Jiang Qing and Daniel Bell’s op-ed in the New York Times attracted a great deal of interest. Bell published another op-ed in the Christian Science Monitor a couple of days ago on the broader subject of meritocracy. This can illustrate how he differs from Jiang. I’m assuming he didn’t choose the headline (“What America’s flawed democracy could learn from China’s one-party rule”). The comments are also quite interesting.
Chinese Philosophy Arcs
[Guest contributor, Eric Schwitzgebel, takes a quantitative look at Anglophonic discussions of Chinese philosophy and offers a conjecture. Please address all comments directly to him.]
Different classical Chinese philosophers have drawn different amounts of discussion in the Anglophone world over the past seventy years. I want to look at this phenomenon quantitatively and then suggest a general conjecture about the history of philosophy.
The six target philosophers include two who are well-known in the Western world outside scholarly circles, Confucius and Laozi (aka Lao Tzu), and four who are much less well known, Mencius, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, and Mozi (aka Mengzi, Chuang Tzu, Hsün Tzu, and Mo Tzu). Below is a graph of their “discussion arcs” — that is, the rates, times 1000, at which their names appear in keyword (including abstract and title) searches in Philosopher’s Index, divided by a representative universe of articles. Click the image for a clearer view.
New book on contemporary Chinese political thought
Contemporary Chinese Political Thought: Debates and Perspectives, edited by Fred Dallmayr and Zhao Tingyang, is a collection of essays, most of them by contemporary Chinese philosophers (some in China, some outside China) that has just been published. It looks fascinating. I plan to write a review of it sometime in the next few months, but first I need to read it! (Amazon will give you a look at the Table of Contents.)
CFP: 18th International ISCP Conference
Dear Colleagues:
Please find in the attachment the preliminary announcement of the 18th International Conference of the ISCP. For some reason, the construction of the conference web has been delayed, so I am sending you this in order to help you to plan your schedule next July. The theme of the conference is broadly conceived, and the Organizing Committee welcomes your participation. Buffalo’s July is comfortable and beautiful. The conference site which is adjacent to SUNY Buffalo north Campus is only about 20 minutes driving to Niagara Falls.
Look forward to seeing you in Buffalo,
Jiyuan Yu President, ISCP Professor of Philosophy, SUNY Buffalo Continue reading →Eirik Harris to HK City University
Eirik Harris, a specialist in early Chinese philosophy (especially Xunzi and Han Feizi) and comparative philosophy (especially the nexus of virtue and politics) has accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Public and Social Administration, City University of Hong Kong. Harris received his Ph. D. in 2009 from the University of Utah, and has been teaching at Underwood International College at Yonsei University. At City University, he will be joining a number of specialists in Chinese thought, including P.J. Ivanhoe, Ruiping Fan, and Sungmoon Kim. Congratulations, Eirik!
CFP: "Connectedness and Alienation: The 21st Century Enigma"
Call for papers: THEME: “Connectedness and Alienation: The 21st
Century Enigma”, Asian Conference on Ethics, Religion and Philosophy,
Osaka, Japan, 28-31 March 2013
Deadline: 2012-12-01
ACPA Call for Papers for 2013 Pacific APA
The Association of Chinese Philosophers in North America [ACPA]
Call for Papers and Abstracts
Submission deadline: September 3, 2012
ACPA Group Meetings at the APA Pacific Convention
March 27-30, 2013, at the Westin St Francis in San Francisco
Comparative Philosophy 3:2 Table of Contents
The latest issue of Comparative Philosophy is now available; click here for the Table of Contents.
We are not last…
Last week, Brian Leiter hosted a poll of readers of his blog, asking “What areas are most important for a strong PhD program in philosophy?” The results are discussed here, but one has to go to the full listing to see anything related to Chinese or comparative philosophy. “History of Non-Western Philosophy” came in 26th out of 27. I suppose that we can hope for different results one day in the future!
Review of Book on Early Medieval Chinese Philosophy
A very favorable and informative review of Chan and Lo, eds., Philosophy and Religion in Early Medieval China (SUNY, 2010) has appeared on H-Net; take a look!
