Author Archives: Steve Angle

Invitation to attend: “Discursive and Non-Discursive Reasoning in Chinese Philosophy,” University of Zurich, 11–13 July 2025

This international workshop explores how processes of thinking and reasoning are understood in Chinese philosophy, including modes that are not easily captured by formal or discursive logic. Topics include vision, cognition, and intuition in Chinese philosophical traditions, Buddhist approaches to reasoning and the limits of thought, mathematical reasoning and patterns of knowledge, as well as the aesthetic and affective dimensions of understanding.
Speakers include Stephen Angle, Andrea Bréard, Hans-Rudolf Kantor, Michael Lackner, Chen-kuo Lin, Kai Marchal, and many others.
Open to all, with online participation possible.
Please note: all times in the program are given in Central European Time (CET/CEST).
➡️ Program & registration: https://www.aoi.uzh.ch/en/institut/events/conferences/reasoning.html

Winner of 2024 Dao Annual Best Essay Award

Dao has established “The Annual Best Essay Award” since 2007. In addition to a certificate of achievement, the award comes along with a prize of US$1,000. The award winners will be noted in the website of the journal as well as the website of Springer, the publisher of the journal. The award ceremony is held each year at the American Philosophical Association Annual Meeting (Eastern Division) in early January, where a special panel on the theme of the award-winning essay is held. The critical comments and the author’s responses to them presented at the panel, after review and revision, will be published in the last issue of Dao each year.

The selection process consists of two stages. First, a nominating committee of three editorial board members, who have not published in Dao in the given year, is established. This committee is charged with the task of nominating three best essays from all those published in the previous year. These three essays are then sent to the whole editorial board for deliberation. The final winner is decided by a vote by all editorial board members who are not authors of the nominated essays.

The editorial board has just finished its deliberation on the best essay published in 2024, and the result is:

2024 Dao Annual Best Essay Award
Kevin M DeLapp, “Confucian Ritual and Aristotelian Habit,” Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 23 (2024): 173-189 (Free Access to the Paper)

Kevin M DeLapp’s “Confucian Rituals and Aristotelian Habits” goes far beyond the simple comparison between these two ideas. Fully aware of their significant differences, DeLapp reveals what he calls their structural analog: they play a similar role in underwriting their more general ethical frameworks. He debunks the stereotypes of Aristotle as individualistic and rationalistic and of Confucius as parochial and non-rationalistic, and also shows the ways in which virtue ethics and role ethics can be complementary. The paper is textually sensitive and philosophically innovative. It is the type of comparative philosophy Dao aims to promote.

Carleo, Progressive Confucianism: Its Proponents and Prospects

Robert A. Carleo’s thorough and carefully annotated summary of a roundtable on “Progressive Confucianism” has now been published by The Philosophical Forum as “Progressive Confucianism: Its Proponents and Prospects.” See here for full-text read-only access, and below for the abstract. This is as good a compact summary of the idea of progressive Confucianism as any I have seen!

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CFP: ISEAP Conference on Progressive East Asian Philosophy

We are pleased to inform you that the International Society of East Asian Philosophy (ISEAP) will have its fifth international conference, titled Progressive East Asian Philosophy, on August 28-29, 2025 at the National Chengchi University, Taiwan. The conference poster is here.

Keynote Speakers
Professor Heisook Kim (Ewha Womans University)
Professor Stephen C. Angle (Wesleyan University)

What does it mean to pursue progress from within East Asian philosophical traditions? And how might they offer insight into ongoing global conversations around social reform, ethical responsibility, political transformation, and justice? This year’s gathering focuses on how these traditions both classical and contemporary can contribute to our understanding of progress in practical philosophy.

Abstracts for individual papers and organized panels should be submitted by June 1, 2025 (Japan Time). Please check our website for more details: ISEAP 2025 Conference

You can also connect with us on our website and social media.
Website: https://iseap.jp/
Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/iseapjp
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InternationalSocietyofEastAsianPhilosophy/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@iseap

Sincerely yours,
Fion Wu
On behalf of ISEAP