In this episode, we explore Zhu Xi’s striking account of how to read philosophical and other important texts with what he calls “reverential attention.” Blending close reading with reflections on learning, character, and distraction in modern life, we discuss how Zhu Xi tries to make reading simultaneously transformative and objective. The discussion raises a fascinating puzzle at the heart of Zhu’s approach: how can we personalize our reading so that it shapes us, while also preventing our own biases from distorting the text? Continue reading →
Category Archives: Pedagogy
CFP: Upcoming Leadership and the Good Life Conference 2025
West Chester University’s “Life Worth Living” Leadership Hub, in collaboration with Yale’s Center for Faith and Culture, is now accepting proposals for the upcoming Leadership & The Good Life Conference in June 2025. Philosophers are invited to submit paper, presentation, and panel proposals that explore philosophical concepts of the “good life,” including ethical theory and applied ethical topics, as well as related pedagogy.
Submissions: abstracts (300-500 words) should be submitted via email to ZWOOTEN@wcupa.edu with the subject line: LWL PROPOSAL by March 15, 2025.
To learn more information of the program, visit the LWLLeadershipHub site or read this pdf.
Workshop: Chinese Philosophy and World Philosophy
Tsinghua University is hosting a teaching workshop on comparative philosophy on December 11th, 2024. Based on each researcher’s unique approach and character, the workshop will discuss whether and how educators can train students to form a knowledge community with a shared awareness of the field’s current state, methodologies, and relevant issues that transcend geographical and cultural boundaries. Additionally, the workshop also aims to explore how we can “attend to others” and collaborate more effectively.
Date: 11th December 2024
Time: 8:00-10:00 am (Beijing Time)
Language: English
Location: Room 227, Mengmin Wei Humanities Building
Voov meeting: 247-782-797 (no password)
Please find more information regarding the workshop in this pdf.
How much historical context when teaching topically?
A colleague recently wrote to me saying that he was:
…inspired by the topical discussion in the Neo-Confucianism book you co-authored and so I decided to structure my course on Neo-Confucianism according to a thematic/topical discussion instead of the usual historical or thinker structure. However, how does one mitigate the pitfalls of sacrificing historicity? Specifically, how much context or historicity should I provide?
I would love to hear any thoughts that folks out there have, either as it relates to teaching Neo-Confucianism or any other relevant subject. Justin Tiwald and I share some thoughts here about why we prefer to teach in a thematic way, and have collected a few teaching ideas here, but I am sure there are some great ideas out there. Please share!
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!
CFP: Teaching East Asia in the Humanities
Call for Proposals: Teaching East Asia in the Humanities
April 24-25, 2021 (via Zoom)
The past decade has produced a great corpus of literature which defends and reimagines the value of the humanities—its potential to cultivate critical reasoning and cultural literacy necessary for a healthy civil society (Helen Small, 2013), ethically meaningful reading practices (Peter Brooks, 2014), and the character and judgement required to become “more human” (James Hankins, 2017). For teachers of the humanities, maintaining the sort of engaged pedagogy necessary to deliver on these promises means frequent trial and error. This conference is designed to serve as a forum to discuss both our challenges and successes in achieving our goals as humanities teachers in East Asian fields.
We invite proposals that reflect on your own stories of challenging and rewarding moments in your teaching, as well as common pedagogical strategies within your fields. How do we grapple with tensions between global and local perspectives? How do we account for particularities (philosophical concepts, literary forms, and social institutions) in East Asia while avoiding essentialisms, or introduce students to Western theory without perpetuating discursive hegemony? How should we navigate or challenge the boundaries imposed by the premodern/modern divide, or disciplines such as history, literature, philosophy, and religion? What pedagogical hurdles and advantages accompany teaching translated sources? Ultimately, how should we tailor our pedagogy to foster humanistic thinking?
CEACOP Seminar by Baldwin Wong
Title: The Division of Educational Labour Between Confucian Education and Political Liberalism
Speaker: Baldwin Wong
Date: 3 May 2019 (Friday)
Time: 16:00-17:30
Venue: Center for East Asian and Comparative Philosophy (Room 4433, Mong Man Wai Building)
Please see here for more detail.
Philosophy as a Way of Life website goes live
I am excited to announce that the Philosophy as a Way of Life website is now live at https://philife.nd.edu/. There is information there about the Mellon-funded PWOL project hosted at Notre Dame, and also a blog and library of resources, both of which are sure to grow over time. Check it out!
Call for Papers: Philosophy as a Way of Life
The journal Metaphilosophy invites papers from scholars to produce a special issue of the journal on Philosophy as a Way of Life with special guest editors James M. Ambury (jamesambury@kings.edu), Tushar Irani (tirani@wesleyan.edu), and Kathleen Wallace (kathleen.wallace@hofstra.edu).
Mellon Philosophy as a Way of Life Project
We are delighted to announce the Mellon Philosophy as a Way of Life Project, a new initiative to help scholars effectively teach philosophy as a way of life. If you teach philosophy at a post-secondary institution and are interested, please check out our website: philife.nd.edu and consider submitting a letter of intent. The deadline for applying for the first cohort is Jan 15, 2019.
