I’d like to announce the publication of my new book Ziran: The Philosophy of Spontaneous Self-Causation. Targeted specifically at students, this book takes a key concept form early Chinese metaphysics—ziran 自然—and applies it to several fields of contemporary scholarship.
Category Archives: Daoism
New Book: Dao Companion to the Philosophy of the Zhuangzi
Springer has published the Dao Companion to the Philosophy of the Zhuangzi, edited by Kim-chong Chong. “It covers textual, linguistic, hermeneutical, ethical, social/political and philosophical issues, with the latter including epistemological, metaphysical, phenomenological and cross-cultural (Chinese and Western) aspects.”
A reviewer on Amazon warned “Only 34 of the 46 chapters are in the Kindle version.” Those interested might want to look into/verify this.
Online Lecture: What No One Laughs At Cannot Be Dao
The Coffee Time Talks on Chinese Thought series at Saint Louis University, sponsored by the Center for Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, will be hosting a Zoom lecture by Professor Brook Ziporyn on Wednesday, September 21st from 10:00-11:30 AM CST. The lecture is titled “What No One Laughs At Cannot Be Dao: On What Kind of Garbage is the Dao?”.
Zoom ID: 984 9500 6071
Click here for the flyer.
New Book Series: Daoism and the Human Experience
Daoism and the Human Experience is a new series that offers a platform to explore, question, and learn about the ways Daoism has or may contribute to the understanding of the philosophical, religious, literary, aesthetic, medicinal scientific, and ecological aspects of human existence. The series is launching in June 2022 with Daoist Resonances in Heidegger. Read below for more information.
Daoism and the Human Experiences seeks book proposals that will both deepen the understanding of Daoism and the world around us. The editors are still accepting proposals for monographs and edited collections that focus on Daoist thought, irrespective of the historical period, as well as information that explores Daoism within a border context.
Additional information can be found in the attached poster: Daoism and the Human Experience Call for proposals HERE.
New Book: The Daodejing Commentary of Cheng Xuanying
This is now the third translation in the Oxford Chinese Thought book series, which is devoted to providing high-quality translations of important philosophical and religious texts, for scholars and for classroom use. A short description follows below the fold.
Zhuangzi Stories Animated
We’ve launched a YouTube channel animating Zhuangzi stories (subtitles in various languages):
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGQmh7lzx5NtDW05Fsj9Qw
It’s also available in Spanish:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMpnZxr3USI_nv1aoF6dPyA
And on Bilibili in Chinese:
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1sX4y1N7WU/
Call for Papers for Midwest Conference on Chinese Thought (Virtual)
16th Annual Midwest Conference on Chinese Thought
Wright State University
30 April-1 May 2021
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.
This year’s conference will be held virtually on Friday, April 30 and Saturday, May 1 and hosted by Wright State University. Our keynote speaker will be Robin R. Wang, Professor of Philosophy at Loyola Marymount University.
Professor Wang will present “Dao of Rou 柔 (Suppleness): Proprioceptive Knowledge and Its Epistemological Value in Early Daoism”:
Through Chinese intellectual history, early Daoism, a Dao-based and inspired teaching and practice, has been considered the philosophy of rou 柔 (suppleness, pliant, yielding, softness), which the Daodejing couples with water, the infant, and the feminine. A popular Chinese binary expression of culture, gen 根 (root/foundation) and hun 魂 (soul/spirit), takes Dao as the root of Daoist teaching and rou as a spirit of Lao-Zhuang. However, rou has often been understood only as de (德) moral virtue or shu (术) strategy, something more practical than conceptual. This talk will respond to this theoretical gap and argue for rou as a form of proprioceptive awareness or bodily knowledge that shapes a cognitive style and an epistemological stance to guide our rational effort, illumination, and well-being. More importantly, this rou style of knowing embodies the epistemic value, such as intellectual humility, openness, receptivity and resilience, for a cognitive success.
Similar to previous conferences, we anticipate selecting 12-16 papers for presentation. For consideration submit a 1-page abstract to Judson Murray at judson.murray@wright.edu by January 31, 2021 for blind review. For more information, visit the conference website here.
End-of-term report on “Living a Good Life”
My colleagues Tushar Iriani, Steven Horst, and I have a post at the Daily Nous site about our experience teaching a new “Philosophy as a Way of Life” course that centrally features students doing structured philosophical exercises associated with each of the four main schools we covered (Confucianism, Aristotelianism, Daoism, and Stoicism). The course website itself is here; each of the “Live Like a ______” weeks are linked from here. Comments or questions either here or at Daily Nous most welcome!
NOVEMBER 6, 2020: Zhuangzi’s Robber Zhi: A Discussion
THE COLUMBIA SOCIETY FOR COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY
Presents: Zhuangzi’s Robber Zhi: A Discussion
Presenter: Stephen Walker (University of Chicago)
Discussants: Timothy Connolly (East Stroudsburg University), Tao Jiang (Rutgers University), Qianyi Qin (CUNY Graduate Center), Hagop Sarkissian (CUNY Graduate Center & Baruch College)
ABSTRACT: This session will focus on the celebrated ‘Robber Zhi’ (盜跖) dialogue from the Miscellaneous Chapters (雜篇) of the Zhuangzi. In the dialogue, Kongzi (or Confucius) tries to persuade Robber Zhi to abandon his marauding ways and lead a more conventional life. While the character of Robber Zhi is obviously brutal, and a person few of us would want to emulate (or interact with in any way), he’s also strikingly insightful about human needs and frailties, and attentive to the more covert kinds of brutality we endure simply by living in organized societies. Not only does he raise the possibility that attempts to morally reform individuals might produce more harm than good, but he also embodies, in his own person, the pointlessness of making appeals to powerful persons who don’t value morality at all. The presenter will spend about 15 minutes summarizing the dialogue, and the discussants will spend about five minutes each raising points for discussion. The rest of the session will consist of Q&A. Those planning to attend are strongly encouraged to read the dialogue before the session begins. You can download a recent translation by Brook Ziporyn by clicking on this link.
DATE: November 6, 2020
TIME: 7:00-9:00 pm
This seminar will take place via Zoom (please scroll down for the full invitation). Continue reading →
New Book: Fung, Dao Companion to Chinese Philosophy of Logic
Huang Yong writes to share this news:
Dao Companion to Chinese Philosophy of Logic (volume 12 in the series of Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy), edited by Yiuming Fung, has just been published by Springer. Below is an overview of the book. Here is a link to the Dao Companions series.
