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

Book of Interest: The Gongsun Longzi and Other Neglected Texts

A book we missed here on the blog when it came out: Rafael Suter , Lisa Indraccolo, and Wolfgang Behr, The Gongsun Longzi and Other Neglected Texts: Aligning Philosophical and Philological Perspectives (De Gruyter 2020)

The Gongsun Longzi is often considered the only extant work of the Classical Chinese “School of Names”, an early intellectual tradition (trad. dated to the 4th cent. B.C.) mainly concerned with logic and the philosophy of language. The book is a heterogeneous collection of five chapters that include short treatises and largely fictive dialogues between an anonymous persuader and his opponent, which typically revolve around a paradoxical claim. Its value as a testimony to Early Chinese philosophy, however, is somewhat controversial due to the intricate textual history of the text and our limited knowledge about its intellectual backgrounds. This volume gathers contributions by leading specialists in the fields of Classical Chinese philosophy, philology, logic, and linguistics. Besides an overview of the scholarly literature on the topic and a detailed account of the reception of the text throughout time, it presents fresh insights into philological and philosophical problems raised by the Gongsun Longzi and other closely-related texts equally attributed to the “School of Names”.

To access the book for further reading, please visit this site.

CFP: Workshop on Revenge at KU Leuven

Revenge can clearly be used to criticize power structures and renegotiate accepted norms but is similarly governed by its own set of rules. But how do such opposites—rules and the unruly, entertainment and brutality, ritual and defiance of norms—go together and relate to one another within the act of revenge? And how might the tension between such opposites be dissolved? How did revenge become such an influential cultural trope in China? What is revenge used for in all these different contexts? And how did it change over the long history from early China to the present day?

The Repay Resentment with Straightforwardness? Exploring Revenge in the Chinese Context workshop seeks to study revenge in all fields of the Chinese socio-cultural realm to uncover its many facets and the relations between them. Therefore, participants are invited to explore the topic of revenge from various angles and with creative approaches, in hope to cover methodologies from diverse fields, including but not limited to: Anthropology, sociology, literature studies, philosophy, theater studies, history, political sciences, archaeology,
criminology etc. Presentation of both case studies as well as wider theoretical reflections on the nature of revenge in China are welcomed.

Please read more for further information of the workshop.

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Episode 16 of “This Is the Way”: The Zhuangzi on Uselessness

In this episode, we talk about the theme of uselessness in the Zhuangzi, one of the great foundational texts of philosophical Daoism. What exactly determines whether something is useful or useless? Is usefulness largely or fundamentally a matter of perspective? Does the text’s apparent recommendation that we be “useless” (in some sense) entail some sort of realism or objectivism about value? We explore these themes together with our guest, Chris Fraser, a major scholar of the Zhuangzi. Continue reading →

CFP: History of Philosophy Society

The History of Philosophy Society (HOPS) conference will be held in Salt Lake City from March 28-29 this year. The conference will feature keynote addresses by Brook Ziporyn (Chicago) and Massimiliano Tomba (UC Santa Cruz), as well as a text seminar by Emanuela Bianchi (NYU).

If you are interested, please submit an abstract of 500-750 words by January 20th (see detailed instructions in the CFP attached).

Angle Reviews Slote, Philosophical Essays East and West

My review of Michael Slote’s 2023 book Philosophical Essays East and West: Agent-Based Virtue Ethics and other topics at the intersection of Chinese thought and Western analytic philosophy has now been published on-line in Mind (see here). The review begins:

For more than a decade, Michael Slote has been undertaking an ambitious program of philosophical engagement with Chinese philosophy. The volume under review is the latest fruit of this engagement, which to date has resulted in at least seven English-language journal articles (the earliest dating from 2009) and one prior collection of essays; a bilingual English-Chinese book; numerous Chinese-language essays (translated from English originals); and a collection of essays called Michael Slote Encountering Chinese Philosophy in which a variety of scholars discuss his work and Slote responds. The present review will focus on Philosophical Essays East and West while keeping this larger body of work in view.

Over the course of the fairly lengthy review I discuss Slote’s “world philosophy” approach and his extensive use of the concepts of yin and yang, xin, and various other categories derived from Chinese philosophy. In brief, I find Slote’s work to be both methodologically and substantively fascinating. Comments are of course welcome!

New Book: Chan, Towards Confucian Republicanism

Oxford has recently published Elton Chan’s Towards Confucian Republicanism: Democracy as Virtue Politics. In the book, Chan develops a theoretical framework of Confucianism for the twenty-first century. Chan argues that liberal Confucians must take seriously the internal authoritarian leanings of Confucianism–and then argue against such strands of the Confucian tradition. He shows that Confucians are keen on concentrating power in the hands of the virtuous not merely for promoting order and material livelihood, but also for general moral cultivation. Yet this use of political and moral hierarchy as institutional platforms for perfectionist development is self-defeating.

To counter the authoritarian turn in Confucian scholarship, Chan articulates a vision of a hybrid political order that brings together Confucianism and republican democracy. He makes the case that Confucianism stands a much higher chance of achieving its political and moral ideals–good governance and collective virtuous cultivation–when merged with republicanism. Covering a uniquely wide range of Confucian classics and outlining his novel vision for Confucianism, Chan addresses pressing issues in contemporary political philosophy, including virtue politics, balance of power, civic education, public reason constraint, and the role of civil society.

To access the book for further reading, please visit this site.

四海为学 “Collaborative Learning“ Roundtable: Considering Non-Humans

On January 9th at 9:00am Beijing time the 四海为学 “Collaborative Learning” Project will host a roundtable on “Considering Non-Humans”. To find details and the Zoom link, please visit the project’s event page. No pre-registration or passcode is required is required for Zoom participation.
A list of the project’s upcoming events can be found at the calendar here.