'Learning From Chinese Philosophy' Lecture Sept. 25

Best-selling author Dr. Bryan W. Van Nordan will discuss "Learning from Chinese Philosophy," on Wednesday, Sept. 25. The University community is invited to attend the Humanities Forum Lecture as presented by Asian Studies and The Slattery Center of Ignatian Humanities on Wednesday, Sept. 25 at 5 p.m., Brennan Hall 228. Royal Card Reader will be onsite for students to swipe in.

Dr. Van Norden, best-selling author of "Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto" (Columbia University Press, 2017) is ranked among The Best 300 Professors in the United States by The Princeton Review. He is James Monroe Taylor Chair in Philosophy at Vassar College, and chair professor in the School of Philosophy at Wu han University, China.

According to the author's abstract: "When Europeans first encountered Chinese Confucians, Daoists, and Buddhists, they immediately recognized them as serious philosophers. However, this attitude changed due to the influence of imperialism and pseudo-scientific racism, so that (beginning with Kant) Chinese philosophy was dismissed and banned from academic philosophy in the West.

"Recently, works like my 'Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto,' have challenged the status quo and demanded that we return to the cosmopolitan ideal of multicultural philosophy. This lecture provides several examples of the profound and distinct philosophical debates that existed in China on issues such as consequentialism, human nature, ethical egoism, relativism and skepticism."