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Harvard Department of Philosophy

Chinese Philosophy Series

Professor Bryan Van Norden (Vassar College)

Therapeutic Skepticism in Daoism

Friday, November 11^th  

2:00-4:00pm

Emerson Hall, Room 305

Abstract

The only Daoist philosopher that most Westerners have heard of is Laozi (“Lao Tzu”), the supposed author of the Classic of the Way and Virtue. However, among experts on Chinese philosophy, Zhuangzi (“Chuang Tzu”) is often considered the greatest Daoist philosopher.  Zhuangzi presents arguments for skepticism, relativism, and for the superiority of “knowing how” over “knowing that.”  However, it is not obvious how these arguments are consistent with one another. In this talk, Professor Van Norden explains some of Zhuangzi’s most intriguing arguments, and suggests that Zhuangzi intends these arguments to be “therapeutic.” This talk does not assume any previous familiarity with Chinese culture or Daoism.

About the Speaker

Bryan W. Van Norden is James Monroe Taylor Chair in Philosophy at Vassar College (USA), and Chair Professor in the School of Philosophy at Wuhan University (China). A recipient of Fulbright, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Mellon fellowships, Van Norden has been honored as one of The Best 300 Professors in the US by The Princeton Review. Van Norden is author, editor, or translator of ten books on Chinese and comparative philosophy, including Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy (2011), Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto (2017), Readings in Later Chinese Philosophy: Han to the 20th Century (2014, with Justin Tiwald), Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy (2nd ed., 2005, with P.J. Ivanhoe), and most recently Classical Chinese for Everyone: A Guide for Absolute Beginners (2019). He has also published multiple op-eds in the New York Times, and written a Ted-Ed video on Confucius that has been viewed over half a million times.  Many of his books and articles have been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Farsi, German, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Turkish.  His hobbies are poker (he has played in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas) and video games. You can visit his website here.

This is the third of four lectures in this series. Professor Van Norden will teach his last lecture on December 2.

Free and open to the public

Harvard University

Department of Philosophy

Emerson Hall, 25 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

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