Amy Olberding’s scathing critique of David Tien’s continued role in the field of Chinese philosophy.
Category Archives: Chinese philosophy – 中國哲學 – 中国哲学
Van Norden on the Confucian Roots of Xi Jinping’s Thought
A couple weeks ago, Bryan Van Norden published “The Confucian roots of Xi Jinping’s policies” in The Straits Times (Singapore); a Chinese translation was also subsequently published. The essay begins:
Commentators have been quick to observe that the recent Chinese Communist Party Congress guaranteed President Xi Jinping’s firm grip on power for years to come. However, few have noted the Confucian roots of Mr Xi’s world view.
Mr Xi himself has been very candid about his admiration for traditional Chinese thought and his view that Chinese socialism is consistent with it. As I point out in my recent book, Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto, Mr Xi’s appropriations of traditional Chinese thought are sometimes opportunistic. But the same can be said of the way many US politicians appeal to the Bible. In addition, there are at least four points on which Mr Xi is genuinely Confucian in spirit.
Obryk Reviews Lan, Aristotle and Confucius on Rhetoric
From the Bryn Mawr Classical Review (Version at BMCR home site):
Haixia W. Lan, Aristotle and Confucius on Rhetoric and Truth: The Form and the Way. London; New York: Routledge, 2017. Pp. 228. ISBN 978147287360. $149.95.
Reviewed by Matylda Amat Obryk, Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf (matylda.amat.obryk@uni-duesseldorf.de)
In Aristotle and Confucius on Rhetoric and Truth. The Form and the Way, Haixia Lan (henceforth Lan), a specialist in the field of comparative rhetoric, follows the latest trend of comparing Aristotle’s and Confucius’ thought.1 Her objective is quite ambitious. The author wants to “to help foster better communication between East and West today”. To achieve this she challenges the view that Eastern and Western thought differ beyond comparison. She fights against stereotypical assumptions that e.g. Aristotle’s concept of essence (which Lan conflates with “truth”) is static and Confucius’ dao-the-way is decentered and therefore incompatible with inferential / discursive thinking (cf. p. 14).
Two recently posted jobs
I’d like to call attention to two recently-posted jobs, at Seton Hill University and Washington University. I have also added them to the overall list I am maintaining.
Seton Hill University
Asian Philosophy, Logic, and Ethics
Washington College
Ancient Chinese philosophies
ToC for Journal of Daoist Studies 11 (2018)
The latest issue of the Journal of Daoist Studies has been published. It can be ordered from http://threepinespress.com/, and the Table of Contents is below.
Report on “Confucian Modernity: The Japanese Experience” Conference
Yi Chen has written a report on the recent “Confucian Modernity: The Japanese Experience” conference, sponsored by the World Consortium for Research in Confucian Cultures, in Kyoto, November 3-4 2017
CFP: NECCT / MCCT
Northeast/Midwest Conference on Chinese Thought
April 27-29, 2018
University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
The sixth annual Northeast Conference on Chinese Thought and the 14th annual Midwest Conference on Chinese Thought will be holding their first ever joint conference from Friday, April 27 through Sunday, April 29 2018, at the University of Connecticut, in Storrs, CT.
Crane on Xi Jinping and Classical Chinese Philosophy
Sam Crane has published an essay called “Philosopher King: The classical philosophy that Xi Jinping ignores” via the Los Angeles Review of Books China Channel. It opens:
In his first five-year term as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping regularly cited classical Chinese philosophy in order to bolster his image as a man of learning and virtue. In May 2014, he implied his own rectitude by invoking Confucius in Analects 15.1 at a meeting of young people: “The noble man considers righteousness essential.” Although we’ve been hearing more Marxism in connection to Xi’s name of late, there is good reason to believe he will continue to reach for a neo-traditionalist brand of political legitimation over the next five years. But his apparent erudition is selective….
CFP: 2018 Singapore-Hong Kong-Macau Symposium
CALL FOR PAPERS
2018 SINGAPORE-HONG KONG-MACAU SYMPOSIUM ON CHINESE PHILOSOPHY
20-21 April 2018
Organized and Sponsored by Department of Religion and Philosophy and Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology, Hong Kong Baptist University
Angle Reviews Eichman, Late Sixteenth-Century Chinese Buddhist Fellowship
My review of Jennifer Eichman’s outstanding A Late Sixteenth-Century Chinese Buddhist Fellowship: Spiritual Ambitions, Intellectual Debates, and Epistolary Connections (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2016) has been published in Frontiers of Literary Studies in China. See here.
