Teaching Chinese philosophy

1. Teaching Chinese philosophy Andrew Lambert Western New England University andrew.lambert@wne.edu

2. Challenges to teaching Chinese phil • Lack of interest in Asian philosophy as an elective • Varies by region and student demographic? • What students (don’t) know: Starting from zero? • Little prior exposure to China • No prior exposure to philosophy? • An advantage? Not looking for deductive arguments?

3. A method that responds to these challenges…

4. An alternative approach: • Use methods that philosophy students are familiar with: • Careful reading and analysis, identifying/constructing and assessing arguments • But apply them to unusual themes, themes important to Chinese philosophy

5. The Basic Idea • Chinese thought deals with themes or topics less discussed in ‘mainstream’ philosophy, and canonical texts. • Thus, need to introduce these neglected themes to students • By encouraging explicit reflection on these themes, students more deeply engage with the Chinese texts.

6. So, what are these themes?

7. Examples: 1. Tradition • The Analects’ emphasis on the role of history, sage kings, moral exemplars, the appeal of the Zhou dynasty…

8. Make students think about ‘tradition’: • What is it? • How important is it? • What role does it play in determining a person’s identity? • How and when should tradition be reformed? • Can we ever really escape tradition? Is the ideal of individual freedom from tradition just one particular form of tradition? • What role does tradition play in contemporary liberal consumer democracy?

9. The Reading: • Blend of: • Philosophical analysis of ‘tradition’ (non-China) • Contemporary Chinese philosophers on tradition • Classic text passages on tradition

10. Modern work on ‘tradition’ as a philosophical (or intellectual) problem: • Edward Shils(2006). Tradition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, ch. 1. • Contemporary philosophers working on Chinese thought who address tradition: • SorHoon Tan, in Confucius Now (D. Jones, ed) • Other suggestions? • Gadamer?

11. Analects passages on tradition: (Bold passages=priority) • Ancestors 1.9 – Sacrifices to Ancestors: • Observing the Father’s way 1.11, 4.20, 17.21. • Sage Kings; Historical figures and exemplars. • 1.12 Harmony the way of the former kings • 7.15; 16.12, 18.8: Bo Yi and ShuQi as revered figures of the past • 9.5. Confucius as representative of a culture 斯文 • Earlier Dynasties: • 8.18 -21 Yao, Shun and Yu as exemplary sage rulers. • 3.14 Lover of the Zhou • 15.11 Creating a viable state using the traditions of earlier states • Learning. • 2.15, 7.28: Learning about the past and selecting from it • Role of Ancient texts in Confucius’ teaching. • 1.15 Book of Songs, 3.8. 2.21. Book of Documents. • 17.9-10 Learning the Songs to express experiences • Problems of tradition? • Mencius 3B2. Gender distinctions – women’s way as marriage and obedience. • Pragmatic attitude towards tradition: • 3.21 changing customs? • 5.10: Allowing daughter to marry ex-convict – against popular tradition. • 9.3 Flexibility on hemp camp

12. Some other themes…

13. 2. Ritual • Common student starting point: ritual as restrictive and boring • Aim: make students think of ritual in much richer ways

14. Rethinking ritual For example: • Ritual can include habit • your morning ritual • Ways of training people to interact with others • learning to say hello in the morning • Shaping emotions and inclinations • saying hello in the morning to people we don’t care for • Creating community by creating a shared event in which every participant can contribute something • Going to a football match, a college open day

15. Readings for Ritual Texts: • ‘Canonical’ scholarly texts: • Catherine Bell, Ritual • Chinese material (secondary): • Michael IngThe Dsyfunction of Ritual in Early Confucianism • Herbert FingaretteThe Secular as Sacred, ch. 1 • Contemporary snapshots of everyday ritual • New York Times: Ritual makes food taste better

16. Analects on 禮li: • 1.13 Ritual and deference; 2.3 shame; • 3.4 Ritual and grief, 3.12 Attitudes in ritual, 3.18 Pedantry in ritual • 8.2 Ritual and virtues • 10.4 Bodily dimension of ritual • 12.1, Ritual as self-restraint • 17.11 Ritual as more than ritual objects

17. Questions: • What is ritual? • What role does or should ritual play in contemporary life? • What place or role does Fingarette ascribe to ‘ritual’ in the Confucian vision? • What are the attractions and limitations of his account? • What role does Li (‘ritual’) play in the Analects • Is ‘ritual’ the best translation for ‘li禮’?

18. 3. The family • Contemporary works: • Jane English ‘What do grown children owe to their parents?’ • Christina Hoff Sommers ‘Filial Morality’ • Brenda Almond, The Fragmenting Family OUP • China-focused scholarship: • Richard Madsen, ‘Ethics and the Family: China/West’ (20 pages) • Lin Yutang??

19. Classical texts on family • Analects: • Xiao (family reverence): 1.6, 2.6 Worrying parents, 2.21 Family relations as government • Remonstrance (jian): 2.5 Acting contrary, 4.18-21 • Problems with the family: 13.18 Sheep • TheXiaojing (The Classic of Family Reverence): • Chapters 1 Parent-child relation, 2 Emperor and family, 8 Inclusiveness, 15 Remonstrance • Xunzi, chapter 20

20. 4. Guanxi - Networks of interpersonal relationships • Examining a modern social phenomenon to imagine a contemporary Confucian society • Also: political philosophy debates over a modern Confucian polity • Also: the importance of ‘face’ (mianzi) • Questions: • How are the networks of personal connections prevalent in East Asian societies related to Confucian thought? • In what ways are they ethical or unethical? • Reading: • Mayfair Yang Gifts, Favors and Banquets, Ch. 3 • Andrew Kipnis, ‘On face’

21. 5. Aesthetic Experience • Analects connects aesthetic experience with personal conduct • But traditional aesthetics often limits ‘aesthetic experience’ to the disinterested contemplation of certain objects (art) • How can we better understand the ‘aesthetic’ in the Confucian tradition? • Solution: a debate in Anglo-American thought that seeks to describe an enlarged notion of the aesthetic • Reading: • Sherri Irvin: ‘The pervasiveness of the aesthetic in everyday experience’ British Journal of Aesthetics

22. Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean): • Sections 1, 2, 3, 15 • 25 (chengwu誠物 – bringing events to fruition) • Analects on harmony joy and delight: • 1.1, 1.12, 6.20, 16.5, 11.26. • Mencius on delight • : 1A2, 1B1, 1B2, 1B4, 3A2, 7B36.

23. Limitations of this method? • Students find analytical texts too difficult for an introductory course? • Danger of failing to let the texts speak for themselves? Too much scaffolding? • Less direct focus on ren 仁yi 義 etc.

24. But: only an introductory method or 100-level course • Later, wider reading in the Chinese corpus will result in students developing a fuller picture of relevant nuances and concepts, incl. ren, yi, etc.

25. Summary: Prospects • Mirrors exciting cross-fertilisations in research: eg, Everyday aesthetics, the ethical status of cultivating social connections • Philosophers working in areas relevant to articulating Chinese thought providing new ideas and concepts that make sense of the early texts • An appealing gateway to Chinese texts: • Identifying issues or concepts in the texts relevant to students’ lives, with which they can identify (ritual, tradition, family, etc).