GF Colloquium: Douglas Berger (Leiden University)

Introducing Chinese Philosophy. From the Warring States to the 21st Century

In the past 45 years in English-language publications, introductory volumes in Chinese philosophy largely only cover developments during the Warring States Period (475-221 BCE), which witnessed the early formulations of Confucian, Mohist, Yangist, Daoist and Legalist thought. Though a number of these treatments have been excellent and a few of them extend the period of coverage into the 8th or 9th centuries CR, they are often  written from a particular Western philosophical perspective and without exception leave of one or two millennia of philosophical development in China. In this presentation, I will survey the various methodological choices I undertook in this volume to thematically survey developments in Chinese philosophy from the 5th century BCE to the present day, which invoke several principles of Intercultural Philosophy I think crucial. I will also survey the contents of one of the book's chapters on personhood, which includes sections on early Confucian thought, women philosophers in Chinese history, 11th-12th century Chan Buddhist perspectives, an 18th century Confucian Evidentiary Learning scholar, and a contemporary debate over the value or harm of "family care" in Chinese society.