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

New Book: Makeham, ed., The Buddhist Roots of Zhu Xi’s Philosophical Thought

I’m very happy to announce the publication of John Makeham, ed., The Buddhist Roots of Zhu Xi’s Philosophical Thought (Oxford). This is the culmination of a multi-year collaborative project that it was my good fortune to be a part of; I am very grateful to John and to the group for the opportunity. Details from Oxford are here and from Amazon are here, and I’ll add some brief information below.

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Teaching The Yi Jing (I Ching) in a Course on Neo-Confucianism

Over at Neo-Confucianism.com, which is the companion website for Justin Tiwald and my book Neo-Confucianism: A Philosophical Introduction, I have posted some reflections on how I taught the Yi Jing (Book of Changes) in the context of my recent course on Neo-Confucianism. We even performed a divination! Take a look, and comments/questions either there or here are most welcome.

CUHK Visiting Programs Open for Application

The Visiting Programs organized by the Research Centre for Chinese Philosophy and Culture, Department of Philosophy, The Chinese University of Hong Kong are open for application.

Overview:

In order to promote exchanges with scholars from around the world, the Research Centre for Chinese Philosophy and Culture has established several exchange programs to provide financial assistance for visiting scholars to conduct research and participate in academic activities organized by the Centre.

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Blake Reviews Moeller and D’Ambrosio, Genuine Pretending

Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

2018.06.18 View this Review Online   View Other NDPR Reviews

Hans-Georg Moeller and Paul J. D’Ambrosio, Genuine Pretending: On the Philosophy of the Zhuangzi, Columbia University Press, 2017, 221 pp., $35.00, ISBN 9780231183994.

Reviewed by Susan Blake, Bard College

“A romp through ‘the vast wilds of open nowhere'” — Roger Ebert

“Better than any existing work on humor” — Aristotle

“Nothing more than a success” — Guy Smiley

“A demonstration of nothing . . . in a technical sense” — Ford Prefect

“A tour de force through the ‘homeland of non-even-anything'” — Steven Colbert

This book presents a novel reading of the Zhuangzi that illuminates its humor and presents it as responding to philosophical concerns of its day. To the extent that these philosophical concerns are also those of the present day — the search for a sane and healthy response to the impossible demands of sincerity — we can, through the discussion here, gain an understanding of an alternative to the unsatisfying ethical approaches of both sincerity and authenticity. The book is impressive in bringing together diverse passages in this difficult text under one interpretation.

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2 PhD Positions on New Confucianism

2 PhD Positions on New Confucianism

The Institute for European Global Studies at the University of Basel invites applications for two PhD positions starting on February 1, 2019. They are part of the research project “The Exterior of Philosophy: On the Practice of New Confucianism” funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF). The candidates will complement the research team of Prof. Dr. Ralph Weber and Philippe Major, Ph.D. The research project studies New Confucian philosophy by deploying a sociological perspective for philosophical aims. Existing scholarship has often chosen an approach that is either historical, as in the genre of intellectual history, or philosophical, tuned towards showing the contemporary philosophical relevance of New Confucianism. The current project builds on recent studies that add to these established approaches by offering sociological perspectives on New Confucianism. The project hence breaks new ground in terms of its disciplinary approach beyond the specific context of New Confucianism. Drawing on work done in sociology, the research project explores the possibilities of a sociology of philosophy approached as a philosophical sub-discipline. For more information, see here.