Category Archives: Comparative philosophy

Charles Taylor Wins Inaugural Berggruen Prize

Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor has been named the first winner of the Berggruen Prize. The $1 million award from the Berggruen Institute is given annually to a thinker whose ideas are of broad significance for shaping human self-understanding and the advancement of humanity. It will be presented to Professor Taylor in New York on December 1, 2016. To learn more about the prize please visit the Berggruen Prize page.

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Chinese Philosophy to Return to Michigan

I am thrilled to be able to share the news that, thanks in part to a gift from Don and Ann Munro, the University of Michigan will be re-establishing a tenure-track line in Chinese philosophy, to be housed jointly in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and the Department of Philosophy. The support that the Munros have shown for the study of Chinese philosophy—in addition to Don’s distinguished career, the Munros have established the Tang Junyi Lecture Series at UM, the Munro Fund at the ACLS, and now this—is truly exemplary. Full text of the announcement follows.

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Even More Jobs

Thanks to Alexus’s comment, I realize that I failed to use “Asian” as a search term, and in fact there are several more relevant ads:

UPDATE: Here is another relevant job listing:

More Jobs

The news about UCSD (not to mention the earlier news about Leiden’s senior position) nudged me into looking at PhilJobs, which lists 4 other tenure-track jobs that include Chinese or Non-Western philosophy as potential specialization:

Pretty cool!

Job at UCSD

Exciting news: the University of California at San Diego department of philosophy is advertising for an assistant professor whose main area of research is some aspect of non-western philosophy. A faculty member wrote me to say: “As a department, we are very interested in diversifying the philosophy curriculum and recognizing the significant and underappreciated contributions to philosophy from scholars working in traditions that do not have their origin in Western Europe.” The details of the ad are here.

Another Round on Chinese Thought as Philosophy

In case you missed it, Nicholas Tampio recently published a short piece in Aeon explaining why he thinks Confucius (among other non-Western thinkers) should not be regarded as a philosopher, with implications for the philosophy curriculum and the makeup of philosophy faculties. This is a response to the recent New York Times piece by Jay Garfield and Bryan Van Norden.  Tampio and Van Norden subsequently exchanged tweets on the topic. Amy Olberding replies thoroughly and with humor here, and Ethan Mills responds on behalf of Indian philosophy here.

Where to begin?

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New Book: Vallor, Technology and the Virtues

Shannon Vallor, Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical Guide to a Future Worth Wanting (Oxford, 2016) has just been published; information here. The book draws on Aristotelian, Confucian, and Buddhist virtue ethics as it explores a path toward a “future worth living.”