Category Archives: Confucianism

Episode 20 of “This Is the Way”: Confucianism vs. Buddhism (our first “live show”)

One influential justification for becoming Buddhist is to end suffering, starting (it seems) with the Buddhist practitioner’s own suffering. Does this indicate that Buddhist practitioners are selfish? After Buddhism became popular in China, many Confucians argued that Buddhism puts personal salvation before ethics, and is thus selfish in that respect. Some Confucians also objected to the particular sort of compassion that Buddhists were supposed to adopt (“unconditioned compassion”), insisting that it was fundamentally incompatible with the special attachments needed for important human relationships between family members and close friends.

In our first show before a live audience, Justin presents two criticisms of Buddhism, Jenny Hung 洪真如 defends Buddhism against the criticisms, and Richard moderates. The show was held at a meeting of the American Philosophical Association, and many wiser experts in the audience weighed in as well. Join us for the lively (and quite friendly) “debate.” Continue reading →

2025 Annual NAKPA (Korean Philosophy) Conference at George Mason University

The annual NAKPA conference will be held at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, June 26 & 27, 2025, for two full days under the auspices of Professor Young-chan Ro together with the Department of Religious Studies and Korean Studies center at GM. The host professor Ro will also gives a keynote address. Attached please find the conference program. Continue reading →

New Book: Berger, Introducing Chinese Philosophy

Douglas L. Berger, Introducing Chinese Philosophy: From the Warring States to the 21st Century has been recently published through Routledge. The book presents an introductory survey of the major themes, thinkers and texts, philosophical genres and profound insights of the Chinese philosophical tradition. Its coverage ranges from the foundational history of Chinese thought in the 6th–5th centuries BCE up to the present day.

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

Workshop: Works of Philosophy and their Reception — Workshop on Xunzi

The on-line “Works of Philosophy and their Reception — Workshop on Xunzi” brings together some of the contributors to an edited volume in preparation for the Works of Philosophy and Their Reception series.

The dates of the workshop are 15 May, 16 May, and 23 May.

The schedule of the workshop and abstracts of presentations are available here. Please register here in advance to participate.  

New Book: Tiwald, The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Philosophy

May be a graphic of text that says 'THEOXFORD THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF Chinese Philosophy c editedby teo USTIN JUSTINTIWAL TIWALD'The Handbook of Chinese Philosophy has recently been released online by Oxford University Press, with paper copies set to release in August. The handbook collects new work on important texts and figures in the history of Chinese thought. The chapters cover both well-known texts such as the Analects and the Zhuangzi and many of the lesser-known thinkers in the classical and postclassical Chinese tradition. Most of the chapters focus on thinkers or texts in one of three important historical movements. These include classical (“pre-Qin”) Chinese philosophy, Chinese Buddhism, and the Confucian response to Buddhism (“neo-Confucianism” broadly construed). Each chapter presents cutting-edge work on important topics in the Chinese tradition and yet is written for a general philosophical audience. For more information, please see this site, and the Table of Contents follows.

Continue reading →

四海为学 Collaborative Learning Project Book Discussion

Dear Colleagues,
On May 5th at 18:00 Beijing time the 四海为学 Collaborative Learning Project will host a book discussion of Professor Philippe Major’s Confucian Iconoclasm.
For details and the Zoom link please see our event page: https://www.sihaiweixue.org/philippe-major-book-discussion
(Note that no pre-registration or passcode is required.)
For a list of upcoming events see our calendar here. Please feel free to advertise this or share it with anyone. All our events are free and open to everyone.
Sincerely,
Paul J. D’Ambrosio

Presentation Summaries of the 7th Rutgers Workshop on Chinese Philosophy

The Rutgers University Department of Philosophy has produced summaries of the presentations and discussion from the 7th Rutgers Workshop on Chinese Philosophy (RWCP), “An International Conference on Moral Conflict in Early Chinese Philosophy.” The summaries were produced by the workshop’s rapporteurs, Frederick Choo and Esther Goh, who are doctoral candidates at Rutgers University Department of Philosophy. Please find the summaries in this document.