Category Archives: Profession

New Book Series

Rowman and Littlefield has a new book series that will be of interest of many readers here, and they are now taking proposals. Note that they intend to publish works on Japan and Korea as well as China.

We are pleased to announce the establishment of the CEACOP Series in East Asian Comparative Ethics, Politics, and Philosophy of Law, a new monograph series organized and overseen as a cooperative venture by Rowman and Littlefield International and the Center for East Asian and Comparative Philosophy (CEACOP) at City University of Hong Kong.

We publish path-breaking and field-defining works in East Asian comparative ethics with a special interest in works of normative and applied ethics, political theory, and philosophy of law. We seek works that are more historically grounded as well as those that are more focused on contemporary affairs and problems that meet the standards of clarity and argumentative rigor characteristic of the best philosophy in the Anglo-American tradition. We expect more historically grounded works will demonstrate a sophisticated sensitivity and approach to issues of historical context and interpretation while wholly contemporary works will begin from and respond to issues of relevance to modern East Asian and Western societies.

Continue reading →

Graduate Programs at Indiana University

With graduate school applications due in the next few months, I’d like to put a plug in for our MA and PhD programs here at Indiana University. In particular we are looking for students interested in early Confucian thought (roughly the 6th century BCE through the 3rd century CE). Continue reading →

Garfield, Cook join Yale-NUS Faculty

When Yale-NUS College in Singapore opens its doors this fall, it will have one of the strongest comparative philosophy faculties and curriculums in the world, despite its tiny size (initial class of 150, growing to a four-class total of 1000 students). Its common curriculum features a year-long course in Philosophy and Political Theory that has been designed from the ground up to introduce students to multiple philosophical traditions, and it has recently been announced that in addition to the outstanding young philosophers they have already hired (some of whom have substantial comparative interests), Jay Garfield and Scott Cook have signed on as well. Exciting times!

Fulbright Taiwan

Some information for professors (U.S. citizenship) who might be interested.

I met today with the executive director of Fulbright Taiwan and the chair of the Department of Philosophy at National Taiwan University, where I am currently doing a teaching Fulbright. Both of them expressed the sentiment that this is a good association and that the U.S.-Taiwan relationship would be well-served by continuing it. Fulbright depends on the initiative of applicants, however, rather than putting out calls for participation. So they can only accommodate a philosopher if a philosopher applies. A special interest was expressed for political philosophy, especially related to the potential democratization of China. (I’m teaching American Pragmatism and Comparative Moral Psychology–at the graduate level.)  They both thought it would be a good idea to get the word out on this blog.

Continue reading →

Chinese Philosophy – Map of the Profession (Put yourself on the map–literally!)

Dear friends and colleagues,

Some time ago I began making a map of scholars working in Chinese philosophy in New England (i.e. Northeast US).  I then started fanning out to other sections of the U.S., and quickly realized that it would be much better to make this a collaborative effort.  So I would like to crowdsource this project, and have you all contribute to it!  Note: You will need a Google ID / Gmail account to edit the map.  Here is the link:

Chinese Philosophy – Map of the Profession

You can see the current list of scholars in the left hand pane.

We’d like to expand the map to include all academics (faculty and graduate students) as well as independent scholars, working anywhere on the planet.  Here are some instructions on how to add yourself–or someone you know in the field–to the map.  The process should take only a few minutes. Continue reading →

ISCWP Newsletter, Volume 11, Issue 1

Greetings!  Many of you will have received the latest ISCWP Newsletter.  For those who are not on the ISCWP membership list, you can find out about the the society’s activities and events by following the link above and looking through recent newsletters, which are all available there.

If any readers are not members of the ISCWP and would like to join, please click here to be taken to the membership form online, where you can apply for membership.

Hagop Sarkissian
Secretary and Treasurer
ISCWP

New website for the ISCWP

Hi everyone,

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I wanted to announce a new website for the International Society for Comparative Studies of Chinese and Western Philosophy:

www.iscwp.org

Check it out.  If you’re not yet a member, click her to find out more on how to join the society, or click here to read more about our recent conferences and activities.

Oh–and if you already have a link to the our old website on another site or blog, we’d appreciate it if you could update your links.

Hagop

Peer Review and Rationalization

I tend to do a lot of peer reviewing, but I’m certain that I don’t do it well. Of all of the consequential stuff that I have to write as a professional academic, I get the least feedback on my reviewer reports, and there isn’t much incentive to reflect on my deficiencies as a reviewer. I know that I have many such deficiencies, but I don’t know exactly what they are. If you were to point to any bit of advice and say that it’s poor, I would deny it and have a justification for it ready at hand. But I also recognize that I’m no better than (and probably worse than) the average reviewer, and I know that the average reviewer has significant vices. So while I can’t point to any direct evidence of my vices, I know by other routes that I have them, and that they are significant.

Continue reading →