Zhao Tingyang
(CASS - China)
Lecturer
Zhao Tingyang
(CASS - China)
Zhao Tingyang is a graduate of Renmin University of China and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He is currently a professor at the Institute of Philosophy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a senior fellow at Peking University and the Berggruen Research Institute. His works mainly focus on metaphilosophy, ethics, and political philosophy. Zhao Tingyang is one of the most prominent representatives of Chinese philosophy in the 21st century. He is the author of several books and dozens of articles published and translated into several languages.
Around the book “All Under the Heaven: The Tianxia System for a Possible World Order”
In this seminal work for the present day entitled All Under the Sky: The Tianxia System for a Possible World Order, Zhao Tingyang, one of the most important thinkers in present-day China, provides a profoundly original philosophical interpretation of China's history and, at the same time, develops a proposal for the future of China itself and the planet, based on references from the history of Chinese political thought. Faced with the realization of the failure of the current world order, based on the warlike domination of the empires of recent times, Zhao presents us with an instigating political proposal for a new possible order, based on the ontological precedence of coexistence over existence and, consequently, on cooperation between peoples. The author will present central theses of his book and then we will have the interventions of Robin Wang and Shuchen Xiang, two important interlocutors of Zhao and connoisseurs of his work.
Robin R. Wang
Loyola Marymount University
Lecturer
Robin R. Wang
Loyola Marymount University
Robin R. Wang is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles and 2016-17 Berggruen fellow at The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University. Her research and teaching have focused on Comparative Philosophy, especially Daoist Philosophy and Women in Philosophy. She is the author of a well-received book Yinyang: The Way of Heaven and Earth in Chinese Thought and Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2012) and a wide range of essays in academic journals.
Xinsphere: A Potential Paradigm of Planetary Thought for the XXIst Century
Technological advances, including AI, algorithms, and other recent innovations, pose significant challenges in today's world. Various conceptual frameworks, such as the noosphere, technosphere, and infosphere, have been developed to understand this rapidly evolving technology. This talk introduces the concept of the "xinsphere," grounded in classical Chinese philosophy and culture. The xinsphere comprises two key components: xin (心), representing the heart/mind, and the sphere of qi (氣), an unfolding continuum, a network of relationships, and a paradigm that views human experience as a complex web of connections to all planetary beings.
This talk will define the three foundational features of the xinsphere and explain how it addresses structural questions about reality through oneness, connectivity, and transformative energy. These features highlight the self-generative and self-organizing forces inherent in complex phenomena. The xinsphere challenges us to engage with an open horizon that demands nuanced and subtle understanding to appreciate ancient wisdom and its relevance in contemporary technology-driven world.
By applying xinsphere framework, we can forge a deeper connection between reality, the human body, and life itself. The xinsphere reveals that human life is not merely cogito but is rooted in a planetary well-being that challenges human-centric approaches to living. It weaves through the temporal, spatial, and physical constitution of heaven, earth, and the myriad things within. Reflecting on the xinsphere facilitates a deeper understanding of both humanity and the world, offering a potential pathway for planetary thinking.
Andre Bueno
State University of Rio de Janeiro
Lecturer
Andre Bueno
UERJ - BRASIL
André Bueno is an associate professor of Oriental History at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). He has experience in the fields of History and Philosophy, with an emphasis on Sinology, focusing primarily on the following themes: Chinese Thought, Confucianism, Ancient History and Philosophy, cultural dialogues and interactions between East and West, and the teaching of History. He is a former Director of the Brazilian Section of Aladaa - the Latin American Association of Asian and African Studies; a member of the Ibero-American Sinology Network [Ribsi]; the Brazilian representative of the International Confucian Association; a member of the Sinolatina Network [Costa Rica], the ALC-China Network [Mexico], and the director of the Orientalism Project [UERJ] for the dissemination and research of Asian cultures.
Neo-Confucianism in the 21st Century: Diverse Origins, Many Meanings
Neo-Confucianism (Xin Rujia, also understood as ‘New Academicism’) is a multifaceted and polysemous movement that seeks to reframe the existence of Confucius’ thought and that of his academic followers (Rujia) within the Chinese worldview, spreading across philosophy, history, politics, among many other fields. It is necessary to critically analyze the various facets of this revival, which invoke quite distinct sources, thoughts, and projects. Neo-Confucianism is far from being a unified movement and finds significant divergences regarding the invocation of the past and its uses in contemporary times. In our conference, we aim to present and discuss some of the main lineages of this movement, drawing on recent Chinese studies conducted in mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, and their implications for the future of Chinese philosophy.
Shuchen Xiang
Xidian University
Lecturer
Shuchen Xiang
Xidian University
Shuchen Xiang is the Mt. Hua Professor of Philosophy at Xidian University, China. She is the author of Chinese Cosmopolitanism: The History and Philosophy of an Idea
(Princeton University Press, 2023), which won an honorable Mention for the Asia and Asian America Section Book Award, American Sociological Association. She is also author of A Philosophical Defense of Culture: Perspectives from Confucianism and Cassirer (State University of New York Press, 2021).
Tianxia and Its Decolonial Counterparts: The Deepening and Coexistence of All Particulars
This talk shows that there are important similarities between Zhao Tingyang’s conception of tianxia and the decolonized, post-racial world envisioned by decolonial thinkers of the global south. Defined in terms of “internalization,” “relationality” and “amelioration,” the logic of tianxia that Zhao describes is comparable to the vision of a non-racialized world order of mutual, cultural synthesis of which decolonial thinkers such as Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, Édouard Glissant, Achille Mbembe and José Vasconcelos have also spoken.
This talk will also demonstrate how tianxia and its decolonial counterparts imagine “cosmopolitanism” and “multiculturalism” in significantly different ways than the orthodox liberal model.
Whereas the former takes synthesis as normative, the latter takes integrity as normative. We will conclude by showing how the tianxia-decolonial synthesis model can be practically tractable.
Ellen Zhang
University of Macau
Lecturer
Ellen Zhang
University of Macau
Ellen Y. ZHANG holds a PhD in Philosophy of Religion from Rice University (US). She taught at Temple University (US) and Hong Kong Baptist University (HK) before joining the University of Macau in 2022. She is now a Professor and Head in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the UM. Her research areas include philosophy of religion, Chinese philosophy (Daoism and Buddhism) and comparative studies in philosophy, religion, and ethics. She has published extensively in comparative philosophy and applied ethics (bio-medical ethics and military ethics). Currently, she is the editor-in-chief for the International Journal of Chinese & Comparative Philosophy of Medicine (HK) and on the editorial board for the Journal of Religious Ethics (US), the South China Quarterly (Macau), and Chinese Medical Ethics (PRC). She is also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Applied Ethics, HKBU and the Institute of Advanced Stdues of Humanities and Social Sciences at the UM.
Comparative Philosophy: Methods and Approaches
Comparative philosophy has always been a contested subject matter of scholarly study. Some scholars have pointed out that in the end all philosophy cannot but be comparative and that therefore comparative philosophy as a subdiscipline in its own right is a myth. Some scholars prefer the term “intercultural thinking” instead of comparative philosophy for the sake of following the non-metaphysical way of interpretation. This presentation will explore some key issues concerning different approaches to comparative philosophy.
Manuel Rivera Espinoza
Catholic University of Chile
Lecturer
Manuel Rivera Espinoza
Catholic University of Chile
Manuel Rivera Espinoza is a specialist in intercultural and comparative philosophy, intellectual history, and decolonial theory, with a special focus on ancient Chinese thought. He is currently a FONDECYT postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Aesthetics of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Manuel holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Macau. He has published articles and book reviews in several journals and has presented his research at several international conferences and workshops. He is fluent in Spanish and English, has knowledge of classical Chinese, and is an active member of several academic associations related to Asian studies.
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The talk will present two possible approaches to a decolonial reading of the Zhuangzi: a hermeneutic and a comparative one. We will focus on the latter, specifically in relation to Aníbal Quijano's concept of 'coloniality of power'. We will ask: what happens when we read the Zhuangzi from this perspective? Is it possible to establish a dialogue between the Zhuangzi, Quijano and other decolonial thinkers? These will be the questions that will guide the rest of the presentation.
Giorgio Sinedino
University of Macau
Lecturer
Giorgio Sinedino
University of Macau
A sinologist and translator, GIORGIO SINEDINO (Ph.D. in Chinese Philosophy, Renmin University of China; M.A. in the same field, Peking University) is a professor at the University of Macau. Trained at the Instituto Rio Branco, he served at the Brazilian Embassy in Beijing from 2005 to 2012. He held positions in the Office of the Chief Executive of the Macau Special Administrative Region from 2014 to 2022. He is involved in a number of academic and cultural associations, including the International Confucian Association, the World Sinological Council, and the Chinese Translators Association.
His major works Analectos, Dao De Jing, and Immortal of Southern China have been published in Brazil (Unesp Editora), China (Foreign Language Press), and Portugal (LeVoir). His most recent work, Lu Xun’s Cry: Dramatized Translation and Elements of Critique, is about to be released (Editora 34). He is currently working on Understanding Sunzi, which offers a new approach to Chinese military thought. Recently, he received a grant to organize an annotated edition of Feng Youlan's History of Chinese Philosophy.
“Chinese Philosophy” as Practice and Discourse: First Impressions on the Intellectual Trajectory of Feng Youlan (1895-1990)
In my presentation, I will discuss “Chinese philosophy” as a social practice embedded in the historical process of China’s intellectual modernization, focusing on how it is allied to and reflects concrete discourses of cultural/political legitimization. From a longer-term perspective, my presentation will focus on the important case of Feng Youlan (1895-1990), who can be credited with founding the main lineage of “Chinese philosophy” in mainland China.
In the prologue, I will theoretically problematize how Chinese thought in general depends on a cultural/political legitimizing discourse. In the first part, taking as a framework the History of Chinese Philosophy (1930), I will analyze how Feng’s pre-1949 works are imbued with the spirit of New Culture and seek to respond to the issues raised by the debate on social reform at the time. In the second part, taking as a framework the History of Chinese Philosophy – New Edition (1982-1990), I will explain how the agenda of “Chinese philosophy” was adapted to the revolutionary discourse prior to the Opening-up and Reform policy. In the epilogue, I will speculate on Feng Youlan’s legacy in the context of the recent discourse of national rejuvenation, guided by an analysis of the doctrine of “Two Integrations,” proposed in 2022 by the leadership of the Communist Party of China.
Dimitra Amarantidou
University of Macau
Lecturer
Dimitra Amarantidou
University of Macau
Dimitra Amarantidou was born and raised in Athens, Greece. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Philology and Linguistics from the University of Athens, a Master’s degree in China Studies from Nanjing University, and a Doctoral degree in Chinese Philosophy from East China Normal University (ECNU). She has taught Chinese and comparative philosophy to Chinese and non-Chinese undergraduate and graduate students at ECNU, Shanghai Normal University, and other institutions, and is currently Senior Instructor of Philosophy at the University of Macau. Her publications include “The Irony of Confucius” (Philosophy Compass, 2022), “Irigaray and Confucius: A Collaborative Approach to (Feminist) Agency” (Journal of Chinese Philosophy, 2022), “Yi mi wei shi: si zhong dangdai xifang daojia shidu zhong de fanfeng yu diaogui” 以謎為匙：四種當代西方道家釋讀中的反諷與吊詭 [The Riddle As Key: Irony and Paradox in Four Contemporary Readings of Daoism] (Research into Daoist Culture, 2022), “Translative Trends in Three Modern Greek Renderings of the Daodejing” (Religions, 2023), and others. She works both individually and collaboratively on translations of contemporary Chinese philosophical works. She is also Fellow of the Center for Intercultural Learning at ECNU, and Editor of the Book Reviews (China/Southeast Asia) section for Philosophy East and West.
The promise of confucianism:
what to expect from kongzi’s teachings in the Lunyu
In recent years there is an increasing awareness that Confucianism is a rich source of insights applicable to contemporary ethical, social, and planetary issues. Classical Confucian texts such as the Lunyu 論語 (or Analects of Confucius) are widely interrogated for their perspectives on how to deal with anything from personal setbacks and family squabbles to community-specific conflicts and major global challenges. Taking the teachings in the Lunyu seriously is thus often tied to the expectation of obtaining certain desirable outcomes (specific forms of self-completion, familial harmony, and social flourishing) provided that persons and societies devote themselves to a set of moral undertakings. In other words, Kongzi’s teachings are often perceived as promises–as providing good grounds for expecting a pre-conceived positive outcome or as assurances that a predetermined desirable outcome will be achieved in the near or distant future. In this paper I will argue that interpreting the Lunyu and understanding the Confucian proposal solely as promise giving and future-oriented is counter-productive for acknowledging what distinguishes Confucianism from religious and consequentialist projects. Kongzi’s teachings are best appreciated as more present- and process-oriented, and concerned with decoupling the work of self-improvement from expectations about specific and measurable personal and social benefits (or li 利). The Lunyu offers illustrations of the good life as one focused on the work of the here-and-now, and on responding to a reality of change, difference, and potential. The promise of Confucianism is thus best understood not as a monolithic image of a personal or collective future that precedes and outshines human efforts. Confucianism promises a plurality of possibilities available and emergent in the midst of humans’ “broadening the Way” (hong dao 弘道) in the present moment.
José Jorge de Carvalho
University of Brasilia
Lecturer
José Jorge de Carvalho
University of Brasilia
José Jorge de Carvalho – Full Professor at the University of Brasília and Coordinator of the Institute for Inclusion in Higher Education and Research, CNPq, based at UnB. He is one of the architects of the quota proposal for Black and Indigenous people, initially implemented at UnB and later expanded to all Brazilian federal universities. He coordinates the national network of the "Encontro de Saberes" project, which aims to include masters and mistresses from traditional communities (Indigenous, Afro-Brazilian, quilombola, among others) as faculty in universities based solely on their oral knowledge.
Tianxia and Cosmopolitanism in China, Quotas and “Meeting of Knowledges” in Brazil: Two Civilizational Proposals for Coexistence
Two political and intellectual movements have emerged simultaneously in China and Brazil in the 21st century. In China, Zhao Tingyang has formulated the ancient concept of *Tianxia* (All Under Heaven) as a contemporary model for a borderless global governance, free from xenophobia and exclusions. More recently, Shuchen Xiang proposed the concept of Chinese cosmopolitanism as another distinctive civilizational standpoint of China, presenting it as a stark contrast to the racist and hierarchical worldview of the Western world.In Brazil, a new intellectual and political movement emerged two decades ago with the fight for quotas for Black and Indigenous people in universities, confronting centuries of slavery, colonization and genocide against these oppressed peoples. Following the introduction of quotas, we began a second movement, called *Meeting of Knowledges*, aimed at decolonizing and transforming the Eurocentric academic curriculum by bringing masters, or knowledge holders, of the traditional peoples and nations (Indigenous, Afro-Brazilian, Maroons, and others) to teach in universities. Based entirely on their oral traditions, they are now participating in the collective construction of a new pluriepistemic model of academic institution.Both proposals, the Chinese and the Brazilian, diverge from the Western imperialist, racist, and exclusionary model of social life, and present themselves as two civilizational alternatives to Western global hegemony. This presentation will explore the convergences and differences between the Chinese and Brazilian models of inclusive and plural coexistence among all peoples and all systems of knowledge.
Qingjie James Wang
University of Macau
Lecturer
Qingjie James Wang
University of Macau
Qingjie James Wand is currently a distinguished professor at the University of Macau's Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies. His specialty areas include Heidegger’s Philosophy, Hermeneutics, East-West Comparative Philosophy, Chinese Philosophy, and Moral Metaphysics.
Heidegger’s Critique of Kant’s Conception of Imagination and a Chinese Philosophy of “Xiang” (象)
Heidegger interpreted Kant's transcendental imagination (Einbildungskraft) as "to form" in its original ontological-existential sense rather than merely as "image" or “imagination" in its anthropological-epistemological sense. Based on this interpretation, the essay explores a hermeneutical study of the Chinese philosophy of "Xiang" (象/elephant-image) as it appears in ancient Chinese classical texts such as the Great Appendix of the Book of Change.
©2024 por IX Colóquio de Filosofia Oriental da Unicamp
Grupo de Estudos Brasil-China