Learning from Chinese Philosophy

Title: Learning from Chinese Philosophy

Time: 17 Nov 2020

Site: online

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1URTKw_450

Speaker: Bryan Van Norden

 

Norden mainly talks about the legality of Chinese philosophy. There are three typical sophistries:

(1) There is no such thing as Chinese philosophy.

Response: There are many published books about Chinese philosophy.

(2) Philosophy refers only to the intellectual tradition derived from Plato.

Response: Firstly, as geometry developed in different areas, philosophy appears, too. Secondly, there are rigorously trained philosophers who recognize other philosophical traditions outside the Anglo-European tradition.

(3) Chinese philosophy is not any good.

Response: Professor Norden displays how brilliant arguments in Chinese philosophy.

 

Note: Norden mentions some books about the west encountering Chinese philosophy in the 17th-18th century. The last book by Francois Quesnay refers to how sage-king Shun inspires the author.

Jesuits: Confucius Sinarum Philosophus (1687)

Christian Wolff, “Discourse on the Practical Philosophy of the Chinese” (1721)

Christian Wolff, “On the Philosopher King and the Ruling Philosopher"(1730)

Francois Quesnay, Chinese Despotism (1767)