Philosophy
-
More on the New Legalists: The Philosophical Problems
Picking up where I left off in the last post, I find various philosophical problems with the New Legalists. I am reading them as nationalists who are appropriating ancient Legalist texts, together with some Taoist volumes, to fashion… Continue reading
-
The New Legalists: Distorting Chinese History and Chinese Philosophy for Nationalist Ends
I have stumbled upon a website, The New Legalist, (Chinese version here, with much more stuff) and am dismayed at the distortions I find there. It seems to be the product of people with a fairly… Continue reading
-
Is the Tao Te Ching Consequentialist?
In my tutorial, which has been working through the Tao Te Ching of late, a student (thanks Raff!) suggested that the text is consequentialist. I was initially taken aback, but, upon further reflection was drawn to the possibilities… Continue reading
-
A Great New Blog
Just found a new Chinese philosophy blog: Manyul Im’s Chinese Philosophy Blog. Some great discussions going on there by people who really know their texts. Continue reading
-
Dust Off Your A. N. Whitehead
UPDATED: see below…. The new semester is upon us! Posting has fallen off a bit because I am working on my syllabuses (syllabi?) for my classes (one on Chinese politics and a tutorial on ancient Chinese philosophy). But I will… Continue reading
-
Warlord Blogger
I just stumbled upon The Yan Xishan blog, named for famous Shanxi warlord (whose name is rendered in Wade-Giles as, Yen Hsi-shan) of the early twentieth century. The author writes in Yan’s voice – it”s great fun! He’s… Continue reading
-
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
-
Thoughts on Wittgenstein and Chuang Tzu
One of the nice things about my job is that I get to take a leave from teaching every so often (we get one semester off after three years on, or one year off after six years on). … Continue reading
-
Philosophy of the Family
As is obvious now to regular readers, I am not an academic philosopher. Beyond a rather pedestrian background – the usual survey of Western political thought, some Rawls, a little Singer, a bit of Derrida and the like… Continue reading
-
Mencius in the News, Again (Even if Unnamed, Again)
This headline jumped out at me today: "Is Do Unto Others Written Into Our Genes?" And I immediately thought: Mencius would say "Yes!" The article centers on the research of social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, especially his book,… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 