An Edifying Conversation between Early Chinese Conception of Relationality and the Radical Empiricism of William James
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Yunqi Zhang
PhD Student, Philosophy, Peking University
An Edifying Conversation between Early Chinese Conception of Relationality and the Radical Empiricism of William James
In William James’ radical empiricism, he employs “experience” as a relational notion as an attempt to overcome the subject-object dualism, which in many ways differ from the mainstream use of the term. This cause difficulty in understanding James’ radical empiricism. On the other hand, a distinctive characteristic of early Chinese thinking is its understanding of existence as based on interaction, and understanding determination of things as emergent in such interaction. This relational thinking structure may help us better understand James’ notion of the “context of experience.” Through this comparison we might be able to better understand the continuity and complexity of the content of the human experience, and to also celebrate the capacity of human beings to optimize the creative possibilities of this experience to live significant lives.
This workshop will focus on a pre-circulated paper and will be largely discussion-based. Email one of the coordinators below for the password. We hope to see you there!
November 30th, 12:00 PM, Swift 201
Hosted by the Philosophy of Religions
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The Workshop on the Philosophy of Religions is committed to being a fully accessible and inclusive workshop. Please contact Workshop Coordinators Danica Cao (ddcao@uchicago.edu), Audrey Guilbault (audreyrg@uchicago.edu), or John Marvin (johnmarvin@uchicago.edu) in order to make any arrangements necessary to facilitate your participation in workshop events.
Reimagining Solidarity
Prof. Stephen S. Bush
Professor of Religious Studies, Brown University
Reimagining Solidarity
The Philosophy of Religions Workshop is proud to host a discussion with Prof. Stephen S. Bush of Brown University, a leading scholar on the philosophy of religions, religious ethics, and the theory of religion. His 2014 monograph Visions of Religion has become a modern classic in the academic study of religion, and his next book, William James on Democratic Individuality, was a novel study of the title thinker’s notoriously obscure political philosophy. Prof. Bush will be discussing a chapter from his upcoming book manuscript Beauty and Solidarity: The Aesthetics of Political Ecology titled “Reimagining Solidarity.” Prof. Bush describes the “heart of that project” as “the proposal of a notion of political beauty that is relevant for emancipatory, pluralistic politics,” and draws from thinkers including Iris Murdoch and Emmanuel Levinas, and in this chapter especially, from Georges Bataille.
This workshop will focus on a pre-circulated paper and will be largely discussion-based. We hope to see you there!
November 10th, 4:30 PM, Swift 207
Hosted by the Philosophy of Religions Workshop at the University of Chicago.
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The Workshop on the Philosophy of Religions is committed to being a fully accessible and inclusive workshop. Please contact Workshop Coordinators Danica Cao (ddcao@uchicago.edu), Audrey Guilbault (audreyrg@uchicago.edu), or John Marvin (johnmarvin@uchicago.edu) in order to make any arrangements necessary to facilitate your participation in workshop events.
Extended Innate Knowledge as a Path to Virtue and Happiness
Brad Cokelet
Associate Professor, University of Kansas
Extended Innate Knowledge as a Path to Virtue and Happiness: Wang Yang-ming’s optimistic Neo-Confucian Model of Human Self-Perfection
The presentation will be on the neo-Confucian philosophy Wang Yang-Ming (1472-1529) and his optimistic Neo-Confucian model of human self-perfection. It will focus on interpretive debates about how to understand his view and on how to assess it today. In short, Wang argues that all human beings have innate knowledge of good and bad and that to live well and embody true virtue we need only recognize and extend that knowledge into in all our activities and all the corners of our lifeworld. Wang explicitly pitched this optimistic, egalitarian view as an alternative to Zhu Xi’s then overwhelmingly influential theory, which pictures people as initially mired in a kind of ignorance that can only be overcome by diligent study and reflection. On Zhu Xi’s broadly intellectualist view – which is commonly compared to Aristotle’s and Plato’s – we must study texts and the things of the world to gain knowledge of the principle or principles that govern the universe. The basic idea is that we need to gain philosophical or metaphysical knowledge via education and long study before we can embody that knowledge in sagely virtue and ease. Wang rejected that potentially elitist picture, offered an egalitarian alternative, and argued that the pursuit of genuine knowledge and action are unified in a way Zhu Xi’s followers missed – because they assumed that one should first aim to gain knowledge through long philosophic and textual study and only then aim to embody that knowledge in virtuous activity.
The documents may be accessed here.
Tuesday, May 10th, 4:30PM, Swift 403
This workshop will focus on two pre-circulated documents and will be largely discussion based. The first is a brief introduction to the project, the second a recently published review to help people to understand the background motivations that have sparked Professor Cokelet’s interest in Wang and debates about how to interpret him. Workshop participants should feel free to read as much or as little as they want!
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The Workshop on the Philosophy of Religions is committed to being a fully accessible and inclusive workshop. Please contact Workshop Coordinators John Marvin (johnmarvin@uchicago.edu) or T
Extended Innate Knowledge as a Path to Virtue and Happiness (Documents)
The Looping Structure of Buddhist Thought (Or, How Chan Buddhism Resolves the Quantum Measurement Problem)
Robert Sharf
Professor; Chair of the Berkeley Center for Buddhist Studies
The Looping Structure of Buddhist Thought (Or, How Chan Buddhism Resolves the Quantum Measurement Problem)
Is there a world out there when nobody is looking? This is a question that medieval Buddhist scholiasts struggled with over many centuries, giving rise to a variety of competing positions. In this article, I identify a loop that runs through and structures seemingly antithetical positions—some realist, some antirealist—in these debates. My claim is that the loop is a feature of our lifeworld, and thus any serious reflection on the mind/ world relationship is bound to get entangled in it. Even modern physics has come up against it, such that rival positions advanced by quantum theorists are structurally analogous to positions proffered in medieval Buddhist writings. I conclude by turning to the Chan Buddhist tradition, which is often mischaracterized as hostile to philosophical analysis. Chan is among the few Buddhist schools that recognize, foreground, and cele- brate the manner in which mind and world enfold each other. As such, this paper foregrounds the decidedly philosophical insights of the Chan tradition.
This workshop will focus on a pre-circulated paper (available here) and will be largely discussion-based.
Friday, March 4th, 5:00PM, Swift 200
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The Workshop on the Philosophy of Religions is committed to being a fully accessible and inclusive workshop. Please contact Workshop Coordinators John Marvin (johnmarvin@uchicago.edu) or T
Looping Structure (Paper)
Progressive Confucianism & Its Critics
Stephen C. Angle
Professor of Philosophy and East Asian Studies, Wesleyan University
Progressive Confucianism & Its Critics
For more than 2500 years, the teachings of Confucius have been debated and developed as times have changed. New social or political circumstances and new knowledge have meant that Confucianism itself has continually been in a process of renewal. A recent moment in this development took place in the spring of 2017, when the U.S.-based Confucian philosopher Stephen C. Angle took part in a series of dialogues with Chinese Confucians in Beijing. The dialogues engage with topics like the relation between Confucianism and modernity; its status as philosophy, religion, and/or chief ingredient in a distinctively Chinese culture; the status of pivotal modern Confucians like Kang Youwei and Mou Zongsan; and more generally, the prospects for what Angle calls “Progressive Confucianism.”
The papers may be accessed here.
Friday, February 25th, 4:30PM, Swift 200
This workshop will focus on two pre-circulated documents and will be largely discussion based. The first is an Introduction to the project, the second a translated dialogue. Workshop participants should feel free to read as much or as little as they want!
The Workshop on the Philosophy of Religions is committed to being a fully accessible and inclusive workshop. Please contact Workshop Coordinators John Marvin (johnmarvin@uchicago.edu) or T
Progressive Confucianism & Its Critics (Papers)
Conceptuality and Marx’s Concept of Productive Labor
Conceptuality and Marx’s Concept of Productive Labor
Rebekah Rosenfeld
PhD Student, Philosophy of Religions
Respondent: William Underwood
PhD Candidate, Philosophy of Religions
Hosted by the Philosophy of Religions Workshop at the University of Chicago. To RSVP and receive a Zoom link as well as the password to access the paper, please email Tyler Neenan (tjneenan@uchicago.edu).
Tuesday, February 15th, 12:30PM (Virtual Event)
The paper may be accessed here.
The Workshop on the Philosophy of Religions is committed to being a fully accessible and inclusive workshop. Please contact Workshop Coordinators John Marvin (johnmarvin@uchicago.edu) or T