Harvard Lecture: Ethics and Professions in Asia

Ethics and the Professions – Good Practitioners in a Rising Asia

Friday, October 16, 2015, 12:15pm

S153, 1st Floor, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA

Kenneth Winston, Visiting Scholar, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School

Many Asian countries are in transition, as they struggle to meet the demands of a global world.  This struggle is not only economic and political; it is moral.  Simply put, it is a struggle to preserve what one believes to be of value in one’s own culture or tradition while responding to new circumstances and participating in new relationships.  Thus, it often involves a hybrid of traditional beliefs and transplanted values, which makes Asian countries fascinating sites for the study of political and ethical development.  In particular, emerging democratic aspirations and increasing commitment to standards of professionalism are constituent elements of the new moral environment in Asia.  As a result, the ethical challenges faced by practitioners have a special urgency and demand close attention.  This talk presents a general framework for thinking about these challenges, focusing on the kinds of moral competence professionals require in working for the good of others.

Jiwei Ci’s Upcoming Visit to Harvard

Philosopher Jiwei Ci from the University of Hong Kong will be spending a couple weeks at Harvard in November and giving a series of lectures. The details here here: Fairbank Democracy and China poster. There will also be a one-day conference on Friday, November 13 titled “Democracy and China: Philosophical-Poltical Reflections” with a number of speakers, and Prof. Ci’s commentary. (I’ll post details of that once it has been finalized.)

October’s Columbia Neo-Confucianism Seminar

The next session of the Columbia University Seminar on Neo-Confucian Studies (Seminar #567) will convene Friday, October 2, from 3:30 to 5:30pm in the Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University.

John A. Tucker of East Carolina University will present the paper “Yamazaki Ansai’s Discussion of Ren: Heartfelt Ethics and Historical Exemplars.” All are welcome to attend. Please join us after the seminar for dinner at a location to be announced.  If you have any questions, contact one of our organizers: Ari Borrell (aborrell@msn.com), Tao Jiang (tjiang@rci.rutgers.edu), or Deborah Sommer (dsommer@gettysburg.edu).

NECCT 4 Program and Registration

The Program for the 4th Northeast Conference on Chinese Thought is now available; see below. Attendance is free and open via preregistration. Presenters and panel chairs are already pre-registered for this conference. However, anyone else who would like to attend the conference, the dinner Saturday night, and receive meal tickets for lunch on Saturday and Sunday should email BOTH Tom Radice (RadiceT1@SouthernCT.edu) and Xiaomei Yang (Yangx1@SouthernCT.edu) no later than Friday, October 16, 2015.

2015 Northeast Conference on Chinese Thought
Southern Connecticut State University
Adanti Student Center (ASC) Ballroom (3rd floor)
November 7-8, 2015

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Siderits Reviews The Moon Points Back

Another work of comparative philosophy engaging with various streams of Buddhism:

Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

2015.09.22 View this Review Online   View Other NDPR Reviews

Koji Tanaka, Yasuo Deguchi, Jay L. Garfield and Graham Priest (eds.), The Moon Points Back, Oxford University Press, 2015, 285pp., $35.00 (pbk), ISBN 9780190226879.

Reviewed by Mark Siderits (retired), Seoul National University

This is a collection of essays in what some call ‘analytic Asian philosophy’, an enterprise that uses tools and techniques of the analytic tradition in investigating one or another school of classical Asian philosophy. Here the focus is on the Buddhist tradition. All but two of the essays concern the doctrine of emptiness that first appeared in the Indian Buddhist Madhyamaka school but underwent significant development in various schools of Tibetan and East Asian Buddhism (that of the modern Kyoto School being the most recent East Asian manifestation).

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Comments Policy – slightly revised

To all our valued readers and participants,

Stephen Angle and I would like to thank you, first of all, for your interest and contributions in making this site a successful clearinghouse for discussions as well as announcements about Chinese and Comparative philosophy. We would like to revisit and point out a slight revision to our comments policy, which is now:

As a policy and a courtesy to other participants, comment or discussion authors must identify themselves with their first and last names. Exceptions will be made by request only to one of the administrators. If the blog administrators are unable to contact and verify identity, entries will be removed.

Exceptions will be allowed, but as exceptions of course and not as a general rule for any particular participant. We think it is reasonable, for some types of discussion, that a participant who has something to risk in revealing his or her identity be allowed to comment anonymously. We only ask two things when this is the case: first, that such individuals contact us by email with a request and, second, that such individuals identify themselves with some form of description that wears the anonymity on its sleeve — e.g. “Anonymous Jobseeker” or something like that.

The policy is necessary in order to provide accountability in the normal instance for what our contributors write to or about each other. We hope that you understand and share the value of such accountability in what is, ideally, an open forum for exchange of ideas. Thank you.

Review of another book with big Comp-Phil aspect

Graham Priest’s One draws substantially on Buddhist philosophy (Indian and Chinese), among other things. Read on for Jason Turner’s review…

Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

2015.09.15 View this Review Online   View Other NDPR Reviews

Graham Priest, One: Being an Investigation into the Unity of Reality and of its Parts, including the Singular Object which is Nothingness, Oxford University Press, 2014, 252pp., $65.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780199688258.

Reviewed by Jason Turner, Saint Louis University

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Tenure-track Assistant Professor in Early Chinese History (Indiana University)

Tenure-track Assistant Professor in Early Chinese History

The Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Indiana University invites applications for a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor in early Chinese history, covering any period from the Zhou (c. 1000 B.C.E) through the Tang dynasty (c. 900 C.E.), to begin Fall 2016. All sub-fields of historical studies are encouraged to apply.

Candidates must have a doctoral degree or clear indication that the degree will be in hand at the time of appointment. Teaching load is two courses per semester. The position supports undergraduate and graduate training in Chinese studies within EALC and across allied departments. Review of applications will begin on November 1 and continue until the position is filled. Applicants should send a letter of application, CV, three letters of recommendation, a writing sample, and official transcripts of graduate studies. Interested candidates should review the application requirements and submit their application at: https://indiana.peopleadmin.com. Questions regarding the position or application process can be directed to ealc@indiana.edu or to Manling Luo, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Global and International Studies Building 2058, 355 N. Jordan Ave., Bloomington, IN 47405-1105.

Indiana University is an equal employment and affirmative action employer and a provider of ADA services. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ethnicity, color, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or identity, national origin, disability status or protected veteran status.