Bin Song 宋斌 will be giving a lecture (in Chinese) this Friday:
題目: 儒耶對話中“超越性”爭論之癥結與方案
Title: The Transcendence Debate in the History of Christian-Ru (Confucian) Interaction
Time：October 30th, Friday, 7-9 am, Est (U.S), 7-9 pm (China).
Place: Tencent Meeting (Zoom for back-up), details in the poster.
Almost 15 years ago when I spent a year in Beijing, much of it spent writing Sagehood, there was relatively little engagement with the idea that Confucian ethics might be helpfully understood through the lens of “virtue ethics.” Quite a lot has changed since then in the Chinese-speaking philosophical world. (OK, that’s an understatement; I’m confining myself to the question of virtue ethics for today.) Consider these 2020 articles:
Each of these essays, in turn, reacts to a fairly recent book-length publication, also in Chinese, exploring the subject in depth. (Details on the contents of Chen Lai’s book are here; Huang Yong’s are here.)
You might reasonably expect given what I’ve written so far that I’d now go on to explain and engage with the details of Prof. Tang and Prof. Yang’s take on virtue ethics and Confucianism. Alas, it’s all I can do right now to find time to share this much! Perhaps after classes are over….
THE COLUMBIA SOCIETY FOR COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY
Presents: Zhuangzi’s Robber Zhi: A Discussion
Presenter: Stephen Walker (University of Chicago)
Discussants: Timothy Connolly (East Stroudsburg University), Tao Jiang (Rutgers University), Qianyi Qin (CUNY Graduate Center), Hagop Sarkissian (CUNY Graduate Center & Baruch College)
ABSTRACT: This session will focus on the celebrated ‘Robber Zhi’ (盜跖) dialogue from the Miscellaneous Chapters (雜篇) of the Zhuangzi. In the dialogue, Kongzi (or Confucius) tries to persuade Robber Zhi to abandon his marauding ways and lead a more conventional life. While the character of Robber Zhi is obviously brutal, and a person few of us would want to emulate (or interact with in any way), he’s also strikingly insightful about human needs and frailties, and attentive to the more covert kinds of brutality we endure simply by living in organized societies. Not only does he raise the possibility that attempts to morally reform individuals might produce more harm than good, but he also embodies, in his own person, the pointlessness of making appeals to powerful persons who don’t value morality at all. The presenter will spend about 15 minutes summarizing the dialogue, and the discussants will spend about five minutes each raising points for discussion. The rest of the session will consist of Q&A. Those planning to attend are strongly encouraged to read the dialogue before the session begins. You can download a recent translation by Brook Ziporyn by clicking on this link.
DATE: November 6, 2020
TIME: 7:00-9:00 pm
This seminar will take place via Zoom (please scroll down for the full invitation). Continue reading →
The Center for East Asian and Comparative Philosophy (CEACOP) at the City Univeristy of Hong Kong will host an on-line conference on “The Problem of Pluralism in Confucian Political Theory” on October 23-24, with an outstanding line-up of young scholars. More information is available here.
David Chai’s new edited volume, Dao Companion to Xuanxue (Neo-Daoism), has been published by Springer! See here, and a brief description of the book follows:
Eli Kramer writes with the following announcement:
Books in this series will explore PWL in antiquity, the renaissance, the early modern period, and up to the present, PWL as a methodological approach to the history of philosophy, the implications of PWL for understanding education and its history, the cross-cultural possibilities it opens up, the relationships between PWL, virtue ethics and philosophy of culture, and the different literary genres of PWL, including the way these genres impact the style and content of ancient, medieval and early modern philosophical works.
Manuscripts should be at least 80,000 words in length (including footnotes and bibliography). Manuscripts may also include illustrations and other visual material. The editors will consider proposals for original monographs, edited collections, translations, and critical primary source editions.
A message from the ISCP 22nd Conference Organizing Committee:
Due to the Covid-19 condition, we have decided to extend/postpone the various deadlines for the 2021 biennial international conference to a later date so as to give us more time to observe Covid-19 situation and to give everyone more time to prepare for their abstracts and papers. The new deadlines are as follows:
Deadline for submission of abstracts and panel proposals: February 28, 2021
Communication of acceptance: By March 31, 2021
Registration: Will begin on March 31, 2021.
*Deadline for early registration with member discount rate: May 31, 2021. After May 31, the non-discounted standard rate will apply.
Deadline for submission of full papers: May 31, 2021
Reservation for designated hotels (with conference rate): April 1- June 1, 2021
We will update ISCP website and the Conference website with the new information soon.
Cong Ellen Zhang’s new book, Performing Filial Piety in Northern Song China:Family, State, and Native Place, has been published by the University of Hawai’i Press! A brief description of the book follows. Continue reading →
Bloomsbury has published Chinese Philosophy of History: From Ancient Confucianism to the End of the Eighteenth Century, by Dawid Rogacz; see here for more details. Congratulations, Dawid!
