Workshop on “Zhuangzi Beyond the Inner Chapters”

Update: Videos from this event have recently been posted on line. My talk is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38U1Pl8yl98 I spoke (virtually) on March 14, 2023, at a rewarding workshop on the Zhuangzi entitled “2023 Zhuangzi beyond the Inner Chapters in Seoul,” hosted by the K-Academic Expansion Project, Institute of Korean Philosophy and Culture, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul,…

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RCCPC Dài Zhèn Workshop

In what is probably among the first events of its kind — and I hope a harbinger of more — the Research Centre for Chinese Philosophy and Culture at CUHK is organizing an international workshop wholly devoted to the major Qing thinker Dai Zhen 戴震 on March 15-16. The workshop announcement is here. My paper…

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Aristotle and Xúnzǐ on the Good Life

In October I was honored to be invited to speak at “How Legitimate is the Philosophical Canon,” a conference on comparative Greek-Chinese philosophy held at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. I am grateful to Pantelis Golitsis for organizing this event. My contribution to the discussion is linked here: Aristotle and Xunzi on the Good Life

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Inversions, Leftovers, and Hazy Stuff

In October 2023 David Chai in the Department of Philosophy at CUHK organized a stimulating and (to me) fruitful roundtable on Brook Ziporyn’s new translation of the Daodejing, along with an interpretive essay Brook published to accompany the book. Here is the event announcement: https://www.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/web/zh-hant/node/753 My contribution to the discussion is posted here: Inversions, Leftovers,…

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Ren Da Talk: A Daoist Critique of Morality

The third leg of my recent Beijing trip was a visit to Renmin University to see old friends Li Jifen and Liu Wei and to meet a number of new friends, including some brilliant graduate students. My talk was a Chinese version of this paper, which sketches Zhuangist reasons for rejecting morality as a guide…

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Beida Lectures: Zhuangzi and Xunzi

The week of June 26–30 I delivered two lectures in the Department of Philosophy at Peking University and greatly enjoyed meeting graduate students and colleagues there. My deep thanks to Professor Zheng Kai for organizing this visit and Dr. Huachao Wang for all his efforts making arrangements. Especially meaningful was that the first lecture took…

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ISCP Keynote Address

In June I delivered one of the keynote addresses for the International Society for Chinese Philosophy conference held at UC Riverside, June 20-23. I’m grateful to Lisa Raphals for the invitation to contribute and to Cheng Chung-ying, Tang Siufu, and other audience members for stimulating questions. My talk was titled “Standards Cannot Stand on Their…

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Something from Nothing?

I recently gave a presentation at the 2nd Pan-American Symposium on the History of Logic, held at UCLA June 20-23, 2023, which was dedicated to the theme of “Existence and Nonexistence.” Kudos to the organizers, Milo Crimi, Graziana Ciola, and Calvin Normore, who went out of their way to include contributions exploring the theme of…

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