Two Upcoming ISCP Panels

Ann Pang-White, Executive Director of the ISCP, writes:

  “Hope that you are enjoying the warmer early spring weather. ISCP is sponsoring two great panels at the American Philosophical Association-Pacific Division Meeting, April 5-10, 2021. On behalf of the executive committee, I would like to express our thanks to our APA-Pacific liaison, Dr. Joshua Mason (joshua.mason@lmu.edu), for his excellent work in organizing these two panels. The details of the panels, the registration page of the conference, and the link to the meeting program are as follows. The information will also be posted at ISCP website: https://iscp-online1.org/

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Ng on Li 理

NG Kai-chiu has published a new article in the Soochow Journal of Philosophical Studies 東吳哲學學報 (in Chinese) titled “Rethinking Zhu Xi’s Li: ‘Principle of Existence’ or ‘Pattern’?” that considers the interpretation of li 理 as “Pattern” offered my Justin Tiwald and me in Neo-Confucianism: A Philosophical Interpretation. The abstract follows, and the whole paper (and others from the same issue) can be accessed here.

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On-line Lecture: Tillemans, Methodology: Meditations of a philosophical Buddhologist

The Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia (IKGA) at the  Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, is hosting a series of lectures titled “Method and Region.”

The aim of this initiative is to reflect on the relationship between method and region. Here, methodcomprises the entire apparatus that enables us to conduct scholarly studies, including non-European theories and concepts. Region stands for what is contextually specific, such as language, history or thought. The full program is available here.

The first lecture in the series will be on Tuesday, 30 March, 18:00–19:30 CET:

Tom J.F. Tillemans (Emeritus – University of Lausanne) — Methodology: Meditations of a philosophical Buddhologist

Topic: There was a famous incident in the 1980s that sent shivers down spines, and probably still does. A prominent Princeton philosopher put a notice on his office door that philosophy students should just say “No” to the history of philosophy – Western and Eastern alike, I suppose. It may well be that the Princeton philosopher was a bit misinterpreted, but the echo of Nancy Reagan’s right-wing method to combat drug addiction – just say “No” – was unmistakable. I am going to turn the tables and look at some arguments by historians for nay-saying to philosophy, in particular those of historians of Asian thought and specialists in Buddhist Studies. Such arguments, too, don’t fare well. I will close with an instructive example from another field, linguistics, and will add a few morals to the story.

The lecture will be held online and is open to the public. To register, please write to office.ikga(at)oeaw.ac.at.

Upcoming lectures in the series Method and Region are:

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New Book: Harmony in Chinese Thought

Harmony in Chinese Thought: A Philosophical Introduction

edited by Chenyang Li, Sai Hang Kwok and Dascha Düring

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Published: 03/2021

“He (和), or harmony, has traditionally been a central concept in Chinese thought, and to this day continues to shape the way in which people in China and East Asia think about ethics and politics. Yet, there is no systematic and comprehensive introduction of harmony as has been variously articulated in different Chinese schools. This edited volume aims to fill this gap.”

To find more information on the book click here.

 

Bin Song Reviews Brown and McLeod at NDPR

Notre Dame Philosophical Review

2021.03.01 View this Review Online   View Other NDPR Reviews

Joshua R. Brown and Alexus McLeod, Transcendence and Non-Naturalism in Early Chinese Thought, Bloomsbury, 2021, 245pp., $115.00 (hbk), ISBN 9781350082533.

Reviewed by Bin Song, Washington College

To paraphrase Kant’s words on enlightenment, I propound that on the topic of transcendence and non-naturalism in Chinese and comparative philosophy, although we do not have a reckoned book yet, we finally have a book of reckoning. Joshua R. Brown and Alexus McLeod discern two major reasons why scholars assume there is no robust idea of transcendence, and hence, take naturalism as an inevitable lens for interpreting early Chinese thought: Firstly, some of these scholars would like to find in early Chinese thought something that is different from the West, mainly from Christianity. Secondly, some of them would like to find in early Chinese thought something that looks the same as the West, viz., the same as the scientific and analytic mindset prevalent in Western academia since early modern Europe.
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CFP: Journal of Chinese Humanities

Dear Colleagues:

You are invited to submit papers for inclusion in future issues of the Journal of Chinese Humanities (ISSN 2352-1333 / E-ISSN 2352-1341). We are Scopus indexed English Language publication focused on Chinese philosophy, history, and literature. You can find previous issues on Brill HERE.

Papers will receive special consideration if they pertain to one or more of the following themes; Moism (墨家) , Han Dynasty Fu (賦) Literature, Yuan Poetry (元曲), and comparative documentology/philology.

You will need to indicate your intention to submit by email with the title of the paper, authors/translators, and a brief abstract.

Please submit your papers to:

Patrick C. Turk
Marketing Editor
Email: Patrick@journalofchinesehumanities.com

JOCH web address: http://www.journalofchinesehumanities.com

ICSAT Lecture Series on Early Chinese Classics

The International Center for the Study of Ancient Text Cultures (ICSAT) at Renmin University of China is dedicated to the study of ancient textuality in a global context. Since its founding in 2017, ICSAT has held annual international conferences, workshops, and seminars on various topics. During the Spring semester of 2021, due to COVID-19, these activities will be replaced by a sequence of four lecture series―each of eight individual lectures―on the textual culture of early China. The four distinguished speakers will present their latest research together with introductions to Sinological scholarship.
(See more details below)

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