Midwest Conference in Chinese Thought Call for Papers announced

CALL FOR PAPERS

 

11th Annual Midwest Conference on Chinese Thought

North Central College, Naperville, IL

May 1-2, 2015

 

The Midwest Conference on Chinese Thought was created to foster dialogue and interaction between scholars and students working on Chinese thought across different disciplines and through a variety of approaches. Submissions are invited for papers on any aspect of Chinese thought, as well as papers dealing with comparative issues that engage Chinese perspectives.

This year’s conference will be held on Friday, May 1 and Saturday, May 2 at North Central College in Naperville, IL (30 miles west of Chicago). Our keynote speaker will be Donald Harper, Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago. Dr. Harper will discuss the three groups of ancient Laozi manuscripts—the bamboo-slip manuscripts from Guodian, the silk manuscripts from Mawangdui, and the looted bamboo-slip manuscripts acquired by Peking University—from the perspective of current manuscript culture studies and the New Philology in European and Anglo-American textual studies. All three groups of manuscripts predate the first century BCE imperial editorial project which was a defining moment in the formation of the ancient intellectual texts that survive today in printed editions. Ranging in date between 300 and 100 BCE, the three groups of Laozi manuscripts permit us to consider the earlier formation and circulation of the Laozi based on actual manuscripts, and can be the basis for a reassessment of the “original” Laozi.

Please submit a 1-page abstract to Brian Hoffert at bhoffert@noctrl.edu by January 31, 2015 for blind review. For more information about the conference, go to www.indiana.edu/~mcct/home.php or contact Brian Hoffert at bhoffert@noctrl.edu.

Academic Book Costs

Given the energetic interest (e.g. here, recently) in academic book prices that are clearly pitched to institutional library collections and not for the average disposable income of individuals, I thought perhaps we could discuss this in a separate post and if we’re lucky, some of the blog readers who are in the publishing end could weigh in. At the very least, it might provide a forum in which to find out what goes into the decision to print a hardcover, library volume exclusively — I suppose something more illuminating than “there isn’t a market big enough for a softcover printing” would be nice. Comments from all sides are welcome.

Please keep comments civil — I know there is frustration out there but it may be constructive not to rage against the machine in this context.

New Blog on Being an Asian in Philosophy

Readers may be interested in this new blog:

This blog contains narratives of personal experiences, submitted by readers, of life in philosophy as a person of color. Some of these stories will undoubtedly be accounts of racial bias, whether explicit, unconscious, or institutional. However, other posts will be accounts of progress being undertaken or achieved.

This is a project of several philosophers of all colors, moderated by a group of philosophy faculty from a variety of institutions. It is partly inspired by the thoughtful conversations that grew up around the blog What is it Like to be a Woman in Philosophy.

We invite everyone to contribute. Many posts will be written by people of color in philosophy. But we hope that not all will be.

We plan to post a new story every day or as they are submitted. Please click on the ‘Send a Story’ link to submit a story anonymously.

New Frontiers of Philosophy in China published

Frontiers of Philosophy in China 9:3 has been published, and is available on-line. Among other things, there are reviews of:

  • Brook Ziporyn, Ironies of Oneness and Difference: Coherence in Early Chinese Thought; Prolegomena to the Study of Li 理. (By Steve Coutinho)
  • Stephen C. Angle, Contemporary Confucian Political Philosophy: Toward Progressive Confucianism. (By WANG Kun)
  • Erica Fox Brindley, Music, Cosmology, and the Politics of Harmony in Early China. (By Heinrich Geiger)

In case some readers do not have access to this journal, I will add here some snippets from these three reviews.

Continue reading →

Reading the Old in the Light of the Newly Discovered: Chinese Philosophy and Ancient Chinese Texts

Macquarie University, Sydney, will be the first in Australia to host an international conference on ancient Chinese thought and the newly recovered ancient bamboo and silk texts, from 8th to 10th December 2014.

Organized by Chinese Studies of the Department of International Studies (Languages and Cultures), Faculty of Arts, the symposium will focus on the latest research of international importance: traditional Chinese thought in the newly recovered ancient texts.

Dates and Venues:

Day 1 – Monday 8th December
Opening Ceremony – 9:30 for 10:00am – 11:00am, Macquarie University Art Gallery, Building E11A
RSVP: dsklee@bigpond.net.au. Limited seats are available.
Conference begins 11:30am – 5:15pm, C5C T1 Theatre (Open to all, free admission)

Day 2 – Tuesday 9th December
9:00am- 5:15pm, Tuesday, W5C 220.

Day 3 – Wednesday 10th December
9:00am- 5:15pm, Wednesday, W5C220

Contact
For details, please contact Dr Shirley Chan, shirley.chan@mq.edu.au, +612 98507021

Programme 1-12a Extract

In the past four decades, the discovery of previously unknown texts dating to the fourth century BCE and to the Han Dynasty, as well as older versions of known texts, has revolutionized the study of early Chinese philosophy and history. The texts are of great significance in understanding the development of the major strands in Chinese thought particularly what we now speak of as “Daoism” and “Confucianism” — that have had enduring significance in many Asian cultures, and in allowing us a fresh opportunity to ask crucial questions about ancient Chinese culture and history. Experts and key researchers in the fields of early Chinese writing and classical Chinese thought are being invited to contribute to the discussion of the topics in terms of modes of manuscript production, Chinese intellectual history, and new interpretations of Chinese thought as revealed in these newly recovered texts. The conference has received overwhelming response from international and local scholars. We expect the bilingual discussion to provide a rare platform for exchange among Chinese and Western scholars, significantly advancing the frontiers of knowledge of early China and traditional Chinese culture. Admission to the conference is free.

There are more than 30 speakers from universities in Australia, China, America, Singapore and Hong Kong including the following:

* Australian National University
* Beijing Normal University
* Bohai University
* Capital Normal University
* Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
* DePaul University
* East China Normal University
* Fudan University
* University of Hawaii
* University of Hong Kong
* Hubei University of Economics
* Ji’ning University
* Lehigh University
* Macquarie University
* University of Melbourne
* Nanjing University
* National University of Singapore
* Peking University
* University of Sydney
* University of Technology Sydney
* Tsinghua University
* Wuhan University

More information is available at: http://arts.mq.edu.au/news_and_events/events/faculty_conferences/reading_the_old_in_the_light_of_the_newly_discovered_chinese_philosophy_and_ancient_chinese_texts

 

CFP: Education and the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement

This is a call for submissions to a special issue of the journal Educational Philosophy and Theory, which will be edited by Liz Jackson and Timothy O’Leary of the University of Hong Kong.

The Umbrella Movement, a student-led series of protests, occupations and collaborations across different social groups, has permanently altered the social and political landscape of Hong Kong. In marked contrast to the depoliticized, capitalist orientation that predominated in the public sphere in the past, the Umbrella Movement is marked by youth performance of alternative values of collaboration, accountability, and communitarian care. Participants in the Umbrella Movement, both students and educators, are finding new ways to nurture experiential learning in student-authored contexts, in contrast with the teacher- and test-centered education historically customary in Hong Kong. Resistance to the conservative political values of Hong Kong, that preclude local youth democratic participation in revising and reshaping the society, lies at the heart of this movement.

This Special Issue of Educational Philosophy and Theory examines the Umbrella Movement as not only a political movement, but also an alternative form of education that is framed by student resistance and the desire by young people to reclaim their cultural, social, and political world.

Continue reading →

Early China 37 (2014) Available

From Sarah Allan (editor): Early China 37 (2014) is now available. You need this journal and the Society for the Study of Early China needs your support.  We have kept the price down, only $60 for a regular membership and $40 for a student or retired person, and you get online access as well as the print version. Please subscribe NOW at: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/memServHome?name=SSECHome. Table of Contents follows….

Continue reading →

Huang’s Why Be Moral? is Published

I am excited to note the publication of Yong HUANG’s Why Be Moral? Learning from the Neo-Confucian Cheng Brothers, the fruit of many years of research. The SUNY Press site is here, and Amazon is here. Here is the editorial description:

Yong Huang presents a new way of doing comparative philosophy as he demonstrates the resources for contemporary ethics offered by the Cheng brothers, Cheng Hao (1032–1085) and Cheng Yi (1033–1107), canonical neo-Confucian philosophers. Huang departs from the standard method of Chinese/Western comparison, which tends to interest those already interested in Chinese philosophy. While Western-oriented scholars may be excited to learn about Chinese philosophers who have said things similar to what they or their favored philosophers have to say, they hardly find anything philosophically new from such comparative work. Instead of comparing and contrasting philosophers, each chapter of this book discusses a significant topic in Western moral philosophy, examines the representative views on this topic in the Western tradition, identifies their respective difficulties, and discusses how the Cheng brothers have better things to say on the subject. Topics discussed include why one should be moral, how weakness of will is not possible, whether virtue ethics is self-centered, in what sense the political is also personal, how a moral theory can be of an antitheoretical nature, and whether moral metaphysics is still possible in this postmodern and postmetaphysical age.

Versions of some of the chapters have been published or presented at conferences over the years, so Huang’s general approach is well-known. Now that we have a full, book-length presentation, there is sure to be renewed attention paid to Huang’s important arguments as they concern ethics, the goals and methodology of comparative philosophy, and the interpretation of the Cheng brothers. Discussion welcome!