Category Archives: Lecture

Joshua Mason – Columbia Society for Comparative Philosophy Lecture: “Cognitive Linguistics and Cultural Gulfs: From Embodied Metaphors to Responsible Generalizations”, Feb. 26 @5:30pm

THE COLUMBIA SOCIETY FOR COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY

Welcomes: JOSHUA MASON (West Chester University of Pennsylvania)
With responses from: DEREK SKILLINGS (CUNY Graduate Center)

Please join us at Columbia University’s Religion Department on FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26th at 5:30PM for his lecture entitled:

“Cognitive Linguistics and Cultural Gulfs: From Embodied Metaphors to Responsible Generalizations”

ABSTRACT: An ongoing debate in comparative research is about whether we should see cultural diversities as manifestations of essential differences or as superficial variations on a universal blueprint. Edward Slingerland has pointed to cognitive linguistics and the use of embodied metaphors to emphasize the universality of concept formation and cognition across cultures. He suggests that this should quiet the “cultural essentialists” who take fundamental differences in eastern and western thinking as their starting points. Michael Puett has also leveled a critique of cultural essentialism in support of a presuppositionless approach, and Slingerland’s conclusions seem to offer him support. However, I will argue that even if all modern humans are broadly similar in metaphor use and cognitive processes, research in the humanities must continue to account for the differences implied by the particular metaphors employed and emphasized in diverse traditions. I contend that responsible hermeneutic practice does this through provisional, yet indispensable, generalizations. A starting point which recognizes the existence of cultural gulfs will facilitate, not vitiate, future advances in cross-cultural understanding. Continue reading →

Columbia Society for Comparative Philosophy – Spring 2016 Speakers

We are excited to share with you our upcoming lineup of speakers:

February 26: Joshua Mason (West Chester University)

March 18: Harvey Lederman (NYU)

April 8: Shigenori Nagatomo (Temple University)

April 29: Sara McClintock (Emory University)

We will provide more information regarding the topic of each speaker’s presentation as the semester progresses. We hope to see you all at what promises to be a semester of discussion and engagement.

Inquiries should be directed to one of the following individuals:

Co-Chairs
Professor Jonathan Gold
Associate Professor, Princeton University, Department of Religion
jcgold@princeton.edu

Professor Hagop Sarkissian
Associate Professor, The City University of New York, Baruch College, Department of Philosophy
hagop.sarkissian@baruch.cuny.edu

Rapporteur
Daniel M. del Nido
dmd2167@columbia.edu

Shaughnessy on Excavated Texts at Wisconsin

Edward Shaughnessy (University of Chicago) who will be Halls-Bascom Visiting Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in early April 2016 will hold a Workshop on Recently Excavated Texts on 7 April 2016 from 2:30-4:30 p.m. (location on the UW Campus still to be arranged). Zhi Chen (Hong Kong Baptist University) will serve as discussant. It is hoped that scholars from other “neighboring universities” will consider joining the Workshop. Although we have no travel funds, there will be a light-dinner reception following the Workshop to allow the discussion to continue into the evening. For further information please contact Bill Nienhauser (whnienha@wisc.edu).

Karsten Struhl & Graham Priest, Columbia Seminar for Comparative Philosophy: “Buddhism and Marxism: Points of Intersection” — December 11 @ 5:30pm

THE COLUMBIA SOCIETY FOR COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY

Welcomes:

KARSTEN STRUHL (John Jay College) and GRAHAM PRIEST (CUNY Graduate Center)

Please join us at Columbia University’s Religion Department on FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11th at 5:30PM for their lecture entitled:

“Buddhism and Marxism: Points of Intersection”

Although Marxism and Buddhism might seem like unlikely bedfellows, they have a number of things in common. Continue reading →

Buber on the Daodejing: Next week at Harvard

Monday, November 16, 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
China Humanities Seminar: Laozi the Existentialist: Martin Buber’s Transformation of the Daodejing
Speaker: Jonathan Herman, Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Georgia State University
Sponsored by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
K262, Bowie-Vernon Room, CGIS Knafel, 1737 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA

Two Lectures in Boston on Thursday

An embarrassment of riches! This coming Thursday, interested folks in the Boston area can choose from the following two options (Prof. Ci’s lecture is part of the series he has been giving at Harvard; see here; see also here for a related conference on Friday):

Thursday, November 12, 4:30 p.m.

A Realistic Utopia for China, Democratic or Otherwise

Ci Jiwei, Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Hong Kong

Commentator: Stephen Angle, Professor of Philosophy and Mansfield Freeman Professor of East Asian Studies, Wesleyan University

Harvard Law School, Austin Hall, The Morgan Courtroom

Thursday, November 12, 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.

The Values of Spontaneity

Professor Philip J. Ivanhoe, Chair Professor of East Asian and Comparative Philosophy & Religion, City University of Hong Kong; Director of the Center for East Asian and Comparative Philosophy (CEACOP); Director of the Laboratory on Korean Philosophy in Comparative Perspectives

This talk will discuss two Chinese views of spontaneity found in Confucian and Daoist texts from the pre-Qin (before 221 B.C.E.) period.

The Daniel C Morrissey ’88 and Chanannait Paisansathan, MD Lecture Series in Asian Studies, Boston College

Fulton 511, Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Ave., Chestnut Hill, MA

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).

Upcoming Academia Sinica Lectures

Two upcoming lectures at Taiwan’s Academia Sinica may be of interest to folks in the area:

Thursday, Oct 29, 10:00 a.m., 安靖如 (Stephen C. Angle), “將宋明理學當作哲學來教 (Teaching Neo-Confucianism as Philosophy),” 中國文哲研究所二樓會議室

Friday, Oct 30, 2:30 p.m., 許紀霖, “新天下主義與東亞的普遍性,” 中研院人社中心一樓中庭會議室 (Register here: http://www.rchss.sinica.edu.tw/conf/20151030/)