Sino-Hellenic Network Seminar
Wednesday 21 May, 15.30-17.00 BST (Online only, sign up for Zoom here)
Eric Hutton (University of Utah): To China and Back: The Roundtrip Voyage of a Platonic Notion
Chair: Jingyi Jenny Zhao (Needham Research Institute/ University of Cambridge)
Abstract:
The end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century was a pivotal period for the transmission of ancient Greek philosophy to China, as during that time there appeared a burst of publications introducing Greek thought to Chinese readers. This talk focuses on one small episode from this period, sketching how certain famous claims about injustice in the writings of Plato became quite transformed in one particular Chinese presentation of them. After tracing this process of change, I “turn the lens around” and use the Chinese formulation of the matter to re-examine Plato’s own discussions. I suggest that application of this particular Chinese perspective in re-reading Plato brings out an aspect of his conception of justice that has not gotten much attention previously, but it also turns out to be an aspect that his own approach to justice has difficulty explaining.
We are grateful to the Faculty of Classics at Cambridge for generously supporting the events. The term card can be found here. If you would like to be kept up to date with Network news, please sign up here.
