Personal profile

Wei LIU acquired his PhD from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (2010). He is Professor of Philosophy at Renmin University, visiting scholar at University of California, Berkeley, Princeton University, University of Munich, University of Patras. He has broad interest in ancient Greek philosophy, and the history of Western ethics and political philosophy. His main research focuses on Plato’s and Aristotle’s practical philosophy. He has published two monographs in Chinese, Machiavelli and Modernity (2012), Common Good and Private Good: A Study of Aristotle’s Practical Philosophy (2019); edited History of Western Political Philosophy (vol. 1 From Ancient Greece to Reformation). He has published some 30 articles on Chinese and English journals and collections, such as Antiquorum Philosophia , Sophia , Frontiers of Philosophy in China , Machiavelli in Northwest Asia , Philosophical Studies (哲学研究), Morality and Civilization (道德与文明), etc. He has also translated more than a number of books in order to enhance the studies of ancient philosophy in China, such as Aristotle’s De Motu Animalium , Jonathan Lear’s Desire to Understand , G. R. F. Ferrari’s City and Soul in Plato’s Republic , Anthony Long’s Hellenistic Philosophy (with Zhiruo Wang), Terence Irwin’s Plato’s Ethics (with Wei Chen), etc. He is the organizer of the RUC Master Class on Ancient Philosophy (since 2011), and the RUC Conference on Ancient Philosophy (since 2016). He regularly teaches undergraduate courses such as Introduction to Ethics, History of Western Ethics, Socratic Problem, and graduate seminars on Plato’s moral psychology, Plato’s Laws , Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics , Eudemian Ethics , and Politics .