What Makes Us Human? Philosophical and Religious Perspectives in China and the West
Central European University (CEU) Summer School, July 4, 2016 – July 15, 2016, Budapest, Hungary
Application deadline is February 14, 2016; more information can be found here. (Participating faculty with expertise in East Asian thought include Curie Virág, Chris Fraser, and Donald Harper.)
The China and Inner Asia Council (CIAC) of the Association of Asian Studies (AAS) has a Small Grant program that funds projects with up to $2,000. The application deadline is February 1, 2016, and details are here.
Alexus McLeod’s new book Theories of Truth in Chinese Philosophy: A Comparative Approach has been released by Rowman and Littlefield International (part of the new “Critical Inquiries in Comparative Philosophy” series). The book deals with contemporary debates surrounding truth in early Chinese thought, as well as investigates conceptions of truth in the early Chinese texts themselves, from the Warring States through Eastern Han period. More information here: [http://www.rowmaninternational.com/books/theories-of-truth-in-chinese-philosophy].
Alexus is currently at Colorado State University but will be moving to the University of Connecticut starting in the Fall term of 2016.
12th Annual Midwest Conference on Chinese Thought
The University of Chicago
March 11-12, 2016
The Midwest Conference on Chinese Thought was created to foster dialogue and interaction between scholars and students working on Chinese thought across different disciplines and through a variety of approaches. Submissions are invited for papers on any aspect of Chinese thought, as well as papers dealing with comparative issues that engage Chinese perspectives.
This year’s conference will be held on Friday, March 11 and Saturday, March 12 at the University of Chicago. Our keynote speaker will be Chad Hansen, Chair Professor of Chinese Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Hong Kong.
Professor Hansen will discuss classical Chinese ethical naturalism, which elaborates dao (ways, paths) as its focal normative metaphor. Extending his career-long argument that Daoist texts ground normativity in emergent natural contexts, he will present a broadly Zhuangist response to the is-ought problem and moral anti-realism. Modern science does not dispel the mystery of natural ways, but only demarcates more clearly their boundaries. Natural ways include normatively-laden social practices, and seeing those practices as part of nature does not rule out our finding, choosing, constructing and following them correctly. Such a stance does render normative relativism likely and skepticism a constant threat, but this fact need neither paralyze us nor undermine our free and easy pursuit of dao in a rich and complex natural context.
Please submit a 1-page abstract to Stephen Walker at scwalker@uchicago.edu by January 15, 2016 for blind review. For more information, visit the conference website here.
International Communication of Chinese Culture (ICCC) is a cross-disciplinary journal in the areas of China Studies, Communication, and Cultural Studies. The journal is committed to publishing high-quality research on the analysis, communication, perception and representation of Chinese culture within China and in the world. ICCC invites authors to submit original research articles and provide new critical perspectives on what constitutes Chinese culture, how Chinese culture has taken shape in various forms and through different means and media, and its interactions and exchanges with other cultures in both historical and contemporary contexts. Manuscripts on other related areas are also welcomed. ICCC also features cultural critiques, reports, and book reviews. ICCC publishes in English. All articles will be double-blind peer-reviewed.
This multidisciplinary program, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, will offer five weeks of context-rich and critical engagement with Confucian teachings, practices and primary texts (in translation), examining how they have shaped and been shaped by the cultures and societies of China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam. The program will consider how Confucianism addressed both personal and social needs in ways that were inseparable from the dynamics of intellectual exchange, artistic production, social organization and politics.
【Current Issue: Vol.10, No.3, 2015】
Available at: http://journal.hep.com.cn/fpc
Special Theme: Zhuangzi’s Philosophy
The Berggruen Institute has announced the $1 million Berggruen Philosophy Prize. More information, including how to nominate someone, is below.
I have recently received information about a new project by CNKI, the outfit behind the Chinese Academic Journal Database, which some of us are lucky enough o have access to through our institutions. The new project is to make at least some of the content available in English translation, and their press release explicitly includes mention of philosophy. There will be a series of webinars introducing the new product, information about which is available here.
The APA has released the latest version of its guide to graduate programs in philosophy. It is searchable by field, and currently only three programs (all MA only) are listed under Asian Philosophy, and none under Comparative Philosophy. I know that the situation is dire, but it isn’t quite *that* dire! This is based on self-reported data, so if your school’s program includes Asian or Comparative Philosophy, you might use the feedback form on the site to ask that this information be included.
