forum on “comparative enlightenments” that blog readers might find interesting; read here for an account in English, and here for a Chinese summary. Keynote remarks were offered by Wang Weiguang and Gao Xiang of CASS and Hayden White of Stanford. Participants included philosophers like Chen Lai (Tsinghua), Wu Genyou (Wuhan), Ding Yun (Fudan), Han Shuifa (Beijing), and Akeel Bilgrami (Columbia), as well as literary theorists and historians. (It’s interesting to note the differences of emphasis in the two write-ups 
.)
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May 14, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Comparative philosophy, Conference, Philosophy in China |
2 comments
Yang Xiao of the ISCWP writes to say that they are in need of two chairs and six commentators for the panels they are organizing for this December’s APA meeting. If you are interested in being a commentator, please email Yang Xiao at xiaoy@kenyon.edu within a week (by Monday May 20th ). Many thanks!
Continue reading “ISCWP Need for Chairs and Commentators”
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May 14, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Conference |
no comments
The following article in this week’s New Yorker by Yale psychologist Paul Bloom has been circulating in social networks:
The Baby in the Well: The Case Against Empathy
Despite what many of us on this blog might initially wonder, the title of the paper does not refer to Mencius’s famous thought experiment. (Instead, it refers to the famous case of an actual child in a well that led to a worldwide media circus in the 1980s.) Nonetheless, the article may be of interest to those of us working in Confucian ethics and moral psychology.
Continue reading “Against Empathy”
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May 13, 2013
Posted by
hagop sarkissian |
Emotions, Ethical Theory, Mencius, Moral Psychology |
3 comments
Looks like an interesting set of papers! Please respond to Professor Tongdong Bai (baitongdong@gmail.com)
ACPA Group Meeting at the APA Eastern Convention
December 27-30, 2013, at the Marriott Waterfront, Baltimore
Session 1: Moral Cultivation and Moral Agency in Confucianism and Western Philosophy
1. Mental Blindness and Moral Rectitude: The jiebi chapter of the Xunzi
David Chai, University of Toronto, Canada, david.chai@utoronto.ca
Abstract: The idea of being figuratively blind is a well-used trope in early Confucian thought. Confucius referred to blindness of virtue while Mencius to blindness of the senses and speech. For Xunzi, blindness stems from a person having ‘two minds,’ that is, one’s mind is caught between two principles or goals of moral conduct. Xunzi’s solution, like Guanzi’s theory of ‘mental arts’ (xinshu 心術), was to engage in ‘singular concentration’ (jing 精). Through a close hermeneutic reading of chapter 21 of the Xunzi (jiebi 解蔽, “Removing Blindness”), this paper will examine Xunzi’s use of jing and how cultivating one’s mental essence by adhering to Dao can result in overcoming mental blindness. It will also look at one of the more interesting metaphors Xunzi uses, that of brightness (ming 明). Moral brightness is a quality every person should strive for in that it reflects the perfect virtue of Dao. For Xunzi, using ming to nurture jing is not enough to cure a person completely of their mental blindness however; they must endeavor to replicate the mind of Dao. How they do this is through studying the principle of men’s minds as Xunzi so clearly illustrates: “Sageliness consists in a comprehensive grasp of the natural relationships between men. True kingship consists in a comprehensive grasp of the regulations for government. A comprehensive grasp of both is sufficient to become the ridgepole for the world.” (Xunzi, 21.9)
Continue reading “Call for Commentators-ACPA at APA Eastern 2013″
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May 13, 2013
Posted by
Manyul Im |
Comparative philosophy, Conference, Confucianism, Ethical Theory |
no comments
The Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania invites applications for a full-time, non-tenure-track lectureship in pre-modern Chinese studies, for the academic year 2013-14. The appointment will be for one year with the possibility of annual renewal for up to an additional two years based on satisfactory performance and approval of the Dean. The successful candidate will teach two classes each semester, and will be responsible for directing the departments M.A. program. The Ph.D. degree is expected at the time of the appointment. Candidates who are ABD at the time of application should specify a date for completion and awarding of the degree in their cover letter.
Continue reading “Position in Pre-Modern Chinese Studies at UPenn”
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May 8, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Job Opening |
no comments
Please be informed that Penn State University will be hosting an International Symposium on “Reading, Textual Production, and Literati Culture in Late Imperial China,” May 31-June 1, 2013. The event is cosponsored by the Asian Studies Program and Confucius Institute at Penn State University, and the Department of Chinese Culture at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. It is open to the public and anyone interested is welcome to attend. For information, please contact On-cho Ng <oxn1@psu.edu>.
Continue reading “Conference on Late Imperial Chinese Reading and Textual production”
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May 7, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Conference, Neo-Confucianism |
no comments
You are cordially invited to submit a paper or panel proposal for the ISCP’s panel at APA, Central, to be held in Chicago, Illinois, , February 26 to March 1, 2014. Submission Deadline: Jul. 15, 2013. (Early submission encouraged and appreciated)
Continue reading “CFP: ISCP at APA Central”
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May 6, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Call for Papers (CFP), Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学 |
no comments
NECCT 2013 Call for Abstracts
We hereby request submissions of abstracts for the Northeast Conference on Chinese Thought (NECCT), to be held at Wesleyan University on Friday and Saturday, November 8-9, 2013.
Interested scholars should send an abstract of no more than one single-spaced page, plus a current CV, to Stephen Angle (sangle@wesleyan.edu) no later than June 1, 2013. All files should either be in Word or .pdf format.
Continue reading “Call for Abstracts: 2013 Northeast Conference on Chinese Thought”
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May 6, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Call for Papers (CFP), Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Conference |
no comments
Tuesday, May 7, 12:30 p.m.
Cultural China Reexamined: The Question of Identity
Tu Weiming, Director, Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Peking University; Senior Fellow, Harvard University Asia Center
Chaired by Prof. Elizabeth Perry, Dept. of Government, Harvard University; Director, Harvard-Yenching Institute
Sponsored by the Harvard-Yenching Institute and the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard
Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave., Cambridge
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May 4, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Lecture |
one comment
Chinese and African Philosophy: A Conversation
A colloquium is being organized by Marius Vermaak (Rhodes University, South Africa), Daniel A. Bell (Jiaotong University, the PRC) and Thaddeus Metz (University of Johannesburg, South Africa), and is being supported by the Confucius Institute at Rhodes University (South Africa). To be held 10, 11 and 12 May 2013, and hosted by the Humanities Faculty of Jiaotong University in Shanghai.
Continue reading “Colloquium in Shanghai on Chinese and African Philosophy”
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May 3, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Comparative philosophy, Human Rights |
no comments
Translating the Ancient Classics in China and the West: 1950 and Beyond
University of South Carolina, 16th Annual Comparative Literature Conference
February 26-March 2, 2014
Send one page abstracts of 20 minute papers to 2014cplt@gmail.com by September 15, 2013. We also encourage panel submissions of up to four papers. Panel submissions should include abstracts of the individual papers and should not be more than four pages.
Continue reading “CFP: Translating the Ancient Classics in China and the West: 1950 and Beyond”
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May 3, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Call for Papers (CFP), Comparative philosophy, Translation |
no comments
As Chris has recently reminded us, ctext is a terrific resource, both in terms of its textual coverage and the many innovative features that Donald has added to it. Currently it has some very useful coverage of the Song-Ming era, but for anyone looking for more texts from Neo-Confucian authors, I can recommend the Hong Kong Society of Humanities site (click on the 宋明哲學經典 link), which I have just added to our list of resources.
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May 1, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Neo-Confucianism, Resource |
2 comments
See below for the Table of Contents of Asian Philosophy 23:2 (2013):
Continue reading “Latest issue of Asian Philosophy”
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April 30, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Tables of Contents |
no comments
The next session of the Columbia University Seminar on Neo-Confucian Studies will convene on Friday, May 3, 2013, from 3:30 to 5:30pm. We will meet in the Board Room of the Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University. Please note the earlier starting time.
Our presenters for this session (listed here in alphabetical order) are Agnes Chalier and Tom Selover. Dr. Chalier’s paper is titled “Scientific Variations: Research on History and Philosophy of Science in Europe and China.” A copy of her paper is attached (actually, if you’re reading this on-line, contact one of the organizers for a copy). Dr. Selover’s paper is titled “Neo-Confucian Principle(s) in the Thought of Sun Myung Moon (1920-2012).” His paper will be distributed as soon as it is available.
Continue reading “This Week’s Neo-Confucianism Seminar at Columbia”
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April 30, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Comparative philosophy, Lecture, Neo-Confucianism, Science |
no comments
If you work with early Chinese texts, you have probably used the Chinese Text Project (ctext.org), a wonderful on-line resource created by Donald Sturgeon some years ago while he was still a master’s student in Taiwan.
To many of us, within two or three years of its founding, ctext.org had become a more convenient and useful research tool than the online e-text resources created by large institutions such as Academia Sinica. As Donald has continued to expand the site’s functions — such as by adding a dictionary and concordance indexing — its utility has overtaken that of any rival Chinese text database, online or not.
Often, while working on a book chapter or essay, I have multiple browser windows open displaying different pages of content from ctext.org. I’m sure many others in the field use the site the same way.
All that useful content takes up a lot of server resources, however, which someone has to pay for. For years now, that someone has mainly been Donald himself. He’s had a few welcome anonymous donations and a handful of short-term sponsors, but by and large the costs for the site come out of his own pocket. And that’s not counting all the time and programming expertise that he’s put into it.
So a graduate student living on a modest stipend in one of the world’s most expensive cities is paying for a valuable research tool that all of us use.
May I suggest that those of us who can afford it — not graduate students, but professors and other interested readers — consider donating to support the site’s operations? You can do so through Paypal on the site’s support and donation page here. To those of us who visit the site frequently, the Chinese Text Project is worth much more than the cost of a book and probably more than the cost of most of the software on our computers. So why not consider donating an amount equal to the price of a book or a software package to support the continued operation and growth of this invaluable resource?
And if you’re in a position to do so, consider arranging for an institutional subscription to or sponsorship of the site, as described here.
This is a project that deserves our support.
— Chris Fraser
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April 30, 2013
Posted by
Chris Fraser |
Academia, Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Resource |
one comment
Reminder of call for papers for SACP at the APA East.
……………….
CALL FOR PAPER AND PANEL PROPOSALS
2013 Eastern Division Conference of the American Philosophical Association
December 27-30, 2013, Baltimore, MD – Marriott Waterfront
The Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy welcomes proposals for our panels at the American Philosophical Association’s Eastern Division meeting. Please submit individual paper abstracts or complete panel proposals.
Paper abstracts should be 150-200 words in length.
Complete panel proposals should include: panel title, a 150 word introduction to the theme of the panel, and a 150 word abstract for each of the papers.
Include each presenter’s name, e-mail address, and institution.
Proposals regarding any aspect of Asian or comparative philosophy are welcome.
Please submit these materials no later than May 7 to Brian Bruya at bbruya@emich.edu.
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April 28, 2013
Posted by
Brian Bruya |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学 |
no comments
Professor Peimin Ni writes with an intriguing request:
A friend of mine works as a local policy making/consulting officer at Confucius’ hometown Qufu. I received a request from him, saying that he would like to get help from the international community of scholars in Chinese philosophy. He wants to know what we perceive as the current situation, problems, and difficulties in (1) disseminating Confucianism outside of China, and (2) the establishment and operation of Confucius Institutes in the world. He would also like to know that (3) on the basis of our assessment of these situations, what we recommend for promoting broader understanding of Chinese culture in the world, and (4) what particularly relevant material we would recommend him to read. Any idea or suggestion would be appreciated.
The call for help, I think, is a good sign that the local government is conscientious about the cultural heritage. It would be great if we can help, even if just offering him bits and pieces of information or opinions.
Anyone with comments or suggestions can post theme here as comments, and Peimin will collect them and summarize them for his friend (who does not read English). Alternatively, if you wish you can just write to Peimin directly. Of course, general discussion of the issues raised here (which may or may not be helpful to an official in Qufu) is also welcome.
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April 28, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Confucianism, Contemporary Confucianism |
2 comments
I’ve added a plugin that allows you to download a PDF version of a post. This may be of use for some purposes, however, the current plugin does not include the comments for a post (which can be very illuminating). Nor does it convert non-Latin characters or accented Latin ones. It is what it is. Also, videos from popular sites such as YouTube or Vimeo are converted to links in the pdf. Please note the header, which indicates the presumptive intellectual property ownership by the author of the particular post. For citation norms governing blogs, see this MLA style summary.
There is a link along the bottom of each post for the purpose. Cheers.
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April 26, 2013
Posted by
Manyul Im |
Blog details |
3 comments
THE COLUMBIA SOCIETY FOR COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY
Welcomes JOERG TUSKE, Department of Philosophy, Salisbury University
With responses from David Nowakowski , Department of Philosophy, Princeton University
Please join us at Columbia University Department of Religion on March 22, 2013 at 5:30pm for his lecture entitled
Free Will in Indian Philosophy
ABSTRACT: Recent discussions of free will in Indian Philosophy have mainly focused on the problem in the context of Buddhist Philosophy. Buddhist philosophers reject the existence of the self and the question is whether they also reject the existence of free will. The answers to this question vary from philosophers who claim that Buddhists have to be determinists to philosophers who argue for some form of compatibilism with regards to Buddhist Philosophy. In my talk I will focus on free will in at least one of the non-Buddhist schools of Indian philosophy, the Navya-Nyāya school. I will argue that while the philosophers of this school believed in the existence of a self, it would not be accurate to label them with one of the Western positions on free will. In fact the whole concept of free will is problematic in the context of Indian philosophy. This also has consequences for the Buddhist positions and how we classify them. Continue reading “Columbia Society for Comparative Philosophy lecture on Free Will in Indian Philosophy TOMORROW April 26 @5:30pm”
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April 25, 2013
Posted by
hagop sarkissian |
Indian Philosophy, Lecture |
no comments
[On behalf of Ben Hammer, Shandong University]
A Call for Drafts for the Inaugural English-language Edition of Heritage and Transition: Studies in Chinese Humanities
Shandong University’s Journal of Literature, History and Philosophy (《文史哲》Wen Shi Zhe) is one of mainland China’s most well-known and well-respected academic journals. It has appeared bi-monthly for more than half a decade and has gained the highest repute among Chinese scholars. The Journal focuses on presenting scholarly work on various aspects of China’s traditional culture and society.
Due to the rising demand and desire for international dialogue as well as the rising prominence of sinology in Western countries, the editorial board has decided to begin publishing an edition in English, entitled Heritage and Transition: Studies in Chinese Humanities. It is our goal to help foster such international dialogue and provide a platform for important academic exchange.
This notice is to officially extend an invitation to Western scholars to take part in Heritage and Transition’s inaugural English-language edition. The theme of the inaugural edition is “The Forms and Formation of Chinese Society” (中国社会形态的问题). All entries must be original works somehow related to this theme.
There is no fee to submit. All submissions will be reviewed by the editorial board. All accepted submissions will receive payment. Furthermore, along with being published in the English edition, accepted works will also be translated into Chinese and published separately in the Chinese edition.
The deadline for the first edition is September 30, 2013. Submissions should be between 6,000 and 10,000 words in length. If you are interested in contributing or have questions, please contact Dr. Ben Hammer at benkhammer@sdu.edu.cn
Benjamin Hammer
Assistant Editor, Heritage and Transition
Lecturer, Advanced Institute of Confucian Studies
Shandong University
Jinan, Shandong, China, 250100
+011-86-152-6411-3113
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April 20, 2013
Posted by
Manyul Im |
Call for Papers (CFP), China |
no comments
I am very excited to announce and to celebrate the generosity of Manyul’s and my teacher at the University of Michigan, Don Munro. We should all be grateful for his continuing efforts to cultivate the field of Chinese thought!
The American Council of Learned Societies is pleased to announce the establishment of the Munro Fund for Chinese Thought. Proceeds of the fund, which was created through Donald J. Munro’s generous gifts to ACLS, will help support ACLS Fellowships awarded for research projects on Chinese philosophical traditions and ethical systems that exhibit high quality in sinology and in critical analysis, as well as relevance to human problems.
The Munro Fund can help fund awards in any ACLS fellowship program, except those supporting pre-doctoral study. A list of ACLS fellowship programs with links to information about each can be found at http://www.acls.org/programs/comps/.
Continue reading “Munro Fund for Chinese Thought Established at ACLS”
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April 20, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Fellowships, Opportunities |
no comments
Scott Cook’s extensive, two-volume study and complete translation of the Guodian excavated texts has been published and is available through University of Hawaii Press. For more information, check out these two sites (vol. 1; vol. 2), which are largely identical but have links for purchasing the two volumes at the bottom. Congratulations, Scott!
Here follows the blurb from the website:
The cache of bamboo texts recently unearthed (in 1993) from the village of Guodian, Hubei Province, is without doubt a rare and unique find in the history of Chinese philosophy and literature. As the only archaeologically excavated corpus of philosophical manuscripts to emerge from a Warring States–period tomb, the Guodian texts provide us with a wealth of reliable information for gaining new insights into the textual and intellectual history of pre-imperial China. In this respect, one may reasonably claim that they are the most exciting thing to happen to the study of early China since the third century ad, the last time a pre-imperial textual cache of similar import was unearthed. More than a few scholars have even gone so far as to suggest that their discovery necessitates that the entire history of early Chinese intellectual history will have to be rewritten. The importance of these texts is manifold. First, given the prominence of Confucian works in the corpus, they serve to fill out much of the intellectual historical picture for the doctrines of roughly three generations of Confucian disciples who fell between the times of Confucius 孔子 (551–479 BC) and Mencius孟子 (ca. 390–305 BC). Next, the discovery of three different texts that each parallel portions of the Daodejing 道德經 (aka. Laozi 老子), along with a possibly related cosmogonic work, the “Taiyi sheng shui”太一生水, is helping us better understand the formation and early transmission of the Laozi and the nature of its relationship to early Confucian thought and even popular beliefs. Moreover, the dating of the tomb serves to dispel serious doubts about the early temporal provenance of both the Laozi and many of the chapters from the Li ji 禮記 (Book of Ritual), as well as giving us a number of clues to help us reconstruct the history of the early Chinese canonical “classics” that are cited in some of the texts. And written as they are in the local Chu 楚 script, the manuscripts hold great significance for the study of early Chinese paleography and phonology, giving us tangible examples of “ancient script” forms hitherto seen mainly in early character dictionaries and a limited array of technical manuscripts previously excavated from the region.
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April 20, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Books of Interest, Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Excavated Texts, Translation |
4 comments
(Just moving this up to the front, by way of reminding those who might be interested, of the April 30 deadline.)
The Association of Chinese Philosophers in North America [ACPA]
Call for Papers and Abstracts – ACPA Group Meeting at the APA Eastern Convention
Submission deadline: April 30, 2013
December 27-30, 2013, at the Marriott Waterfront, Baltimore
Description: ACPA group meetings at the APA conventions have been successful in providing scholars an opportunity to try out new ideas and receive inputs for further development of the paper. The attendance has been good, and we have always arranged one commentator for each paper presented. We now welcome scholars to submit completed drafts, paper abstracts, or panel proposals for the 2013 APA Eastern Meeting. With one session devoted to the panel for DAO best essay award, we shall continue to host another session with three to four papers, with commentators for each paper. We will try to organize the session in keeping with a cohesive theme. Therefore, the selection of the paper for presentation will be partially based on how well it can be worked into a good session.
Continue reading “ACPA call for papers”
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April 17, 2013
Posted by
Manyul Im |
Call for Papers (CFP), Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Comparative philosophy |
no comments
Three new (or at least new to me) books of interest:
If anyone has read any of these, please let us know what you think!
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April 11, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Books of Interest, Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Confucianism, Mohism, Yi Jing (Book of Changes) |
one comment
Just to let you know that I will be clearing off the Question Board on Saturday, April 13, as part of a periodic cleanse. If you see anything on there you want to save, please copy and paste into your own archives. Cheers.
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April 10, 2013
Posted by
Manyul Im |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学 |
no comments
Scott Barnwell’s essay “The Evolution of the Concept of De 德 in Early China,” has been published, as Sino-Platonic Paper 235. (Direct link to PDF here.) Congratulations, Scott! Here’s the first paragraph:
The present research paper explores the semantic space occupied by the ancient Chinese concept of De 德 over time. As Confucius observed in the epigraph, few people seemed to understand it in his day and many still do not today. In this paper, we will examine the various connotations conveyed by the word in the earliest written material — bronze inscriptions from the eleventh century B.C.E. — to the Han Dynasty (漢, 202 B.C.E. – 220 C.E.): roughly the first one thousand years. As it is a research paper, there will be no sustained argument defending some thesis, as is expected in a philosophy paper. It is rather a comprehensive, exploratory, educational tour of the semantic field of De in early Chinese literature. The critical reader should adjust his expectations accordingly.
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April 9, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Virtue |
6 comments
Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2013.04.15
Richard King, Dennis Schilling (ed.), How Should One Live?: Comparing Ethics in Ancient China and Greco-Roman Antiquity. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2011. Pp. viii, 343. ISBN 9783110252873. $120.00.
Reviewed by Andrew B. Irvine, Maryville College (andrew.irvine@maryvillecollege.edu)
Preview the book.
The fifteen essays herein began as presentations at a symposium held in 2007 to discuss the good, virtue, universality, friendship, and politics. This volume groups the essays in five parts: Methods, Ethical Theory, China, Greece and Rome, and Comparisons. The latter three contain four essays each, the first has two, the second just one, and Parts I and II together add up to a mere 29 pages. Thus the unity of this volume is to be grasped not in terms of theory or method but in terms of topics – and, for better and worse, fairly loosely at that. Four indices allow precise navigation of the volume. A list of contributors would have been welcome.
Continue reading “Review: How Should One Live?: Comparing Ethics in Ancient China and Greco-Roman Antiquity”
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April 9, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Book Review, Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Comparative philosophy |
no comments
The editorial board of Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy has completed its annual selection of the best essay. The winner of 2012 Dao Annual Best Essay Award is given to
“Instruction Dialogues in the Zhuangzi: An `Anthropological’ Reading” by Carine Defoort (Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 11:459-478)
Congratulations to Carine!
Below is the official citation:
This essay provides a fresh reading of the ancient Chinese Daoist classic Zhuangzi. While the author claims that it is a non-philosophical reading, it turns out to be a philosophical reading that is most appropriate to the Zhuangzi and perhaps many if not all other ancient Chinese classics. The Zhuangzi authors, just like many other classical Chinese philosophers, were not so much interested, if at all, in theory building as in transformation of the person. Through a focus on the formal characteristics of the dialogues, careful textual analyses, perceptive interpretations, and coherent arguments, Dr. Defoort convincingly shows that the instruction of the Zhuangzi’s masters hint at the importance of non-teaching in various senses; it also focuses on attitudes and skills (knowing how) rather than knowledge (knowing that). The essay thus breaks ground not only in our interpretation of the Zhuangzi but also in our understanding of philosophy per se. It is the type of work that Dao promotes.
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April 8, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Comparative philosophy, Journal News, Pedagogy, Zhuangzi |
3 comments
Manyul and I both received our PhDs from the University of Michigan, so I must call attention to Sam Crane’s blog post concerning UM basketball player Jon Horford’s fascination with the Dao De Jing. Michigan plays for the National Championship on Monday night; as Sam says, Do Nothing Blue — and there is nothing that will be undone!
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April 7, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Daodejing, In the News |
2 comments
There will be a friendly debate on some of the ideas in my Contemporary Confucian Political Philosophy: Toward Progressive Confucianism book, held next week at Hong Kong University. Please come and join in the fun — though note that registration is required, just to keep track of numbers. The “critics” with whom I will be conversing are Joseph Chan, Fan Ruiping, and Sungmoon Kim. It will be held 16 April 2013 (Tuesday), 14:30 – 17:30. More information on the location and schedule, as well as on-line registration, is available here.
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April 7, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Comparative philosophy, Comparative Political Theory, Contemporary Confucianism |
no comments
Exciting news: Anna Sun (Kenyon College)’s book on Confucianism has been published. Congratulations!
Confucianism as a World Religion: Contested Histories and Contemporary Realities
Anna Sun
Princeton University Press | Cloth | 2013 | $35.00 / £24.95 | ISBN: 9780691155579 | 266 pp. | 6 x 9 | 1 line illus. 9 tables
Is Confucianism a religion? If so, why do most Chinese think it isn’t? From ancient Confucian temples, to nineteenth-century archives, to the testimony of people interviewed by the author throughout China over a period of more than a decade, this book traces the birth and growth of the idea of Confucianism as a world religion.
The book begins at Oxford, in the late nineteenth century, when Friedrich Max Müller and James Legge classified Confucianism as a world religion in the new discourse of “world religions” and the emerging discipline of comparative religion. Anna Sun shows how that decisive moment continues to influence the understanding of Confucianism in the contemporary world, not only in the West but also in China, where the politics of Confucianism has become important to the present regime in a time of transition. Contested histories of Confucianism are vital signs of social and political change.Is Confucianism a religion? If so, why do most Chinese think it isn’t? From ancient Confucian temples, to nineteenth-century archives, to the testimony of people interviewed by the author throughout China over a period of more than a decade, this book traces the birth and growth of the idea of Confucianism as a world religion.
Continue reading “New Book: Anna Sun, Confucianism as a World Religion”
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April 6, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Books of Interest, Confucianism, Religion |
3 comments
THE COLUMBIA SOCIETY FOR COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY
Welcomes intrepid Warper & Wefter MANYUL IM, Department of Philosophy, Fairfield University
With responses from Michael Brownstein, Department of Philosophy, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Please join us at Columbia University Department of Religion on April 12, 2013 at 5:45pm for his lecture entitled
Spontaneity, Deliberation, and Valuing in Early China
ABSTRACT: Continue reading “Columbia Society for Comparative Philosophy lecture on Confucian and Daoist views of agency April 12 @5:45pm”
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April 6, 2013
Posted by
hagop sarkissian |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Confucianism, Daoism, Lecture |
no comments
The next session of the Columbia University Seminar on Neo-Confucian Studies will convene on Friday, April 12 (the second Friday of the month, a departure from our usual first-Friday format), from 3:30 to 5:30pm. We will meet in the Komoda Room in the Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University.
We will have two presenters for this session (listed here in alphabetical order).
- Theresa Kelleher of Manhattanville College will present the paper “Looking at the Quotidian Dimensions of Neo-Confucianism: Excerpts from the Journal of Wu Yubi (1392-1469).”
- Zhou Zehao of York College will present the paper “Confucius and the Cultural Revolution: A Brief Comparison of the Two Anti-Confucian Campaigns during the Cultural Revolution.”
Copies of their papers will be distributed soon. All are welcome to attend. Please feel free to forward this message to interested colleagues. Please join us after the seminar for dinner at the Columbia Cottage restaurant, which is located on the corner of Amsterdam and 111th Streets.
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April 5, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Confucius, Lecture, Neo-Confucianism |
no comments
International Conference: ”The Classic of Documents and the Origins of Chinese Political Philosophy”
Princeton University, May 17-18, 2013
The conference is open to the public. It will focus on a series of case studies on individual chapters from the Shangshu, with an emphasis on rhetoric and ideology. Those interested in attending should email Martin Kern (mkern@princeton.edu) for preregistration and further information.
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April 5, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Conference, Politics |
no comments
A number of scholars in our field have suggested that the model of connoisseurship is helpful in understanding Confucian moral education and the nature of the Confucian moral exemplar (the junzi or sage). Eric Hutton’s “Moral Connoisseurship in the Mengzi” (in Liu and Ivanhoe, eds., Essays on the Moral Philosophy of Mengzi, 2002) is a classic essay; more recently, Hagop Sarkissian (“Confucius and the Effortless Life of Virtue,” History of Philosophy Quarterly 27:1 [2010]) and P.J. Ivanhoe (“McDowell, WANG Yangming, and Mengzi’s Contributions to Understanding Moral Perception,” Dao [2011]) have also developed related ideas.
I’m going to excerpt here a bit from an essay of mine that is currently unpublished, part of a volume that will eventually wend its way through the review process and see the light of day. My concern in the essay is to further develop some comparisons between Neo-Confucians and contemporary psychological literature that I began in Sagehood and continued in “A Productive Dialogue? Contemporary Moral Education and Zhu Xi’s Neo-Confucian Ethics,” Journal of Chinese Philosophy (2011). In particular, I refine the idea of “active moral perception” introduced in Sagehood, and as part of that process, find myself arguing against the idea that moral exemplars are best understood as people who have honed their sensitivities to moral reasons or moral properties in a connoisseur-like way. My target here is not, at least explicitly, the interpretations of Kongzi and Menzi suggested in the essays cited above, but rather to argue that a common-sense idea (supported by recent psychological research) of what moral exemplars are like, and what they do, actually fits very well with key elements of Wang Yangming’s picture. I’d love feedback!
Continue reading “Moral Exemplars and Moral Connoisseurs”
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April 1, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Comparative philosophy, Confucianism, Ethical Theory, Neo-Confucianism, Psychology |
13 comments
Friend of the blog Patrick O’Donnell suggested that Warp, Weft, and Way readers might enjoy this posting by Kenan Malik on the intertwining of Confucianism and Communism in the last hundren years in China. Malik writes that:
What had been a surreptitious nod towards Confucian ideology in Maoist China, became after Mao an open embrace, as China opened itself up to competition and the market, and hence also potentially to greater social dislocation and disorder. The quicker has been the pace of economic reform over the past three decades, the greater has been the desire of the Chinese government to proclaim its commitment to Confucianism…. Alongside the government’s new-found admiration for Kongzi, there has emerged a new cadre of Confucian academics. Many work independently of the state, and many have found themselves at times in conflict with the state. Nevertheless, the academic renovation of Confucianism and the state’s embrace of Kongzi have become closely intertwined.
Malik ends with some discussion of Jiang Qing, whom he calls “perhaps the most important of the new generation of Confucian philosophers.” I have just finished writing a review of Jiang Qing’s new book in English, A Confucian Constitutional Order, and plan on publishing an excerpt or two here soon. In the meantime, any comments on Malik’s ideas or on Jiang Qing would be welcome.
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March 31, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Confucianism, Contemporary Confucianism, Jiang Qing |
no comments
As many of you know, there are more and more excavated texts making their presence known in our field. Beijing University is in possession of a bamboo-strip version of the Laozi / Daode Jing that they date to the Western Han; a full transcription is available here; just scroll down past the pictures.
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March 31, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Daodejing, Daoism, Excavated Texts |
4 comments
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION—2013 EDWIN O. REISCHAUER LECTURES
The 2013 Edwin O. Reischauer Lectures will take place at Harvard on April 10, 11, and 12, featuring Shigehisa Kuriyama, Reischauer Institute Professor of Cultural History, presenting three lectures on the topic “Toward an Archaeology of Distraction.” On April 10 the theme will be “What Truly Matters?”; on April 11, “Curiosity and Distraction”; and on April 12, “Playful Science.” The public is invited to submit their thoughts on five preview elements for each lecture.
For more information, go to: http://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/event/2013-reischauer-lectures
See also the call for participation: http://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/call-participation2013-reischauer-lectures-kuriyama
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March 29, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Comparative philosophy, Lecture |
no comments
Friday, April 5, 2013, 12:00 p.m.
Harvard East Asian Legal Studies Seminar
“Weber’s Distortions of Chinese Law and Religion: A Reassessment of a Lasting Legacy”
Karen Turner, Professor of History, College of the Holy Cross
The Morgan Courtroom, Austin Hall Room 308
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March 29, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Comparative philosophy, Law, Lecture, Religion |
no comments
Some information for professors (U.S. citizenship) who might be interested.
I met today with the executive director of Fulbright Taiwan and the chair of the Department of Philosophy at National Taiwan University, where I am currently doing a teaching Fulbright. Both of them expressed the sentiment that this is a good association and that the U.S.-Taiwan relationship would be well-served by continuing it. Fulbright depends on the initiative of applicants, however, rather than putting out calls for participation. So they can only accommodate a philosopher if a philosopher applies. A special interest was expressed for political philosophy, especially related to the potential democratization of China. (I’m teaching American Pragmatism and Comparative Moral Psychology–at the graduate level.) They both thought it would be a good idea to get the word out on this blog.
Continue reading “Fulbright Taiwan”
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March 29, 2013
Posted by
Brian Bruya |
Academia, Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Opportunities, Philosophy in Taiwan, Profession |
2 comments
Readers may be interested in this new book series dedicated to “cross-cultural philosophy of traditions and cultures.” The series is an offshoot of the journal Sophia, whose coverage includes the perspectives of multiple traditions on philosophy and religion.
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March 27, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Comparative philosophy, Opportunities |
no comments
I am happy to report that the book that Michael Slote and I have been editing, Virtue Ethics and Confucianism, will see the light of day before too many more months pass. Routledge now has a webpage for the book which includes its cover, table of contents, and so on, and it can even be pre-ordered. For those of you who are neither independently wealthy nor buyers for academic libraries (i.e., virtually anyone reading this), please be assured that a more reasonably-priced paperback edition will be forthcoming in a couple more years.
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March 26, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Books of Interest, Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Comparative philosophy, Confucianism, Ethical Theory, Virtue |
3 comments
SJSU Center for Comparative Philosophy Workshop/Conference Series presents a symposium:
Yi-Jing Philosophy and Contemporary Philosophy & Society
Co-Sponsors: SJSU Philosophy Department & Dr. Chaote Lin Endowment
Time: 4th April 2013, Thursday, 10:00-17:00
Place: Conference Room 225-229, King Library,
San Jose State University, San Jose, California, USA
Continue reading “SJSU Symposium: Yi-Jing Philosophy and Contemporary Philosophy & Society”
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March 26, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Comparative philosophy, Conference, Yi Jing (Book of Changes) |
no comments
The rather surprising question in my title is inspired by three things. Most immediately, I have just returned from the AAS Conference in San Diego, where I participated in a panel on Elite and Popular Confucianism, presenting a paper called “American Confucianism: Between Tradition and Universal Values.” Second, I have heard some talk about the establishment within one or more Chinese universities of explicitly Confucian-themed academic units. Finally, I recently became aware of Soka University, a liberal arts college in Southern California that was founded by the Soka Gakkai Buddhist organization from Japan.
Continue reading “What Would a Confucian University in the US Look Like?”
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March 25, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Buddhism, Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Comparative philosophy, Confucianism, Contemporary Confucianism, Education Models |
5 comments
SOAS MSc in Comparative Political Thought
In September 2013, the Department of Politics and International Studies at SOAS, University of London will start a new MSc in Comparative Political Thought, the first programme in the UK devoted to this field of study.
Continue reading “New Masters in Comparative Political Theory”
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March 25, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Comparative Political Theory, Graduate study |
no comments
Virtues: Intellectual and Moral – An International Workshop
April 2, 2013, 4:15–6:30pm, Wesleyan University, Russell House (350 High Street, Middletown, CT)
Three philosophers based in Taiwan will present papers exploring different aspects of intellectual and practical virtue, each paper followed by comments from a member of the Wesleyan Philosophy Department, with general discussion at the end. The event is free and open to all. Please contact Lynn Higgs with any questions.
Continue reading “Workshop at Wesleyan on Virtues: Intellectual and Moral”
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March 18, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Comparative philosophy, Conference, Virtue |
one comment
THE COLUMBIA SOCIETY FOR COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY
Welcomes ANDREW LAMBERT, Department of Philosophy, Wester New England University
With responses from Warren Frisina, Dean of Honors College, Associate Professor of Religion, Hofstra University
Please join us at Columbia University Department of Religion on March 22, 2013 at 5:30pm for his lecture entitled
A Confucian Account of Ethical Obligation?
ABSTRACT: The Confucian doctrine of the five cardinal relationships is often taken as a defining feature of the Confucian tradition, with its emphasis on family life and relationships. However, objections arising from more modern ethical ideals threaten to undermine the doctrine, or at least render it irrelevant to contemporary ethics. I present three such objections.
In seeking to deflect the objections, I suggest a different way of understanding the purpose and effects of the five relationships doctrine. Instead of seeing the doctrine as a constellation of concrete practical norms and duties pertaining to individuals occupying certain social roles and positions, I suggest we understand the five relationships doctrine as a kind of training device, which cultivates a certain kind of personal sensibility. This is a sense of obligation to engage with and find a basis for familiarity with those people encountered in the subject’s local social world.
I argue that when understood in this way, the discourse of the five cardinal relationships is not subject to the three common objections noted above, and presents a distinctive form of ethical obligation.
I finish by locating this account of ethical obligation within a larger moral vision, thereby suggesting this is a genuine form of ethical obligation rather than mere etiquette or psychological conditioning.
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March 16, 2013
Posted by
hagop sarkissian |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Confucianism, Ethical Theory, Lecture |
one comment
Guest poster Andrew Komasinski offers us a review of Henry Rosemont Jr., A Reader’s Companion to the Confucian Analects (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). Please direct any comments to Andrew.
Henry Rosemont Jr.’s A Reader’s Companion to the Confucian Analects is a novel approach in the English-language world. Building on Rosemont’s forty years of professional knowledge and personal experience with the Analects, this text will be of great use for the right type of reader. Containing no footnotes and not structured as an argument, this is not a scholarly monograph and bypasses many issues primarily of interest to scholars. The text differs from the similarly titled Cambridge Companion series which provides a set of scholarly essays highlighting the contemporary debate or Routledge Philosophy Guidebooks that guide undergraduate students through complex arguments.
Continue reading “Review of Rosemont, Reader’s Companion to the Analects”
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March 14, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Book Review, Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Confucianism, Confucius |
no comments
Charles Wei-hsun Fu Foundation: ISCP Essay Contest in Asian Philosophy
The Charles Wei-hsun Fu Foundation and the International Society for Chinese Philosophy are pleased to announce the 2013 ISCP Essay Contest in Asian Philosophy.
Continue reading “Charles Wei-hsun Fu Foundation Essay Contest”
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March 13, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Conference, Opportunities |
one comment
There’s not a ton of philosophy on the AAS program for next week — there never is — but for the first time in years, I’m going to be there and would enjoy meeting any Warp, Weft, and Way readers who are also attending. Here are a couple interesting panels, as seen from my perspective (listed in chronological order):
Continue reading “AAS in San Diego Next Week”
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March 13, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Comparative philosophy, Conference |
3 comments
It has just come to my attention that Yong HUANG’s book Confucius: A Guide for the Perplexed (Bloomsbury 2013) has recently been published [publisher's site] [Amazon link]. I have only had a chance to take a quick look at it, but it looks to be philosophically sophisticated and yet engaging and accessible. Rather than a systematic overview of Confucius’s teachings, Huang tackles a series of questions that arise “in our everyday life or moral reflection,” and argues that Confucius’s answers are the best — or at least, better than available alternative answers in the Western tradition. Enjoy!
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March 13, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Books of Interest, Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Comparative philosophy, Confucianism, Confucius |
2 comments
A terrific-looking new book on early-20th century Chinese feminism has been published, and will also be the subject of a roundtable at the upcoming AAS conference: Lydia H. Liu, Rebecca E. Karl, Dorothy Ko, eds, The Birth of Chinese Feminism: Essential Texts in Transnational Theory (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013).
Continue reading “New Book on Chinese Feminism”
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March 12, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Books of Interest, Feminism |
no comments
Rowman & Littlefield International is a new press, based in London, with specific interest in publishing projects related to comparative philosophy. Their new website has further information.
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March 7, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Profession |
no comments
Michael Hoffman of the Japan Times reviews the English translation of A HISTORY OF JAPANESE POLITICAL THOUGHT, 1600-1901, by Hiroshi Watanabe (Translated by David Noble. LTCB International Library Trust, International House of Japan, 2012). Hoffman focuses on the “evolution of Japan’s turn away from Confucian ideas.” Looks interesting. Here is some of the review (read the whole review at the Japan Times).
Maybe all ideas are inherently strange, given the nonsense time tends to make of them. Imagine how odd our thinking will seem 100 years from now — or would have seemed 100 years ago. Is “freakish” too strong a word? Whether it is or not, the ideas Watanabe discusses here with such clarity and vigor are the ones that animated two of the most astonishing phases of Japanese and, arguably, world history: the 2½ centuries of peace under the Tokugawa shogunate (1600-1867) and the subsequent national transformation of backwater Japan into superpower Japan.
What were these ideas? You could, simplifying just a bit, divide them into two categories: Confucian and anti-Confucian. For pre-modern Japan, China was civilization itself, and Confucianism was what made it so — “perhaps the most powerful political ideology yet conceived by the human race,” writes Watanabe. To devotees, its “rites and music,” “five relationships” and “five virtues” are what separate us from the beasts and make us human. To doubters — and the doubts grew as Japan’s stagnation became more evident — it was a retarding force. “Ours is a world in which living things are confined and regimented as if dead things,” wrote one exasperated samurai-scholar in 1838. Continue reading “Japan Times Review of Watanabe”
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March 7, 2013
Posted by
Manyul Im |
Book Review, Confucianism, Japan |
no comments
Reader / Professor in Comparative Politics or Political Theory
SOAS, University of London -Department of Politics and International Studies
Reader: £48,075-£55,367 p.a inclusive of London Allowance
Professor: £55,807-£75,271 p.a. inclusive of London Allowance
Vacancy no. 000493
The Department of Politics and International Studies seeks to make a senior appointment in Comparative Politics or Political Theory.
For the Political Theory appointment, the Department is particularly interested in candidates with expertise in Comparative Political Thought and Political Philosophy who can take forward additional programme development in these areas.
Continue reading “Position in Comparative Political Theory”
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March 4, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Comparative Political Theory, Job Opening |
no comments
How to Make a World of Perpetual Peace
Prof. Zhao Tingyang (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; HYI Visiting Professor of East Asian Thought)
Discussant: Professor Stephen Angle (Philosophy and East Asian Studies, Wesleyan University)
Date: Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Time: 4:15 pm
Location: Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, MA
The new problem of our times is that of a failed world rather than failed states. Globalization has brought us to the unpleasant fact that our supposed world is actually a non-world. Rather than dealing with the problems of globality by means of modernity, we must make a world, one of perpetual peace, with an ‘all-under-heaven’ system that reaches beyond the nation state system, with relational rationality emphasized more than individual rationality.
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March 3, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Chinese philosophy - 中國哲學 - 中国哲学, Comparative Political Theory, Lecture, Philosophy in China |
2 comments
This was kind of a fun read. (Read the rest at the New York Times website, here.) Any thoughts?
THE LEARNING VIRTUES
Jin Li grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution. When the madness was over, the Chinese awoke to discover that far from overleaping the West, they were “economically destitute and culturally barren.” This inspired an arduous catch-up campaign. Students were recruited to learn what the West had to offer.
Li was one of the students. In university, she abandoned Confucian values, which were then blamed for Chinese backwardness, and embraced German culture. In her book, “Cultural Foundations of Learning: East and West,” she writes that Chinese students at that time were aflame — excited by the sudden openness and the desire to catch up.
Li wound up marrying an American, moved to the States and became a teacher. She was stunned. American high school students had great facilities but didn’t seem much interested in learning. They giggled in class and goofed around. Continue reading “NYT Columnist Brooks on Chinese Education”
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March 1, 2013
Posted by
Manyul Im |
China, Education Models, In the News |
16 comments
The International Society for Comparative Studies of Chinese and Western Philosophy (ISCWP) have had very successful panels at the APA (American Philosophical Association) meetings in the past. We plans to sponsor one or two panels at this year’s Eastern Division Meeting of APA, which will be held on December 27-30, 2013, at the Marriott Waterfront, Baltimore, USA. We hereby invite submissions.
Continue reading “CFP: ISCWP 2013 Eastern APA Panels”
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March 1, 2013
Posted by
Steve Angle |
Call for Papers (CFP) |
no comments
