I am happy to be able to share the following job advertisement, from Colorado State University.
POSITION: Assistant Professor of Philosophy
QUALIFICATIONS: AOS: East Asian Philosophy. AOC: Open. PhD in hand by August 16, 2014, publications or evidence of strong research and scholarly promise, relevant language competence in AOS, and evidence of excellence in teaching required.
Meritocratic Ruists make two basic claims: first, that meritocracy is more historically faithful to Ruist tradition, and second, that it makes for a more effective government. In particular, it can avoid the problems of democracy, among which the ignorance and short-sightedness of voters are prominent. The claim goes that since voters generally understand the issues poorly and are unwilling to sacrifice their immediate interests for future gains, democracies make bad decisions. Without getting into whether these criticisms are accurate for the moment, I’m curious what people think of this line of argument against democracy. If it were true that democracy inevitably has such problems and there were good reason to think meritocracy would do better, would you support meritocracy?
A two-year Post-Doc position in ancient studies, including China, starting this fall.
The schedule and list of speakers/commentators has been set for the second Rutgers Workshop in Chinese Philosophy. It is still a ways in the future, but if you would like to attend, please contact Ruth Chang well in advance because space will be somewhat limited.
A Call for Drafts for the Inaugural English-language Edition of Heritage and Transition: Studies in Chinese Humanities
‘Tis the season for reviews of works in Chinese philosophy to be published, apparently! The latest issue of The China Journal has reviews of three recent works in our field, along with much else of interest:
Tze-ki Hon’s review of my latest book, Contemporary Confucian Political Philosophy: Toward Progressive Confucianism (Polity, 2012) has been published “on-line first” in Dao. (If your library subscribes to Dao, you should be able to get to the article, though quite possibly not through the link I just gave.) The review’s final paragraph reads:
While Angle may not be completely faithful to MOU Zongsan, he succeeds in drastically changing the image of New Confucianism. Instead of an abstract philosophy in the ivory tower, he transforms New Confucianism into a political theory for promoting tolerance, diversity, and equality. While it is still early to tell whether New Confucianism will have a strong impact on twenty-first century Chinese politics, it is clear that the three parts of a healthy society that Angle describes—the ethic subjectivity, the rights of the public, and the communicative acts based on rituals—are essential to building a fair and open political system in China. They directly address the new political condition of contemporary China where individuals aggressively demand recognition of their unique personality, inalienable rights, and full participation in the communicative lifeworld.
Many thanks to Tze-ki for his generous and probing review!
Call for Papers and Abstracts: The Association of Chinese Philosophers in North America [ACPA] group sessions at 2014 Pacific APA meeting in San Diego.
Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
2013.07.38 View this Review Online View Other NDPR Reviews
Erin M. Cline, Confucius, Rawls, and the Sense of Justice, Fordham University Press, 2013, 354pp., $65.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780823245086.
Reviewed by Bryan W. Van Norden, Vassar College
Passage 3B10 in the Mengzi stood out during my last read through the text. In 3B10 Mengzi tells the story of Chen Zhongzi, who in seeking purity (lian 廉) refused to eat his mother’s food or live in his brother’s house (believing that his brother had not rightly [buyi 不義] attained his salary and home). Mengzi’s critique of Chen Zhongzi is that “only an earthworm could fill out [the values] he holds to” 蚓而後充其操, which I take to mean that living in the human world (i.e., a world of complex relationships) entails living a life where one cannot live to such a degree of purity and at the same time realize other (often more important) values. Mengzi seems to have similar sentiments about figures such as Bo Yi in passage 5B1. While he praises Bo Yi (and Chen Zhongzi in 3B10), being too lian 廉 or qing 清 is problematic for Mengzi. Continue reading →
