BJHP Welcomes Non-Western Philosophy

Michael Beaney, editor of the British Journal for the History of Philosophy, recently wrote me to call my attention to his most recent editorial at the journal. Its penultimate paragraph reads, in part:

At the BJHP we will continue to publish the very best articles on the ‘canonical’ figures, but we will also be redoubling our efforts to broaden that canon as much as we can. As we move forward, what we would like to promote, above all, is more work on non-Western philosophy, especially where it seeks to deepen dialogue between the various traditions through critical engagement and fruitful comparison. So here, in particular, we would like to underline that we welcome submissions that discuss non-Western philosophy even if our record to date might suggest otherwise.

This is of course very welcome. For more an earlier discussion of publishing in the history of Chinese philosophy, see here.

International Workshop: Warp, Woof, Wen / Phoneme, Pattern, Pun – Structural Approaches to Early Chinese Texts

Wolfgang Behr and Lisa Indraccolo from the University of Zurich would like to circulate the following notice:

The workshop titled “Warp, Woof, Wen / Phoneme, Pattern, Pun – Structural Approaches to Early Chinese Texts” is due to take place 12-14 April 2018 at the University of Zurich. It explores structural and phonological features of early Chinese texts, ranging from bronze inscriptions to manuscripts and received literature. More information, including the programme, is available at the following link to the conference webpage: http://www.aoi.uzh.ch/de/institut/events/conferences/warpwoofw.html

Due to limited seating, conference registration is required. Those interested in attending should send an email to Lisa Indraccolo (lisa.indraccolo@uzh.ch) by 1 April.

CAAAPP Panels at the Pacific APA

The APA’s Committee on Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies is sponsoring the following panels at the Pacific APA this coming week:

Wednesday Afternoon, 1:00–4:00 p.m.
APA Committee Session: Multicultural Philosophy and Transformative Experience
Chair: Adrian Currie (University of Cambridge)
Speakers: Nilanjan Das (New York University Shanghai)
“Transformative Speech”
Meena Krishnamurthy (University of Michigan)
“White Ignorance and How to Overcome It”
Julianne Chung (University of Louisville)
“Wuwei as Transformative Experience”
Commentator: L. A. Paul (University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill)

Saturday Morning, 9:00 a.m.–Noon
APA Committee Session: Book Symposium: Nalini Bhushan and Jay Garfield, Minds without Fear
Arranged by the APA Committee on Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies
Chair: Prasanta S. Bandyopadhyay (Montana State
University)
Speakers: Saranindranath Tagore (National University of
Singapore)
Vrinda Dalmiya (University of Hawaii at Manoa)
Ankur Barua (University of Cambridge)
Commentators: Nalini Bhushan (Smith College)
Jay L. Garfield (Smith College and Harvard
University)

We are also co-sponsoring the following:         Continue reading →

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.