Category Archives: Conference

Leiter Blog Central for APA Session Cancellations and Changes

Brian Leiter has set up some helpful centralized posts for folks to announce any changes or cancellations to sessions, meetings, and job interviews at the Boston APA meeting, slated to begin this evening. If anyone out there is chairing or has organized a session, meeting, or job interviews and would like to post an update for it based on the horrendous winter storm and associated travel problems, please do it over there.

Update on ISCP's APA panel

Please note some changes in the scheduling and organization of ISCP’s panel at the Eastern Division meeting in Boston. The panel, “New Topics: Chinese and Comparative Philosophy” will now take place on Tuesday, December 28 at 7:30-10:30 PM. Click on “Read more” to see the list of talks and speakers, slightly modified since the publication of the APA’s original bulletin.

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Nishan Forum and Rise of Chinese Culture

Last week I attended the first Nishan Forum on World Civilizations (尼山论坛). Nishan is the reputed birthplace of Confucius, near Qufu (in Shandong province) where the Kong family has lived for many generations. The Forum was an interesting event, heavily supported by various levels of government (notice the orchestra, playing pieces specially written for the event), and clearly designed to contribute to the increasing visibility of Confucianism, both domestically and internationally. There is a lot one could say about the event, both in terms of its content and in terms of the way it was framed (e.g., why was Robert Schuller chosen as the most prominent representative of Christianity at this “dialogue between Confucianism and Christianity”?). There is no simple conclusion, positive or negative, that one can draw from a complex event such as this, but I thought I would share some concerns that crystallized in my mind when thinking about a question that a journalist at the Forum asked me. He said, “Do you think Americans should be worried about the rise of Chinese culture?” Continue reading →

Message from Tu Weiming

An interesting one, sent via Jeeloo Liu (ACPA president). I’m not sure Tu reads this blog, but comments and discussion are welcome in any case.

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To:  Fellow Students of Chinese Philosophy

From:   Tu Weiming

Re:  The State of the Field

It gives me great pleasure to share my tentative thoughts on our field both as an intellectual pursuit and as an academic discipline.  Let me first give you some background.  Otherwise this might easily be construed as presumptuous and even self-serving.  As some of you know, I attended the last Congress in Seoul (June 2008) as the speaker (Maimonides Lecturer for one of the three endowed chair.  I was allotted a 90-minute plenary session to present my reflections on the Analects.  However, more pertinently, I was elected as a member of the Steering Committee of FISP (Federation of International Philosophical Societies) which, among other things, has the authority to oversee the organization of the Congress.  Since its inception in 1900, the Congress had never met in Asia.  The 2003 Congress was held in Istanbul, but ironically, even though Turkey is located in Asia broadly defined, its national aspiration is to join the European Union.  I was told that during all the plenary sessions there had only been an African voice, and no Asian voice. This reminds me that my Chinese colleagues told me that during the 1998 Congress in Boston, my presentation on the Confucian idea of the educated person was the sole Asian voice.

However, the Seoul Congress must be fully recognized as the single most significant event for Asian and comparative philosophy and with far-reaching implications for Chinese philosophy.  It recognized Buddhist philosophy, Daoist philosophy, and Confucian philosophy as integral parts of world philosophy, to be seriously considered as important as metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. Continue reading →