In this summer semester, we have the rare opportunity to invite Prof. Yong Huang, one of the leading experts on Chinese Philosophy from The Chinese University of Hong Kong to visit us in Berlin. He will organize a course on Confucian philosophy with me. This course explores Confucian philosophy and its development in the Pre-Qin period by examining such Confucian classics as The Analects, The Mencius, and The Xunzi. Focus will be on their philosophical significance to the contemporary world, and the approach is comparative, making it more easily accessible to students with background in Western philosophy but no previous exposure to Chinese philosophy. Specific topics to be discussed include “ought we turn the other cheek?” “how to love virtue as one loves sex?,” and “why an upright son doesn’t bear witness against his father steeling a sheep?” (in relation to Confucius); “what does it mean to say that human nature is good?”; “are moral reasons and emotions inseparable?” and Is moral motivation internal to moral reasons? (in relation to Mencius); and “What do we mean by human nature: the inborn quality, or the distinguishing mark of being human, or both?” “how to induce moral motivation from a naturally bad person?” and “is morality invented or discovered” (in relation to Xunzi). On each of these topics, key passages from the original texts will be analyzed, their philosophical implications examined, and their contemporary relevance (including relevance to contemporary Western philosophy) explored. Course Syllabus: https://www.geisteswissenschaften.fu-berlin.de/v/dchan/gastprofessuren/index.html close

Primary Texts: Lau, D.C., trans., The Analects. New York: Penguin, 1979. Lau, D.C., trans, The Mencius, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970 Knoblock, John, trans., Xunzi: A Translation and Study of the Complete Works, 3 vols., Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988-1990. close