Episode 38 of “This Is the Way”: Xunzi on Human Nature and Human Artifice

Xunzi is famous for the claim that “human nature is bad.” But what does he mean by this, and if goodness does not come naturally to us, where does it come from?

In this episode, we discuss Xunzi’s distinction between nature (xing 性) and deliberate effort (wei 偽), his disagreement with Mencius, and his view that moral goodness must be “learned” and “worked at.” We also ask how sharp the distinction between the natural and the artificial really is, and consider Xunzi’s comparison of moral cultivation to crafts like pottery and woodworking. If we are shaped through deliberate effort, are we both the material being shaped and the ones doing the shaping? Continue reading →

Brian Bruya in Conversation with George Thompson

George Thompson is a popularizer of philosophical Daoism. In this conversation, we discuss the concept of ziran, the science of wisdom, and the intersection of philosophy and religion.

 

Wong reviews Kim, The Art of Seeing Beyond Oneself

Doil Kim, The Art of Seeing Beyond Oneself: A Confucian Perspective on Humility, Oxford University Press, 2025, 184pp., $99.00 (hbk) ISBN 9780197834213.

Reviewed by David B. Wong, Duke University

Doil Kim identifies Confucian humility as a form of “self-lowering”. Other forms under this capacious heading have been criticized as prescribing self-effacement or self-sacrifice. Failure to distinguish Confucian humility from such other forms has resulted in confusion and unclarity as to what humility is, and most importantly, has obscured how Confucian humility can play a constructive role in shaping personhood in the sense of a “good and ethically formed human being” (1). Kim’s aim is to make the case for Confucian humility, based on a textual analysis of early Confucian and medieval Neo-Confucian texts, followed by a discussion of how…

Continue reading on ndpr.nd.edu

Concerns about the Journal of Daoist Studies

It has been brought to my attention that the Journal of Daoist Studies seems to have been hijacked. The journal published legitimate Daoism research up to and including the beginning of this year, but since then it has published hundreds of articles unrelated to Daoism. The journal homepage still claims that it is published out of University of Hawaii Press and links to the volumes that contain legitimate articles. But visiting the archive reveals the irrelevant articles:

https://journalofdaoiststudies.org/index.php/journal/issue/archive

If anyone has insight into this situation, please share!

CFP: ACPA Panels at 2027 Pacific APA

The ACPA (Association of Chinese Philosophers in America) is calling for abstract submissions for the Pacific APA in Portland, Oregon, which will take place March 24–27, 2027. We will select among submissions to create panels for the group sessions. The submission deadline is October 1, 2026. You may find more information and submit an abstract here (link requires Google sign-in):https://forms.gle/6FttqWqWQefJ2uDh6

Symposium on Beaney, The Joy of Chinese Philosophy

A symposium on Michael Beaney’s book The Joy of Chinese Philosophy (see here) has been published in the British Journal for the History of Philosophy: