HKU’s Department of Philosophy has an opening for an assistant professor of philosophy. The area of specialization for the post is not Chinese philosophy, but preference is likely to be given to candidates with competence in Chinese or Chinese-Western comparative philosophy in addition to another area. So people working in Chinese or comparative philosophy are strongly encouraged to apply.
The first paragraphs of the advertisement run as follows:
A glowing review by Yu Kam-por of Paul Goldin’s book Confucianism (Acumen, 2011) has just appeared. Among other things, Yu highlight’s Goldin’s discussion of “shu.” Goldin’s book concentrates on the classical period, concluding with a short though informative chapter on “Neo-Confucianism and Confucianism Today.”
Greetings! Many of you will have recently received the latest ISCWP Newsletter. For those who are not on the ISCWP membership list, you can find out about the the society’s activities and events by following the link above.
If any readers are not members of the ISCWP and would like to join, please send me a statement including the following contents: your name, academic affiliation (if applicable), research/interest areas, contact information, and your desire to become a member of the ISCWP.
I want to pass on a message from JeeLoo Liu about her work integrating Chinese philosophy into the valuable PhilPapers on-line resource. We owe JeeLoo many thanks! Please read on to see where things stand on this project, and to see how you can contribute to its continued development. Continue reading →
A group of scholars including P. J. Ivanhoe has been awarded a major grant from the Korean Studies Promotion Service of the
Academy of Korean Studies to conduct a major research project on Korean Philosophy from Comparative Perspectives. The period of the grant is five years. The aim is to bring the study of Korean philosophy more into the mainstream of world philosophy. There will be workshops, international conferences, post-doc opportunities and sponsoring of senior western philosophers in connection with the project. For more information, see this link. Congratulations to P.J.!
The 17th ISCP International Conference on Chinese Philosophy was successfully held in Paris, France, participated by about 200 Chinese philosophy scholars around the world. The conference was organized by Professor Yolaine Escande, of French National Scientific Research Centre (CNRS) and Graduate School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences(EHESS), July 3-8, 2011. The subject of the conference was “ Interculturality and Philosophic Discourse—Retrospect and Prospect,” and it was organized around the following seven themes: (1) Comparative philosophy: intertraductibility East-West; (2) Cultural philosophy; (3) Philosophy, art and ethics; (4) Value and art and aesthetic appreciation; (5) The new philosophical discourses coming from interculturality; (6) Openness, self-enclosure, and dialogue with others in Chinese philosophy; (7) Theories of knowledge, argumentation, and consensus in Chinese philosophy.
Since 1976, the International Society for Chinese Philosophy (ISCP) has been holding bi-annual international conference in different regions of the world. The conference usually draws large audience and has significantly promoted the interest and development of the study of Chinese Philosophy in the world.
The 18th International Conference on Chinese Philosophy will take place in summer 2013. My home institution, State University of New York at Buffalo, is honored to be chosen to host this great conference, and I am honored to serve as its organizer. I look forward to welcoming colleagues in Chinese philosophy around the world to the beautiful Buffalo-Niagara region (especially in the summer). The conference is at its initial stage of planning. With this chance I would like to solicit your suggestions and support. As a tradition, the subject of the conference is broadly conceived, focusing on the contemporary significance of Chinese philosophy and Eastern-Western dialogues. You are cordially invited to organize a panel or contribute a paper. Any idea regarding how the conference could be better organized will be deeply appreciated.
As this is my first blog, please forgive me if it is not consistent with the standard style of common blogs. What is posted below is potentially the first of two installments (i.e., if the second one will ever come through).
Gilbert Ryle has made the famous distinction between knowing-that and knowing-how. Knowing that is the knowledge that something is the case, and knowing how is the knowledge about how to do something. With this distinction in mind, it has been common among students of Chinese philosophy in general and Confucianism in particular to think that Confucians advocate knowing-how in contrast to knowing-that.
Given the fact that Confucians are primarily concerned with moral knowledge and they have undoubtedly put great emphasis on moral self-cultivation, it is clear that knowledge in Confucianism is not merely propositional and theoretical knowing-that. Indeed, if knowing-that and knowing-how have exhausted all possible types of knowledge, then I would certainly also agree that moral knowledge in Confucianism is knowing-how rather than knowing-that or at least is more knowing-how than knowing-that. However, what I would like to challenge is precisely the assumption that knowing-how and knowing-that have exhausted all types of knowledge, and consequently I would also like to challenge the characterization of Confucian moral knowledge as knowing-how. In contrast, I would like to claim that it is other (or more) than knowing-how and knowing-that. I shall use Wang Yangming as an example. Continue reading →
In a famous passage, Xúnzǐ argues that natural disasters lead to catastrophe only because of human failings: with the proper preparation, floods and droughts still occur, but do not devastate. I’m probably not the only friend of this blog who found special poignancy in this argument while lecturing on it in the aftermath of Katrina.
The news today has been good. Irene seems to have weakened unexpectedly. (I hope this hasn’t changed since last I saw good information.) Here in Philadelphia, it looks like we’ll get a category one hurricane, the equivalent (in Hong Kong terms) of a typhoon signal ten. I think there was just one of those in the ten years I lived in Hong Kong; we didn’t even lose internet. I’m preparing mostly by baking lots of bread and making lots of hummus. I’m still a bit nervous, because I don’t know what I can expect from local construction, and the American infrastructure is (understandably, to an extent) less robust than Hong Kong’s. And there are lots of people more vulnerable than I am, and lots of people who have been and are going to be hit harder. I’m glad that friends have evacuated the Jersey shore, and am proud of friends who are part of the preparations and will be part of the response.
In any case, it’s got me thinking about Xúnzǐ, and also about the Mohists, who would have interpreted a storm like Irene as a punishment from heaven. Continue reading →
A Job in CLASSICAL CHINESE STUDIES at Rutgers University, to begin in the Fall of 2012: Continue reading →
The Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy has announced its two panels for the Eastern APA, as follows:
