English Lecture Series: Chinese Philosophy and Modern Perspectives  ·  2022

 全英文系列讲座：中国哲学与当代视界 · 2022

Lecture seven: A Comparative Study of Xunzi and Heidegger

第七讲：荀子与海德格尔比较研究

Speaker 主讲人：Li Jifen 李记芬

Date 日期: 11.3, 2022, Thursday 周四

Time 时间：14:00-15:30

Place 地点：Lide Building 立德楼 0709

Tencent meeting ID 腾讯会议ID: 699 4551 8805

Back up ID 备用会议号：810 8525 2846

Bilibili B站直播间ID：22391891

Abstract about the lecture:

In Confucianism, ritual propriety (liyi 礼义) is commonly understood as an instrument for guiding people’s actions. In this lecture, however, I argue that taking ritual propriety merely as an instrument external to human beings fails to appreciate important aspects of Xunzi’s conception of ritual propriety. Drawing on suggestions from Martin Heidegger’s philosophy, I argue that ritual propriety in the Xunzi is analogous to language in Heidegger in important ways. For Heidegger, language is the “house of Being.” For Xunzi, ritual propriety could also be described as the house of the being of humanity. “House” refers to the medium in which human beings dwell. As the “house” of the morally refined person, ritual propriety, for Xunzi, is an ontological medium in which the human being comes to presence and becomes truly human in a Confucian sense.  

About the speaker:

Li Jifen, associate professor in Renmin University of China. She got her Ph.D in Nanyang Technological University of Singapore in 2015. She has published a book written in Chinese: The Studies on the Concept of the Complete Person in Xunzi (2021). She also has published papers both in English and Chinese in journals like PEW, Dao, The History of Chinese Philosophy, etc.. Her interests include the ancient Confucianism, the comparative studies, and so on.

Host: School of Philosophy, Renmin University of China； Institute for Advanced International Philosophical Studies

主办单位：中国人民大学哲学院；国际哲学高等研究院