Cfp TAIWANESE PHILOSOPHY AND THE PRESERVATION OF CONFUCIAN TRADITION

Taiwanese Philosophy and the Preservation of Confucian Tradition

International Conference organized by University of Ljubljana, EARL Ljubljana, and TRCCS (Taiwan Research Center for Chinese Studies) in Taipei
10-12 October 2019
Description:

Although the philosophical currents in modern and contemporary Taiwan belong to the most influential and important streams of thought in contemporary East Asian theory, they are still unrecognized as specifically Taiwanese. The main reasons for the immense importance of Taiwanese philosophy for East Asia and the contemporary world are twofold. First, they can be found in its contributions to the preservation of traditional Chinese, especially Confucian thought. Secondly, its development of specific innovative philosophical approaches and systems profoundly influenced the theoretical discourses in the entire East Asian region. The philosophical currents in modern Taiwan were mainly developed during the second half of 20th century, in which the philosophical theory in mainland China was largely limited to the Sinization of Marxist thought. Hence, for many decades, Taiwanese philosophy represented the only driving force of developing, modernizing and upgrading traditional Chinese thought and its syntheses with Western thought. Hence, they soon also gained a wide spread popularity in most of the other East Asian societies that were traditionally influenced by classical Confucian thought, as for example Japan and South Korea.
The conference, organized by Ljubljana University, the EARL in Ljubljana and the TRCCS at the National Central Library in Taipei under the academic leadership by Professor Jana S. Rošker, Ph.D., will bring together leading European and East Asian scholars investigating the thought of Taiwanese philosophers. It aims to introduce their work to the wider international academic public, and to discuss and exchange knowledge regarding their philosophical approaches, ideas and methods. It will furthermore also illuminate the political, social and ideological backgrounds of the specific Taiwanese philosophy.
Given the fact that numerous Taiwanese philosophers belong to the pinnacle of contemporary theoretic achievements in the Chinese language area, and because there is still an almost complete lack of awareness of this fact in the European academic circles, the conference aims to clarify and to expose the following issues:

• The role and the function of Taiwanese scholars in the preservation of the Chinese intellectual (especially Confucian, but also Daoist and Buddhist) tradition;
• Taiwanese interpretations of Chinese philosophy;
• Introductions of recent Taiwanese philosophy and its authors, including both the ones who lived and worked in the 2nd half of the 20th century (e.g. Mou Tsung-san, Hsü Fu-kuan, Hu Shih, Fang Tung-Mei, Tai Lien-Chang etc) and the still active philosophers who deserve more international reputation, like Lee Ming-huei, Huang Chun-chieh, Lee Hsien-chung, Yu Ying-shih, Liu Shu-hsien, Tu Wei-Ming, Cheng Chung-Ying etc;
• The formation of a recognizable position of recent Taiwanese intellectual streams in the contemporary discourses on philosophy and culture;
• The analysis and explanation of common cultural conditioned threads in the Taiwanese philosophy – the relation between the specifically Taiwanese cultural elements and the theoretical and ideological approaches applied by Taiwanese philosophers;
• Political, sociological and intellectual backgrounds;
• History and politics: the cross strait relations in the second half of the 20th century.

Deadlines for participating scholars:
Abstract submission: 28 February 2019
Completed papers: 30 June 2019
Contact:
The abstracts and the papers should be sent to the chief organizer, Professor Jana S. Rošker (jana.rosker@ff.uni-lj.si).