Author Archives: Alexus McLeod

CFP: ISCWP at 2022 APA Central

The International Society for Comparative Studies of Chinese and Western Philosophy (ISCWP) plans to organize one or two panels for the 2022 APA Central Meeting (Chicago, Feb. 23-26, 2022).  ISCWP invites proposals of panels or papers that promote in-depth engagement between Chinese and Western philosophy.  Proposals may be focused on only one of Chinese or Western philosophy, but it should be consistent with the mission of ISCWP.  Preference is given to constructive comparative engagements between Chinese philosophy and Western philosophy.

For panel proposal, submission must include the theme of the panel and the following for each chair, speaker, and commentator (optional) on your panel:

  1. Title of Paper
    2. Name
    3. Affiliation
    4. Email Address
    5. Abstract of 200-300 words (for presenters)

For paper proposal, submission must include the completed paper or a paper title and abstract of 200-300 words.

Please send proposals to Alexus McLeod (alexus.mcleod@uconn.edu), by August 15, 2021.

If you plan to attend the APA-Central Meeting and would like to volunteer to serve as a chair for a panel, please notify us of your willingness to do so.

Note on Academic Support Fund: In general, the ISCWP does not fund travel and related expenses.
Participants must secure funding via their institution or other means. However, thanks to the generosity of our members, we are in the process of building up an Academic Support Fund for early career scholars and scholars without stable and/or well-funded positions. If you would like to be considered for the Fund, please indicate so in your email. Although we would like to provide as much support as it is needed, resource allocation is not guaranteed and will be contingent upon availability of funds.

 

CFP: ISCWP at 2018 Pacific APA

The ISCWP plans to sponsor one or two panels at the 2018 APA Pacific Meeting, which will take place in San Diego, March 28- April 1, 2018.

We would like to encourage submissions of proposals of individual papers and panels. We encourage papers or panels that promote in-depth engagement between Chinese and Western philosophy (broadly construed). The submissions will be reviewed by all the three members of the board. When we select papers, we normally try to find papers that have common theme to form a panel. You may have a better chance to be accepted if you submit a panel proposal which already has a common theme. Continue reading →

Call For Proposals: Critical Inquiries in Comparative Philosophy book series

We are currently seeking book proposals for the Critical Inquiries in Comparative Philosophy book series (Rowman and Littlefield International). The volumes in this series aim to present recent research on topics within comparative philosophy generally as well as to present original work on these topics. Right now we are most interested in developing volumes focusing on Chinese Philosophy and/or Indian Philosophy, though proposals on topics in other areas of Asian and Comparative Philosophy are certainly welcome too.

There are currently two volumes of the series in development.  Alexus McLeod’s Theories of Truth in Chinese Philosophy: A Comparative Approach will be released this November, and Bongrae Seok’s Moral Psychology of Confucian Shame: Shame of Shamelessness is due to appear in 2017. Further information on the series and individual volumes can be found at the RLI series webpage.

Those interested in discussing topics or possible proposals for the series should contact Alexus McLeod at alexus.mcleod@colostate.edu

New Series: Critical Overviews in Comparative Philosophy

From the description at the Rowman and Littlefield International website: http://www.rowmaninternational.com/news/critical-overviews-in-comparative-philosophy

The Critical Overviews in Comparative Philosophy series aims to present detailed and inclusive surveys of contemporary research in multiple areas of Asian and Comparative Philosophy. Each volume will outline and engage with the current research within comparative philosophy through the lenses of traditional philosophical areas such as ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, and language/logic, offering those outside the fields in question (both scholars and students) an up-to-date picture of the work being done in these areas. This series will cover topics in East Asian and South Asian philosophy, primarily in a comparative context.

Each volume will be a single-authored work presenting, synthesizing, and analyzing recent developments in particular areas within a field of comparative research, as well as offering promising directions for future research, outlining possible objections and solutions, and considering ways the area might be further developed. Continue reading →

Panels at the 2013 AAR Meeting

There will be a number of panels focusing on Chinese and comparative philosophy at the American Academy of Religion annual meeting in Baltimore, MD, beginning this weekend, Saturday, November 23rd, and running through Tuesday, November 26th.  For more information on specifics, see the AAR meeting website: http://www.aarweb.org/annual-meeting/general-information

The following are panels that I thought might be of interest to readers of this blog (these are just the ones I know of- if any of you know of others that may be of interest, feel free to add them in the comments line): Continue reading →

Call for Papers: 9th Annual Midwest Conference on Chinese Thought (Submission Deadline Extended)

9th Annual Midwest Conference on Chinese Thought

University of Dayton/Wright State University

Dayton, OH

May 10-11, 2013

 

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: PENG GUOXIANG, PEKING UNIVERSITY

 

The Midwest Conference on Chinese Thought was created to foster dialogue and interaction between scholars and students working on Chinese thought across different disciplines and through a variety of approaches. Submissions are invited for papers on any aspect of Chinese thought, as well as papers dealing with comparative issues that engage Chinese perspectives. Possible themes for submissions include: examining how recovered texts reframe familiar issues and debates in early Chinese thought; texts, movements, and figures from neglected eras and traditions; the current renaissance of philosophy and religious studies in China.

 

This year’s MCCT will be held on Friday, May 10 and Saturday, May 11 at the University of Dayton and Wright State University, in Dayton, OH.

 

To facilitate blind review, please submit abstracts of 1-2 pages in length to Patricia Johnson at pjohnson2@udayton.edu by MARCH 15th.  For further inquiries about this year’s MCCT, contact Alexus McLeod at gmcleod1@udayton.edu or Judson Murray at judson.murray@wright.edu.

 

Call for Papers: 9th Annual Midwest Conference on Chinese Thought

CALL FOR PAPERS: 9TH ANNUAL MIDWEST CONFERENCE ON CHINESE THOUGHT

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON/WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY

Dayton, OH

MAY 10-11, 2013

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: PENG GUOXIANG, PEKING UNIVERSITY

The Midwest Conference on Chinese Thought was created to foster dialogue and interaction between scholars and students working on Chinese thought across different disciplines and through a variety of approaches. Submissions are invited for papers on any aspect of Chinese thought, as well as papers dealing with comparative issues that engage Chinese perspectives. Possible themes for submissions include: examining how recovered texts reframe familiar issues and debates in early Chinese thought; texts, movements, and figures from neglected eras and traditions; the current renaissance of philosophy and religious studies in China.

This year’s MCCT will be held on Friday, May 10 and Saturday, May 11 at the University of Dayton and Wright State University, in Dayton, OH.

To facilitate blind review, please submit abstracts of 1-2 pages in length to Patricia Johnson at pjohnson2@udayton.edu by Feb. 20th.  For further inquiries about this year’s MCCT, contact Alexus McLeod at gmcleod1@udayton.edu or Judson Murray at judson.murray@wright.edu.

What Does It Mean to "Respond to Enmity with Excellence"?

I’ve been recently thinking about an issue that comes up in both the Daodejing and the Analects.  DDJ 63, specifically, is commented on in Analects 14.34.  In the two texts, we see different positions concerning how one should respond to enmity 怨 yuan.  DDJ 63 reads:

為無為,事無事,味無味。大小多少,報怨以德。圖難於其易,為大於其細;天下難事,必作於易,天下大事,必作於細。是以聖人終不為大,故能成其大… Continue reading →

Listening Ridiculously and the Oddity of the Zhuangzi

This is going to be a ridiculous post. Try to also read it ridiculously.

I have always had a hard time understanding the Zhuangzi.  In addition to this being due to my Confucian sensibilities (perhaps), it’s also due to the sheer strangeness of the Zhuangzi.  Both from a stylistic and a philosophical standpoint, the Zhuangzi is radically different from other philosophical texts of its day (assuming it’s a primarily Warring States text).  Strange stories and cryptic sayings blend (almost seamlessly) with more formal arguments and discussions.  Jokes and wisecracks are interspersed with apparently serious exhortations and analyses.  This, as many who have tried to interpret the Zhuangzi can attest, makes for difficult interpretation.  It is never quite clear whether a certain passage is meant in jest or as something we’re supposed to take seriously, and sometimes we simply have to resort to what amounts to interpretive guesswork to decide one way or the other. Continue reading →

Is Chinese Philosophical Thought "Alternative" For Us?

I’ve heard a number of times over the years, from various sources both within and outside of the world of Chinese philosophy, that Chinese philosophical thought represents an “alternative” philosophical tradition, very different from “our own”, and that we are conceptually barred from coming to a full understanding of this tradition, that we will always be looking through the misconceptions, in some sense or another, of the western tradition.  Roger Ames and David Hall endorsed something like this view, on the basis of cultural difference (while admittedly still maintaining that understanding the Chinese tradition at some level is possible).  At the extreme there is Alasdair MacIntyre’s problem of incommensurability that threatens to undermine the possibility of understanding alternative traditions at all.   What all of these views seem to assume, however, is that western scholars are in the position of having to translate Chinese philosophical concepts into concepts we more readily understand, concepts from western thinkers. Continue reading →