Category Archives: Comparative Political Theory

This Friday’s Columbia Neo-Confucianism Seminar

The next session of the Columbia University Seminar on Neo-Confucian Studies will convene Friday, November 6, 2015 from 3:30 to 5:30pm in the Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University.

Eske Mollgaard will present the paper “Can Confucians Universalize Themselves?”  Please contact the organizers for a copy.

All are welcome to attend. Please join us after the seminar for dinner at a location to be announced.

If you have any questions, contact one of our organizers: Ari Borrell (aborrell@msn.com), Tao Jiang (tjiang@rci.rutgers.edu), or Deborah Sommer (dsommer@gettysburg.edu).

Book on Kang Xiaoguang

Kang Xiaoguang is an interesting contemporary Chinese social scientist, public intellectual, and promoter of a particular brand of Confucianism; I wrote about him a bit in Contemporary Confucian Political Philosophy. I have now learned that there is an English-language book about him:  Monika Gaenssbauer, Confucianism and Social Issues in China — the Academician Kang Xiaoguang: Investigations into NGOs in China, the Falun Gong, Chinese Reportage, and the Confucian Tradition (Projectverlag, 2011). I will have to take a look!

New Book: El Amine on Classical Confucian Political Theory

Another happy announcement: Loubna El Amine’s new book, Classical Confucian Political Thought: A New Interpretation, has been published by Princeton University Press. PUP has provided us with a flyer that offers a 20% discount to celebrate! If you’d prefer, here is a link to Amazon. Congratulations, Loubna!

Kim to Receive Award

I am happy to pass on the news that Sungmoon Kim of the City University of Hong Kong will receive an award for Outstanding Academic Output from South Korea’s Ministry of Education for his book, Confucian Democracy in East Asia: Theory And Practice (Cambridge University Press, 2014). Congratulations, Sungmoon!

Harvard Lecture: Ethics and Professions in Asia

Ethics and the Professions – Good Practitioners in a Rising Asia

Friday, October 16, 2015, 12:15pm

S153, 1st Floor, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA

Kenneth Winston, Visiting Scholar, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School

Many Asian countries are in transition, as they struggle to meet the demands of a global world.  This struggle is not only economic and political; it is moral.  Simply put, it is a struggle to preserve what one believes to be of value in one’s own culture or tradition while responding to new circumstances and participating in new relationships.  Thus, it often involves a hybrid of traditional beliefs and transplanted values, which makes Asian countries fascinating sites for the study of political and ethical development.  In particular, emerging democratic aspirations and increasing commitment to standards of professionalism are constituent elements of the new moral environment in Asia.  As a result, the ethical challenges faced by practitioners have a special urgency and demand close attention.  This talk presents a general framework for thinking about these challenges, focusing on the kinds of moral competence professionals require in working for the good of others.

Jiwei Ci’s Upcoming Visit to Harvard

Philosopher Jiwei Ci from the University of Hong Kong will be spending a couple weeks at Harvard in November and giving a series of lectures. The details here here: Fairbank Democracy and China poster. There will also be a one-day conference on Friday, November 13 titled “Democracy and China: Philosophical-Poltical Reflections” with a number of speakers, and Prof. Ci’s commentary. (I’ll post details of that once it has been finalized.)

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.”