03.07.2023

Lecture: Peng Guoxiang, "Confucius as a Cosmopolitan"

Prof. Peng Guoxiang (Zhejiang University), "Confucius as a Cosmopolitan: Thought and Practice", a lecture in the colloquium "History and Culture of China"

The Colloquium is held on 11. July 2023 at 4:15 pm in room 30 of the Department of Chinese and Korean Studies in Tübingen, Wilhelmstraße 133.
You may also attend online via Zoom:
Meeting Link: https://zoom.us/j/96682853768?pwd=OGdQc0huQ0NuQTVrM0tzYjF0RVN5dz09
Meeting ID: 966 8285 3768
Passcode: 498616

Abstract Based on the Analects and other texts related to Confucius in the classical period and “cosmopolitanism” - a concept with a long history in Western tradition - as a counterpart for comparison, this talk will probe the thought and practice of Confucius as a cosmopolitan and point out the features and significance of the “rooted cosmopolitanism” indicated in the thought and practice of Confucius. The rooted cosmopolitanism embodied by Confucius not only has the basic characteristics of all versions of cosmopolitanism, namely, going beyond territory and ethnicity, but also keeps a dynamic balance between the one and the many, the universal and the concrete, which is usually ignored by the radical cosmopolitanism.

Bio Peng Guoxiang is a Qiu Shi Distinguished Professor of Chinese Philosophy, intellectual history and religions at Zhejiang University. Before he moved to Zhejiang University in 2014, he was a professor at Peking University and Tsinghua University. He was a visiting professor, scholar and fellow at various universities and institutions around the world, including the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (2019-2020), University of Frankfurt am Main (2014), Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity (2012), National University of Singapore (2012), Ruhr-University Bochum (2009, 2010), Chinese University of Hong Kong (2010), National Taiwan University (2009), Harvard-Yenching Institute (2004, 2007-2008), Wesleyan University (2006), and University of Hawaii (2003-2004). He is the 2016 Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the North (Library of Congress, USA) and 2009 Awardee of the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award (Humboldt Foundation and the Ministry of Education and Research, Germany).