In this episode, we take up one of the most puzzling and fascinating passages in the Zhuangzi: the “happy fish debate” between Zhuangzi and Huizi. Can Zhuangzi really know that the fish are happy if he is not a fish? Along the way, we explore skepticism, language, animal minds, and the ordinary but surprisingly sophisticated ways we recognize joy in other living things. Continue reading →
Category Archives: Zhuangzi
Two More Upcoming Collaborative Learning Events
Dear Colleagues,
The 四海为学 Collaborative Learning Project will host two events next week:
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On June 17th at 8:00am Beijing time we will host a roundtable on “The Zhuangzi and Post-Truth.“
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On June 18th at 8:00am Beijing time we will host a roundtable on “Paradox in the Zhuangzi.“
Please feel free to advertise these events or share them with anyone. All our events are free and open to everyone. Note that no pre-registration or passcode is required for any 四海为学 events.
Two Upcoming Collaborative Learning Events
Dear Colleagues,
The 四海为学 Collaborative Learning Project will host two events next week:
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On June 9th at 9:00am Beijing time Ellie Wang will give a lecture on “Rhythm, Alignment, and Collective Clarity:
from Affective Salience to Public Order in Xunzi.” -
On June 12th at 20:00 Beijing time we will host a roundtable on “The Radical Zhuangzi.”
Please feel free to advertise these events or share them with anyone. All our events are free and open to everyone. Note that no pre-registration or passcode is required for any 四海为学 events.
Upcoming Collaborative Learning event
Dear Colleagues,
On May 27th at 8:00am Beijing time, the 四海为学 Collaborative Learning Project will host a roundtable on “Politics and Government in the Zhuangzi.” For more information, and the Zoom link, click here.
Please feel free to advertise this event anywhere, or share it with anyone. All our events are free and open to everyone. Note that no pre-registration or passcode is required for any 四海为学 events.
Two Upcoming Collaborative Learning Events
Dear Colleagues,
Next week the 四海为学 Collaborative Learning Project will host two roundtables:
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May 11th at 9:00am Beijing time: “Nothingness (無) in the Zhuangzi.”
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May 11th at 19:00 Beijing time: “Transformation and/in the Zhuangzi.”
Please feel free to advertise these events or share them with anyone. All our events are free and open to everyone. Note that no pre-registration or passcode is required for any 四海为学 events.
For a list of upcoming events see our calendar here.
Sincerely,
Paul J. D’Ambrosio
Upcoming Collaborative Learning Event
Dear Colleagues,
On May 6, at 9 a.m. (Beijing time), the 四海为学 Collaborative Learning Project will host a roundtable on: “(Me)Ontology and Metaphysics in the Zhuangzi.” Details, including the Zoom link, can be found here.
Please feel free to advertise this or share it with anyone. All our events are free and open to everyone. Note that no pre-registration or passcode is required for any 四海为学 events.
For a list of upcoming events see our calendar here.
Sincerely,
Paul J. D’Ambrosio
Upcoming Collaborative Learning Events
Next week the 四海为学 Collaborative Learning Project will host three separate events:
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April 6th at 9:00am Beijing time: Roundtable on “Zhuangzi: Fate, Desires, Transformation.”For details and the Zoom link please see our event page: https://www.sihaiweixue.org/zhuangzi-fate-desires-transformation
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April 6th at 19:00 Beijing time: Livia Kohn will speak on “Time in Daoist Culture.”For details and the Zoom link please see our event page: https://www.sihaiweixue.org/livia-kohn-lecture
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April 10th at 20:00 Beijing time: Mara Yue Du will speak on “Rethinking Late Qing and Republican Constitutionalism through Global History: Tradition and Modernity.”For details and the Zoom link please see our event page: https://www.sihaiweixue.org/mara-yue-du-lecture
Episode 32 of “This Is the Way”: Music Has in It neither Grief nor Joy
When you hear sad music and feel some sadness in response, is that because the music has successfully carried the sadness of the musician to you as the listener? Or is it better to say that the sadness is in you, released by the music but not “carried” by it? In this show (our second with a live audience), we discuss the music theory of the third-century philosopher Ji Kang 嵆康 (223–262 CE), who argued against the “carrier” view of music and for a more complicated and pluralistic account of the emotional contents of music. We also discuss Ji Kang’s interpretation of a famously evocative and mysterious passage in the Zhuangzi, regarding the “piping of Heaven.” To guide us in discussing these issues, we lean heavily on our guest, Meilin Chinn of Santa Clara University, a leading expert on the philosophy of music in China. Continue reading →
Collaborative Learning Roundtables on the Zhuangzi
Dear Colleagues,
In collaboration with Professors Lai Xisan, Lin Mingzhao, and Mark McConaghy the 四海為學 project will host a series of roundtables on the Zhuangzi this coming April and May. With Brook Ziporyn’s Wild Card, Lai Xisan’s Gongsheng 共生, and Hans-Georg Moeller and Paul J. D’Ambrosio’s Genuine Pretending as a general background, this series of roundtables will explore humor, irony, paradox, incongruity, absurdity, and related topics in the Zhuangzi.
We are inviting interested scholars to submit short abstractions (100-250 words) for consideration by April 1st.
Collaborative Learning 四海为学 event this week
Dear Colleagues,
On October 22nd at 21:00 Beijing time the 四海为学 Collaborative Learning Project will host a book discussion of Professor Wang Youru’s The Ethical Dimension of Forgetfulness: Engaging the Daoist Zhuangzi in Studies of Cultivated Forgetting
For details and the Zoom link please see our event page: https://www.sihaiweixue.org/wang-youru-book-discussion
(Note that no pre-registration or passcode is required.)
For a list of upcoming events see our calendar here. Please feel free to advertise this or share it with anyone. All our events are free and open to everyone.
Sincerely,
Paul J. D’Ambrosio
