Category Archives: Chinese philosophy – 中國哲學 – 中国哲学

CFP: 29th Meeting of the Southeast Early China Roundtable

The Southeast Early China Roundtable is now accepting submissions of paper abstracts for its 29th annual conference. This year’s meeting will held at the  Elling O. Eide Center in Sarasota, Florida, from October 31 to November 2, 2025. The keynote speaker will be Professor Cai Liang of the University of Notre Dame.

Papers on pre-Song China from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including anthropology, archaeology, art history, history, literature, philosophy, and religious studies are welcomed. Please send abstracts of individual papers (200 words) to Keith Knapp (knappk@citadel.edu) by September 1, 2025.

The sponsoring institution will provide free room and board to paper-presenters. Participants will be responsible for their travel expenses.

2025 Post-Conference Report (ISCP-Ljubljana International Conference)

The International Society for Chinese Philosophy (ISCP) recently held its 24th biennial ISCP international conference at the University of Ljubljana (June 20-23, 2025) on the theme “Addressing Global Crises and Reimagining Solutions Through Chinese Philosophy.” Please find the report of the conference here.

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

Episode 21 of “This Is the Way”: Xunzi’s Way—Discovered or Invented?

This episode is our first on the classical Confucian philosopher Xunzi 荀子 (3rd century BCE), who was famous for arguing that human nature is bad and for casting doubt on the more supernatural or superstitious justifications for traditional Confucian rituals, among many other things. Since this is the first episode on an important philosopher, we spend some time in part I discussing his “big picture” philosophical worldview. In part II, we turn to the following question: does Xunzi think of the Confucian Way as something that sages discover or invent? A little reflection on this question shows that it has major implications for how we think about ethics and its foundations, and how much ethical values depend on human convention. Continue reading →

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.