Department of Philosophy, University of Hong Kong
Besides my annual introductory course, PHIL1034, I will be teaching two courses in our major next year: PHIL2410 Mind and Language in Chinese Thought. (Syllabus to be updated before the course begins.) PHIL2450 Zhuangzi. (Syllabus to be updated before the course begins.)
I will be teaching this year at the annual Philosophy Summer School in China sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. This year’s theme is Chinese-Western Comparative Philosophy, and the program will take place at Capital Normal University from July 30-August 15. The other lecturers are Michael Beaney (the organizer and coordinator), Carine Defoort,…
Eric Schliesser recently posted a thoughtful discussion of how the Mohist account of the shift from a state of nature to political society might resemble some varieties of social contract views. I posted a comment in response, which led to a fruitful exchange about the Mohist conception of the origin of political authority. The entire…
For HKU students: A provisional syllabus for my new course PHIL2435 Traditional Chinese Political Thought is now available.
I’m posting here selections from the Mohist “Dialogues” included in my abridged translation of the Mozi, which I hope will be forthcoming before too long. Here is the file: Selections from the “Dialogues” Following the example of the Stephanus numbering used to cite from the works of Plato and the Bekker numbering used to cite…
In the 2017–2018 academic year, I will be offering the following courses: Semester 1: PHIL2430 Chinese Philosophy: Ethics (Thurs 13:30-15:20) Semester 2: PHIL1034 Introduction to Philosophy: Ethics and Politics (Tues 10:30-12:20) PHIL2435 Traditional Chinese Political Thought (Tues 13:30-15:20) PHIL2430 and PHIL2435 are both designed as intermediate courses especially suitable for second- and third-year students.
The following is a contribution to the forthcoming Dao Companion to Chinese Philosophy of Logic, edited by my colleague Yiu-ming Fung, Professor Emeritus at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The article surveys the role of paradoxes in classical Chinese thought. For a collection of articles on early Chinese philosophy of language and…
The following is a contribution to the forthcoming Dao Companion to Chinese Philosophy of Logic, edited by my colleague Yiu-ming Fung, Professor Emeritus at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The article reviews and addresses the controversy over whether there is a concept of truth in classical Chinese philosophy and whether early Chinese…
I have a longish paper on Mohism and just war theory forthcoming in Journal of Chinese Military History (5.2, 2016) that explores details of Mohist just war theory and how it relates to the other most well-developed early Chinese view of just war, the doctrine of “righteous arms” in The Annals of Lu Buwei. The…
My recent book The Philosophy of the Mozi: The First Consequentialists (Columbia University Press, 2016) is now available. The table of contents is here, and I’ve posted an author’s draft of the Preface here. The Amazon.com listing is here.