Latest Posts
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Experimental Confucianism
An interesting piece in the NYT Magazine on Sunday by Kwame Anthony Appiah. He describes a new wrinkle in academic philosophy, experimental philosophy (or x-phi to those in the know), which is based on survey data and other… Continue reading
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A China Guy Goes To India (3): Religion
As we were preparing to set off on our India trip last month (earlier posts here and here) , sitting in a local airport, I happened to be reading a story in The Economist which referred to India… Continue reading
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What Parents Owe Their Children
This morning, listening to the radio, I heard a story about my former student, Nate Krissoff, and his father, Dr. Bill Krissoff. Nate was in the Marines and was killed in Iraq on this day last… Continue reading
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IQ, The Brain, and Mencius: “Think about barley.”
Richard E. Nisbett has a nice op-ed in today’s NYT, "All Brains Are the Same Color," in which he counters those who want to argue that intelligence (however it is defined) is primarily genetically determined: In fact, the… Continue reading
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CIA Lying – What Would Sun Tzu Do?
Rather unsurprisingly, it has now been revealed that the CIA lied and broke the law (by disobeying a court order to produce "documentary evidence") to cover up its use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" (read: torture). So, now we… Continue reading
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The South Korean Flag
Last week The Western Confucian posted a picture of the South Korean flag. He linked to an article he wrote which explicated the Taoist implications of that flag, and which called upon Koreans to "turn back to Tao." … Continue reading
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Assisted Suicide
This past Sunday, the NYT Magazine ran a piece on assisted suicide. As I started to read it, I thought it conjured up certain Confucian themes, but by the time I had finished it, I was definitely thinking… Continue reading
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India Pictures
I seem to be coming down with another cold. Ever since I returned from India I have been battling one minor illness after another – perhaps the physical stress of that bad day in the Delhi airport weakened… Continue reading
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Confucius in Taiwan
I just returned from an evening discussion, with a group of students here at Williams, about China and Taiwan. The idea was to have people from these different places talk about their understanding and experience of the other. … Continue reading
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Neither Confucian nor Taoist
A rather bleak picture of middle class urban China painted by this Reuters story (hat tip, CDT) The problem of grown only children having difficulties sustaining relationships is particularly pronounced among the affluent middle-and upper-classes who have accumulated enormous… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 