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

Frank Perkins Moves to NTU, Singapore

Frank Perkins has recently been appointed to the faculty of Nanyang Technological University, as an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy. Frank’s work will be well-known to readers of this blog; more information is here. This is a real coup for NTU, which now can make a case for the strongest faculty in Chinese philosophy at any Anglophone university, with Chenyang Li, Alan Chan, Winnie Sung, and now Frank. Congratulations to all!

ACLS / Munro Fund

A reminder that 2015-16 ACLS fellowship competitions are now open, several of which support work related to China. These fellowships are supported in part by the Munro Fund for Chinese Thought, which is designed to “support ACLS Fellowships awarded for research projects on Chinese philosophical traditions and ethical systems that exhibit high quality in sinology and in critical analysis, as well as relevance to human problems.”

New issue of Comparative Philosophy

I seem to have fallen down on the job of keeping up with the on-line journal Comparative Philosophy; two 2015 issues (6:1 and 6:2) are available, full of good stuff, including a debate over Wang Chong and an elegant argument about why the current discipline of Western philosophy needs to change if it is to be able to learn fully from non-Western traditions like Confucianism.

Call For Proposals: Critical Inquiries in Comparative Philosophy book series

We are currently seeking book proposals for the Critical Inquiries in Comparative Philosophy book series (Rowman and Littlefield International). The volumes in this series aim to present recent research on topics within comparative philosophy generally as well as to present original work on these topics. Right now we are most interested in developing volumes focusing on Chinese Philosophy and/or Indian Philosophy, though proposals on topics in other areas of Asian and Comparative Philosophy are certainly welcome too.

There are currently two volumes of the series in development.  Alexus McLeod’s Theories of Truth in Chinese Philosophy: A Comparative Approach will be released this November, and Bongrae Seok’s Moral Psychology of Confucian Shame: Shame of Shamelessness is due to appear in 2017. Further information on the series and individual volumes can be found at the RLI series webpage.

Those interested in discussing topics or possible proposals for the series should contact Alexus McLeod at alexus.mcleod@colostate.edu

In a world of “Confucius Says (子曰),” What Can Confucius Say About Gay Marriage?

7/25/15: Upon review this blog has been edited significantly for grammatical correctness and clarity. I apologize for any glaring difficulties and hope that this revised version is easier to follow.

Synopsis: This paper-length blog post covers some of the developments in the gay-marriage debate among contemporary Confucian scholars. Throughout this piece I summarize and reconsider some of the proposed stances that some modern Confucian scholars take towards same-sex marriage. I consider what I call the Mengzi/Child Argument, the Metaphyiscal Argument, the Ren Argument, and the Institutional Argument.

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