Over at Neo-Confucianism.com, which is the companion website for Justin Tiwald and my book Neo-Confucianism: A Philosophical Introduction, I have posted some reflections on how I taught the Yi Jing (Book of Changes) in the context of my recent course on Neo-Confucianism. We even performed a divination! Take a look, and comments/questions either there or here are most welcome.
Category Archives: Pedagogy
Confucianism and “Reacting to the Past”
I have recently learned of the “Reacting to the Past” pedagogy (see here), which seems fascinating, and in fact they have two modules directly related to Confucianism:
- Confucianism and the Succession Crisis of the Wanli Emperor
- Korea at the Crossroads of Civilizations: Confucianism, Westernization, and the 1894 Kabo Reforms
If anyone has experience with either of these, or with Reacting to the Past in general, please share your thoughts in the comments (or email me directly if you prefer). I gather that these “games” are mainly aimed at history classes, but I wonder how they would work in a philosophy class?
Deadline approaching for NEH summer applications
The March 1 deadline for application to NEH Summer Seminars and Institutes is starting to loom, and I wanted to remind everyone about two options in particular:
- A 3-week Seminar called “Bhagavad Gita: Ancient Poem, Modern Readers,” directed by Richard Davis; more info here.
- A 2-week Institute called “Reviving Philosophy as a Way of Life,” co-directed by Meghan Sullivan, Stephen Grimm, and myself; more info here.
In each case, all selected participants receive stipends to defray costs associated with attendance.
D’Ambrosio and Connolly on Teaching Chinese Philosophy
If you or a colleague are wondering about how to teach Chinese philosophy within the framework of a “traditional” Western philosophy class — or if you’re interested in debates about the aptness of this approach — this article should be very interesting: Paul D’Ambrosio and Timothy Connolly, “Using Familiar Themes to Introduce Chinese Philosophy in Traditional Courses (for the Non-Specialist),” Teaching Philosophy 40:3 (Sept 2017).
New Book: Song, trans., Ru Meditation: Gao Panlong (1562-1626 C.E)
Bin Song’s annotated translation of Gao Panlong (1562-1626 C.E)’s writings on Ruist (Confucian) meditative practice of quiet-sitting has been published. The book can be purchased at https://the-ru-store.com/products/ru-meditation-gao-panlong. Read on for the book’s description and reviews:
Confucian Education in a Global Context this Saturday at UMass Boston
A workshop on “Confucian Education in a Global Context” will be held at UMass Boston this Saturday, Nov. 4, from 2-5pm. More information is here.
NEH Summer Institute on Philosophy as a Way of Life
I am happy to announce that Stephen Grimm (Fordham), Meghan Sullivan (Notre Dame), and I have received a grant from the NEH to run a 2-week Summer Institute in July 2018 called “Reviving Philosophy as a Way of Life.” We will be drawing on Confucian and Buddhist traditions, among others. Some more details are here; I will announce here at Warp, Weft, and Way when applications open, later in the fall, in case anyone is interested.
Interestingly, if Justin at Daily Nous is correct, then the only two NEH Summer Seminars or Institutes awarded to philosophers both have significant non-Western components (the other one is “Self-Knowledge in Eastern and Western Philosophies Project” directed by Christian Coseru and colleagues).
Huang asking for help on Confucian Political Philosophy course
Yong HUANG asked me to post the following here; please post comments/replies here, addressed to him.
Inspired by a similar project that Steve Angle did a few years ago (on which see here, for the original plan, and here, for the outcome), I plan to offer a graduate level course on recent studies of Chinese philosophy in the English speaking world this fall. To have a better focus, I tentatively plan to limit it to Confucian political philosophy. At the end of the semester, each student will be required to write a substantive critical essay on the book he or she chooses to write. I’ll invite those students of high quality papers to do revision until I deem them publishable. Then I’ll invite authors of the books discussed to make responses to these papers. I’ll then seek a publisher to publish these papers, together with authors’ responses, tentatively with the title: Confucian Political Philosophy: The State of the Field.
After a quick search at Amazon, I’ve got the following list of books more or less explicitly devoted to Confucian political philosophy (I don’t include the edited volumes). Here I solicit your help to see whether I’ve missed some other books on Confucian political philosophy published in English since, say, the year of 2000. I’ll be also grateful, of course, if you guys have any other suggestions regarding what I plan to do in this course.
Announcing “The Deviant Philosopher” Website
A team based at the University of Oklahoma have just announced a splendid new website devoted to teaching “deviant philosophy.” It is made up of Primers, Units and Lessons, and Exercises and Activities, all designed to be incorporated into existing courses or to spur the creation of new ones. The editors are also very interested in new content, so please contribute! Their discussion of the meaning of “deviant philosophy” helps to make clear the scope of the project:
Chung on the Upsides of Non-Specialists Teaching Asian Philosophy
There is a piece by Julianne Chung in the new volume of the Newsletter for the APA Committee on Asian and Asian American Philosophers and Philosophies, on the beneficial aspects of non-specialists of Asian philosophy teaching courses on it. I think we’ve had discussions of this topic in various comment sections on our site, so I thought some of you might be interested. Further discussion is welcome, of course.
