2017 ISCP conference
. . . is starting tomorrow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore! Program may be found here.
Journal of World Philosophies announcement
An announcement from Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach (Universität Konstanz, Department of Philosophy):
The journal Confluence: Online Journal of World Philosophies has now moved to Indiana University Press. It will be published as an Open Access journal under the title Journal of World Philosophies. Our first issue is scheduled to appear in December 2016. (Confluence’s first four volumes are now found under: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/iupjournals/index.php/confluence/index.)
The journal’s Facebook page is to be found under: https://www.facebook.com/Journal-of-World-Philosophies-323570801356967/?ref=bookmarks. I hope to meet you there (I’m going to initiate a discussion on world philosophies after this mailing).
[Congratulations to Prof. Kirloskar-Steinbach and co-editor Jim Maffie on this new phase of their project. The Facebook page includes the table of contents for the new issue; looks very interesting! –TC]
Daily Nous cartoon hits the mark
See it here.
New issue of Confluence
The latest issue of Confluence: Online Journal of World Philosophies, has just been released. It contains about 300 pages of articles, including a symposium led by Jonardon Ganeri on the question, “Is reason a neutral tool in comparative philosophy?” Near the end of the issue is a short survey article I wrote about the competing role ethical and virtue ethical interpretations of early Confucianism.
The relational self, and the value of comparative philosophy
An article by Julian Baggini, the latest entry in the New York Times’ “Stone” column.
The most cross-cultural APA ever?
The upcoming 2016 APA Pacific will feature sessions on Chinese Philosophy of Language; Contemporary Latin American Philosophy; Jonardon Ganeri’s The Self: Naturalism, Consciousness, and the First-person Stance; The Moral Significance of Shame and Disgust: Chinese and Western Perspectives; Trends in Brazilian Epistemology; Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism; Comparing Chinese and Korean Philosophies; Contemporary Indigenous Philosophy; Paradox in Contradiction in East Asian Philosophy; Confucianism; Cultural Evolution; and Barry Allen’s Vanishing into Things . . .
. . . and that is just on the main program!
New book: Doing Philosophy Comparatively
My new book introducing the basic concepts and problems of comparative philosophy is now available in paperback on Amazon. A while back, I wrote on this blog about some of the topics that are discussed in the book (here and here).
New study finds no significant difference in Gettier intuitions across cultures
Read about it here (via dailynous.com).
Genius of the Ancient World: Buddha, Socrates, Confucius
A new three-part series from BBC Four. The first two episodes, on Buddha and Socrates, are available online. Just from watching the first few minutes, it seems like there is a heavy influence of Jaspers’ “Axial Age” theory. If you’ve seen the full episodes already, let the rest of us know what you think!
Confucius on gay marriage
Bryan W. Van Norden comments here.
Confucius referenced in U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage
“The centrality of marriage to the human condition makes it unsurprising that the institution has existed for millennia and across civilizations. Since the dawn of history, marriage has transformed strangers into relatives, binding families and societies together. Confucius taught that marriage lies at the foundation of government. 2 Li Chi: Book of Rites 266 (C. Chai & W. Chai eds., J. Legge transl. 1967). This wisdom was echoed centuries later and half a world away by Cicero, who wrote, “The first bond of society is marriage; next, children; and then the family.” See De Officiis 57 (W. Miller transl. 1913). There are untold references to the beauty of marriage in religious and philosophical texts spanning time, cultures, and faiths, as well as in art and literature in all their forms.” [Read full opinion here.]
Articles on Asian Philosophy in General and Specialist Philosophy Journals, 1940-2014
Numbers and discussion here.
Rewriting the story of philosophy
Via Feminist Philosophers, I learned of this paper by Don Howard, entitled “The History That We Are: Philosophy as Discipline and the Multiculturalism Debate.” A couple of excerpts:
The hypothesis that I want to put forward here is that the conception of the “philosophical” underlying this state of affairs does not correspond to a timeless Platonic form, but that it is instead a construction undertaken in a specific cultural context, at a specific historical moment, for some very specific reasons, not all of which have to do with the love of wisdom. The time is the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century. The place is northern Europe, chiefly, though not exclusively, Prussia and Hanover.
Continue reading “Rewriting the story of philosophy”
Zhuangzi and Climate Change
Two new articles about the Peng Bird in as many days! Here’s one about a Zhuangzi-inspired art installation at the 56th Venice Biennale. More information on the installation, along with some pictures, here.
China’s Apolitical Political School of Thought
A new article by Bryan W. Van Norden at The National Interest.
Philosophy, Culture, and Public Life
A reflection by Rasmus Grønfeldt Winther (UC-Santa Cruz).
Confucian values and the rise of Asia
An essay by Robert D. Kaplan in the Wall Street Journal.
New IEP entries on Chinese Philosophy
An overview of topics in Chinese philosophy, by Ronnie Littlejohn; and an article on gender in Chinese philosophy, by Lijuan Shen and Paul D’Ambrosio. Looking forward to reading these in their entirety!
Interpreting an Alien Philosophy: What Works for Me
[Dear readers: I am happy to present the following invited guest post from Dr. Elisa Freschi of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Freschi (BA +MA in Indology and Tibetology, BA in Philosophy, PhD in South Asian Studies) has worked on topics of Classical Indian Philosophy and more in general on comparative philosophy, epistemology, philosophy of religion, philosophy of language and on the re-use of texts in Indian philosophy (about which she has just finished editing a volume). She is a convinced upholder of reading Sanskrit philosophical texts within their history and understanding them through a philosophical approach. She has worked at the Austrian Academy of Sciences since September 1, 2012, with a Lise Meitner project on Epistemology of Sacred Texts in Vedāntadeśika’s Seśvaramīmāṃsā. For more information about her work see here.]
No matter whether one focuses on Classical Chinese philosophy (as probably most readers of this blog) or on Classical Indian philosophy (like myself), one works on something which is different than oneself. I will contend that this feeling is useful also if one focuses on contemporary Chinese, or Indian (or Tibetan and so on) philosophy, or on Classical, Medieval, Modern Western philosophy, since it alerts one to a key factor, namely the difference between oneself and one’s object of study.
Continue reading “Interpreting an Alien Philosophy: What Works for Me”
Why do many Americans still say “Confucius say”?
Confucius valued careful and serious speech. One passage in the Analects says that a person can be judged as wise or unwise on the basis of a single sentence. So how is it possible that for many Americans, the first thing they think of when they hear the name of the Chinese teacher is “Confucius say,” followed by a silly one-liner?
Continue reading “Why do many Americans still say “Confucius say”?”
New SEP article on Epistemology in Chinese Philosophy
By Jana Rošker, found here.
An Institute for Cosmopolitan Philosophy in a Culturally Polycentric World
A blueprint by Jonardon Ganeri, which has sparked some interesting discussion over at the Indian Philosophy blog.
Philosophy’s Western bias and what can be done about it
A post at New APPS by Christian Coseru, with Owen Flanagan, Eric Schwitzgebel, and Jonardon Ganeri weighing in thus far in the comments section.
Waldorf meets guoxue in off-the-grid Chinese schools
Read about it here.
The State of the State
The Global Contest for the Future of Government (new Foreign Affairs article).
From China, With Pragmatism
The latest entry in the New York Times’ Stone column. Discussion welcome!
Making Philosophy of Religion Less Parochial
Every Spring I teach a course on Philosophy of Religion, a subject that, though not my area of expertise, I enjoy teaching because it attracts a passionate and diverse group of students.
Still, it gets to me every time that the religion in Philosophy of Religion is limited to Western monotheistic traditions. Continue reading “Making Philosophy of Religion Less Parochial”
How using a foreign language changes moral decisions
Via Leiter Reports, a new study about how the use of foreign languages affects people’s judgments about trolley problems. May be of interest in light of the thread below regarding culturally variant intuitions.
Culturally Variant Intuitions
A session at the recent APA Pacific on “Multicultural Epistemology” (featuring Jason Stanley and Edouard Machery, among others) has got me thinking about culturally variant intuitions. Recent evidence from experimental philosophy has indicated that respondents in East Asian countries tend to have different reactions than their Western counterparts to cases such as “The Magistrate and the Mob,” or Kripke’s Gödel scenario. A recurring question at the APA session concerned what these differences ought to mean for philosophers working in the given areas. Stanley argued that rather than refuting a prevalent methodology that begins from philosophers’ intuitions about cases, cultural variances simply provide us with a wider data set to be explained. Machery in turn presented his research-in-progress suggesting that cross-cultural intuitions about Gettier cases exhibited far more similarity than previous work by experimental philosophers has suggested. Continue reading “Culturally Variant Intuitions”
Individualism, Collectivism, and American Football
The fascinating story of the Chongqing Dockers:
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117246/chinese-football-my-season-chongqing-dockers
-
Warp, Weft, and Way is a group blog of Chinese and Comparative philosophy. Its primary purpose is to promote and stimulate discussion of Chinese philosophy and cross-tradition inquiry among scholars and students of philosophy, whatever their level of training. Contributors include active scholars with a variety of philosophical interests and approaches. Readers are encouraged to use the Discussions forum page to submit any questions that they may have about the content, study, or profession of Chinese and Comparative philosophy.
Contributors Stephen Angle and Manyul Im administer the blog behind the scenes. Any questions or requests regarding the blog and its operations may be directed to them. Contact information is available under their entries on the Contributor page. In order to maintain a dynamic conversational quality, discussion comments are not initially moderated. As a policy and a courtesy to other participants, comment or discussion authors must identify themselves with their first and last names. Exceptions will be made by request only to one of the administrators. If the blog administrators are unable to contact and verify identity, entries will be removed. While a SPAM robot stands guard to prevent obvious intrusions, the administrators reserve the right to judge the appropriateness of any posted comment.
Warp, Weft, and Way is an academic venture. Neither the administrators nor the contributors profit financially from its contents.
NOTE: Any quoted material from the blog that is published elsewhere must be properly cited, according to professional standards, for example as outlined here. Posts and comments are the intellectual property of their contributors.
Like us for New Post updates on your Facebook feed!
Recent Comments on Blog Posts
- Yin Gao on Univ. of Newcastle (Australia) to abolish Philosophy Major
- Yin Gao on Concise Companion to Confucius
- Yan Yan Anne Teoh on Body and Cosmos in China: An Interdisciplinary Symposium in Honor of Nathan Sivin
- Bill Haines on Concise Companion to Confucius
- Steve Angle on Concise Companion to Confucius
- Manyul Im on Some Plugin Issues
- Bill Haines on Some Plugin Issues
- Steve Angle on Some Plugin Issues
- Michael Ing on IUP World Philosophies series
- Steve Angle on NEH Summer Institute on Philosophy as a Way of Life
- Steve Angle on New Book: The Vulnerability of Integrity in Early Confucian Thought
- Joseph Harroff on NEH Summer Institute on Philosophy as a Way of Life
有朋自遠方來不亦樂乎
