Monday, February 3, 4:00 p.m.

Fairbank Center China Humanities Seminar

Chinese Studies in the Age of Consilience: New Approaches Drawn from the Cognitive and Evolutionary Sciences

Edward Slingerland, University of British Columbia

Cosponsored with the Mahindra Humanities Center and the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University

http://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/event/edward-slingerland

CGIS South, Doris and Ted Lee Gathering Room (S030), 1730 Cambridge Street, Harvard University

P. J. Ivanhoe will speak at Rutgers on Feb. 6; the title is “Senses and Values of Oneness.” More informaton is here.

(A reminder about this upcoming lecture this Friday, December 6.)

THE COLUMBIA SOCIETY FOR COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY

Welcomes:

BRYAN VAN NORDEN (Vassar College)

With responses from:

TIMOTHY CONNOLLY (East Stroudsburg University)

Please join us at Columbia University’s Religion department on Friday, December 6, 2013 at 5:30 for his lecture called:

“Truth and Argument in Ancient Chinese Philosophy”

ABSTRACT:

Most informed students of comparative Chinese-Western philosophy would agree with the following four claims: 

1. Chinese philosophy is almost always concerned with truths that have ethical and social implications, whereas Western philosophy is sometimes concerned with purely theoretical puzzle-solving.
2. Nonetheless, historically speaking, most Western philosophers have in fact been motivated to philosophize by ethical and social concerns.  The trend toward theoretical puzzle-solving is largely characteristic of some 20^th century philosophy, particularly in the English-speaking world.
3. Aristotle invented the first form of formal, deductive logic in the West, whereas Chinese philosophers were much more interested in the complexities of ordinary language arguments.
4. Nonetheless, philosophers in both China and the West give philosophical arguments – and sometimes structurally similar philosophical arguments – without needing to use formal logic.

Controversy remains, though, over the proper way to understand the role of “truth” in Chinese philosophy. Continue reading →

THE COLUMBIA SOCIETY FOR COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY

Welcomes:

BRYAN VAN NORDEN (Vassar College)

With responses from:

TIMOTHY CONNOLLY (East Stroudsburg University)

Please join us at Columbia University’s Religion department on Friday, December 6, 2013 at 5:30 for his lecture called:

“Truth and Argument in Ancient Chinese Philosophy”

ABSTRACT:

Most informed students of comparative Chinese-Western philosophy would agree with the following four claims:  Continue reading →