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

English-based MA and Visiting Programs in Chinese Philosophy at Fudan, Shanghai

M.A. and Visiting Student Programs in Chinese Philosophy
With Courses Offered in English
Fudan University, Shanghai, China

Overview
These programs are aimed to offer opportunities of learning Chinese and studying Chinese philosophy to overseas postgraduates or college juniors and seniors who have not yet been able to master the Chinese language. In addition to Chinese language classes, these programs offer courses on Chinese philosophy as well as other related courses in English at Fudan University. Fudan University is a leading institution of higher education in China, and is experienced with and renowned for educating overseas students. The School of Philosophy at Fudan is a top philosophy department in China. The university is located in Shanghai, the most dynamic city of China that belongs to a region that is rich in Chinese traditions and cultures. It has been two years since these programs were launched, and 21 students have been enrolled in either the M.A. program (17 students) and the visiting student program (4 students). They are from the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Israel, and Indonesia, and many of them are top students in their classes, majoring in philosophy, classics, and/or East Asian or Chinese studies. The above facts make these programs simply the most successful of their kind (English-based higher and post-graduate education programs in Chinese philosophy) in mainland China.

  • M.A. Program: a two-year degree program, 29 credits (with 6 credits for 2 courses in Chinese Language) and a master thesis.
  • Visiting Student Program: a one-year program, 3-4 major courses, and 1-2 courses of Chinese, a certificate to be offered upon the completion.
  • Audit Program: individual-course-based program.
  • Tuition and Living Expenses: RMB 50,000 a year for tuition; on-campus housing: from RMB 1,200 per month to 2,700 per month; meals at an on-campus dining facility: RMB 1,000 per month.
  • Scholarships and part-time jobs abundantly available.

Application Deadlines: March 1 (Priority, for scholarships) and June 1.

For Further Information: http://iso.fudan.edu.cn/downloads/zgzx20121129.pdf

The International Student Office: http://www.fso.fudan.edu.cn/ or http://iso.fudan.edu.cn/en/

Or contact Prof. Bai Tongdong, baitongdong@fudan.edu.cn

Ph.D. Supervisors

I am writing a short piece on the state of Chinese Philosophy in American Philosophy Ph.D. programs (yes, I’m aware of the APA Newsletter report from a few years back and of the discussions on the predecessor to this blog).

By my count, there are presently a total of six Philosophy Ph.D. programs in the U.S. that have specialists on their faculty who are capable of supervising a Ph.D. dissertation with a focus on Chinese Philosophy:

  • DePaul: Franklin Perkins
  • Duke: David Wong
  • Hawai’i: Roger Ames and Chung-ying Cheng
  • Oklahoma: Amy Olberding
  • SUNY Buffalo: Jiyuan Yu
  • Utah: Eric Hutton

There are other ways of going about getting a Ph.D. in Chinese Philosophy (Ziporyn at Chicago, Schwitzgebel and Raphals at Riverside, not to mention programs outside the U.S.–and there are M.A. possibilities, etc.), but I am keeping my focus just on philosophers in Philosophy departments who are capable on their own of supervising Ph.D. dissertations in Chinese Philosophy.

Have I missed anybody?

 

 

Latest issue of Extrême-Orient Extrême-Occident: Political Rhetoric in Early China

Some of you probably know the French journal Extrême-Orient Extrême-Occident. Its focus is broader than just philosophy but lots of issues might be of interest for readers of this blog. Many articles are in English.

http://www.puv-univ-paris8.org/collections/extreme-orient-extreme-occident-24-1.html

 

The latest issue is about political rhetoric in early China:

  Continue reading →

Email Subscriptions have been Transferred

Friends, all existing email subscriptions to the blog prior to our move to a new server, have been transferred. If you thought you were email subscribed before and did not receive a message about this post, you may wish to resubscribe using the link at the right. Or, skip email subscription altogether and friend us at our Facebook page to receive updates that way. Cheers, everyone.

When Confucius criticizes Zhu Xi and more stories…

When Confucius criticizes Zhu Xi and more stories…

 

I have had the chance to come across fascinating interpretations of the Great Learning in a book titled Daxue zhengshi 大學證釋 (Evidential Interpretation of the Great Learning). To be more accurate, the striking part of the story lies less in the philosophical originality of the interpretations than in the identity of the commentators.

In this volume, the original Daxue text is commented upon by a series of sages (liesheng qishu 列聖齊述) including Confucius, Yan Hui, Zengzi and Mencius… Zhu Xi was also a contributor to this volume and wrote a nice self-criticism piece about his problematic Song-dynasty interpretations of the text. He finally admitted that he got it completely wrong with his former discussions on the “extension of knowledge lying in the investigation of things” (zhizhi zai gewu  致知在格物), etc…  Among the other contributions, the one of Confucius was interesting but I doubt that Zhu Xi enjoyed it much because it happens that he was wrong again ! Kongzi’s line of argument was the following: basing himself on Zhu Xi’s edited introductory sentence of the Daxue (大學之道，在明明德 , 在親民，在止於至善) he criticized Zhu’s replacement of the original 在親親 , 在新民 by 在親民  (understood as: 在新民). He posited that these changes did not reflect “the entirety of Confucian doctrine” (fei rujiao jiaoyi zhi quan yi 非儒教教義之全矣) and highlighted the fact that ideas such as “ruling the country primarily requires to regulate the family” (zhi guo bi xian qi jia 治國必先齊家) or “the foundations of the country lie in the family” (guo zhi ben zai jia 國之本在家) all originated from the “affection to the kindred” (親親), that is, from characters cut off  by Zhu Xi….

I will skip my comments on these comments and concentrate on some background information that might be more interesting. Continue reading →

Warp, Weft, and Way Moves to New Server

Our blog has moved to a new home and has a new address: simply warpweftandway.com. The old site, warpweftandway.wordpress.com, will automatically redirect to the new one. We have moved to a commercial server instead of WordPress’s free server because we believe this will make the blog reliably available in China; WordPress is routinely blocked, but commerical servers such as the one we’ve chosen are not. We are still using WordPress software, so things should not change in dramatic ways; please let us know if you see anything odd or have any problems.

Our hope is that with this new infrastructure in place, we will be able to expand further our audience and contributors. Keep your eyes open for guest-posts from philosophers in China in the coming months.

And for folks in the US, happy Thanksgiving!

Steve, Manyul, and Chris

CFP: June, 2013 ISCWP event in Wuhan on Language

(Please note the “Special Note” at the end: even if you cannot take part in this event, if you are interested in the theme you are invited to submit a paper for inclusion in two publication projects.)

Call for Papers
徵稿通知Symposium / 學術研討會“Philosophical Issues Concerning Chinese Language and Development of Contemporary Philosophy of Language” “關於漢語的哲學問題與當代語言哲學發展”

2013 Term / Wuhan“Beijing Roundtable on Contemporary Philosophy” 2013届-武漢“北京當代哲學國際圓桌學術研討會”
Wuhan University/Philosophy School “Advanced Forum in Comparative Philosophy” 武漢大學哲學學院“比較哲學高峰論壇”

Continue reading →

CFP: “The Rise of the Asian Century: Trends in Asian and Christian Philosophy”

“The Rise of the Asian Century: Trends in Asian and Christian Philosophy for Building a Just and Sustainable World “

Asian Association of Christian Philosophers Annual Conference 2013
Dates: 10 – 11 April 2013
Venue: Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City, Philippines

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Asian Association of Christian Philosophers invites abstract submissions for its annual conference to be held from April 10 to 11, 2013, at Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City, Philippines. The theme of the conference will be: “The Rise of the Asian Century: Trends in Asian and Christian Philosophy for Building a Just and Sustainable World.” The conference language will be English.

Continue reading →