Several New Books

I have fallen behind on announcing new books that people tell me about, so here is a run-down of several recent ones, with links to publishers’ websites with more information:

Some important new work here to go with some classic older work!

2017-18 PGR / Chinese Philosophy Rankings

The 2017-18 Philosophical Gourmet Report (PGR) has been released here. It includes “specialty rankings” for various areas, including Chinese philosophy. This year, for the first time, I was invited to be among the evaluators, and after wrestling with this a bit, decided to give it a try. As explained at the top of this page, evaluators see lists of faculty and then choose one of the following categories:

  • 0 – Inadequate for a PhD program
  • 1 – Marginal
  • 2 – Adequate
  • 3 – Good
  • 4 – Strong
  • 5 – Distinguished

Evaluators can do this for the program overall, and then for the various specialties. I chose to only rank the Chinese philosophy specialty (I did not select overall rankings). The vast majority I assigned a score of 0. I believe that the highest score I gave was a 3. Programs that have one or even two specialists can be — other things being equal — good places to study. But in my judgment there are no English-language programs that merit “strong” or “distinguished” rankings. In my view, that would take multiple specialists, and others with cognate interests, in the context of an overall strong and supportive department. We may get there one day, but we’re not there yet.

I have mixed views about this whole rankings thing, which has been discussed before on the blog. What we have tried to do here at Warp, Weft, and Way is provide as much objective information about graduate study as possible. But since PGR exists and I was invited to take part, I decided to give it a try.

One other thing. As Bryan Van Norden (another evaluator, and also someone on the Advisory Board) explains here, PGR policy is that programs need to have a certain minimum overall score in order to be ranked. Programs with significant “specialty” strengths but without the minimum overall score end up being listed as “Additional programs not evaluated this year but recommended for consideration by the Advisory Board.” I agree with Bryan’s sentiment that the programs listed under this rubric are as strong as the ones officially ranked, and thus disapprove of this policy, which I find to be highly misleading.

World Literature and Philosophies Lecture in Brussels

The 2nd Vol. of the VUB-ULB World Literature and Philosophies Lecture Series is taking place on March 16th 2018 (this Friday). The organizers encourage anyone interested to join them at Bozar at the end of your work day and keep our discussions on literature and philosophy going in the streets of Brussels.

The speaker for this event is Dr. Gwennaël Gaffric (ULB-EASt) and he is one of the leading scholars and French translator in the field of contemporary Chinese literature. More information is here.

If you have any inquiries concerning the series, please do not hesitate to contact the organizing members, Takeshi at (Takeshi.Morisato@ulb.ac.be) or Pierre at (Pierre.Bonneels@ulb.ac.be).

Application Extension: BNU Int’l MA Program

The deadline has been extended to April 8th for applications to the Beijing Normal University (BNU) International MA Program in Chinese Philosophy. This is a 2-year master’s degree program conducted in English. The program will provide scholarships for most of the students which will cover their tuition fees and living expenses. For information, please see here.

Bin Song to Washington College

Bin Song asked me to share this news:

Bin Song has been appointed by Washington College as a tenure-track assistant professor of philosophy and religion, starting from July 1st, 2018. Bin Song has a PhD of philosophy (Nankai University, 2009) and a PhD of religious studies (Boston University, 2018). His research focuses on Ruism (Confucianism), comparative philosophy and religion. Bin Song felt a great respect from colleagues in the college during the interview process, and is allowed to teach some of his favorite areas in the fall of 2018, such as Intro to Ruism. He expresses his genuine gratitude to them, and also to friends and scholars who have supported his Ruist studies in the U.S.