Invited by Pro. Tu Weiming, Director of the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies at Peking University, Pro. Leonard Harris from the department of philosophy at Purdue University delivered a speech titled “Tradition and Modernity: the Morality of Reciprocity” at 3:00 pm, in Room 103, Building 4 of the Lee Shau-kee Humanities at Peking University.
Professor Leonard Harris thinks that traditions are not realizations of an ethnic, racial, national, or civilization kind or intrinsic nature, but ability to create cohesion through recreations. Traditions are inherently conservative, but they can be sources of innovation as well. Likewise, they can be beneficial or oppressive. Professor Leonard Harris thinks that tradition relies on the unconfirmed intuitions but modernity relies on scientific reason of categories. Professor Leonard Harris thinks that tradition’s benefits are coherence, transmitting morals and codes of meaning, and can keep the coherent narratives of self. However, tradition is invented by some authority who can speak, represent, and thus reflect some persona, kind of being and social status and moral character, which would lead to the disaster of ethnocentrism, nationalism, and racism. Therefore, Professor Leonard Harris proposes a morality of reciprocity and rejects any pre-given moral principles.
After the speech, the audience discussed with Professor about the question of how to distinguish enumerative reason and instrumental reason and the distinction between tradition and custom.
Jointly organized by the Institute for advanced Humanistic Studies at Peking University and Songyang Academy, a symposium on “Retrospect and prospect of the Development of Contemporary Confucianism (Songyang Academy Conference Series No. Four) was held on June 24-25, 2017 at the Songyang Academy, located at the foot of the Songshan Mountain. 26 scholars from mainland China and Hong Kong and Taiwan had in-depth discussion and exchanges around six sub-themes — “Prospects of the development of contemporary Confucianism”, “Analysis and reflection on the development of contemporary Confucianism”, “Confucianism and world philosophy”, “Confucianism and the way of politics”, “Interpretation of classics and creative development”, and “Confucian classics and modern education”.
Viewed from the historical dimension, the revival of the traditional Chinese cultural represented mainly by Confucianism is a reversal of the wave against the Chinese culture at the beginning of the last century. Viewed from the spatial dimension, it is an important part of the rise of non-Western culture in the context of global modernization. The development of this transition will have a profound impact on China and the world today and in the future. The symposium was based exactly on understanding the importance of this transition. Interaction of various schools of thought at all levels and various practices with different focuses not only reflect the vitality of this revival of Confucianism, but also implies a variety of problems and disturbing tendencies. Participated by some of the leading scholars in the field of Confucian studies, the symposium was expected to reflect on the revival of contemporary Confucianism, and provide analysis on the past experience, current condition and future of the development of contemporary Confucianism.
Executive Vice Director of Songyang Academy Mr. Sun Peixin made welcome remarks on behalf of the sponsors of the conference. Citing a poem of a Qing Dynasty local scholar, Sun said that the place is once again seeing a “gathering of worthies” and witnessing “continuation of the tradition”.
Director of the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies at Peking University Professor Tu Weiming spoke highly of the great surge of Confucianism in China in the recent years. He said that he firmly believes that the humanitarian spirit represented by the Zi Si and Mencius lineage of Confucianism will be able to go beyond the secular humanism held by the Enlightenment movement, and become an indispensable reference for the 21st century human quest for peaceful development. Director of the School of National Studies at Tsinghua University, Professor Chen Lai, focused on the “creative transformation” of Chinese traditional culture, and pointed out the importance of inheritance of tradition for creativity and development.
Participating Scholars believe that the current revival of Confucianism shows the return of the subjectivity of Chinese culture. Most scholars believe that such a return requires us to overcome the antagonistic thinking between the East and the West, standing in the commanding heights, to accommodate the achievements of various civilizations, turn from passive acceptance of Western civilization to active participation in the construction of global civilization, and let Confucianism become a resource for wisdom and value that can be shared by everyone.
Scholars also warned of some of the disturbing tendencies in today’s Sinology craze, such as fundamentalist Confucianism, vulgarization of Confucianism, blind obedience and the revival of superstition. In his concluding speech, Professor Tu Weiming pointed out that, if the difficulties encountered by Confucianism in the past were because of its being too marginal and had no right to speak, the difficulties today are just the opposite—that it has gained an upper hand.
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6月10日—6月11日，围绕着“全球语境下的中国哲学范式与价值”这个主题，研讨会热烈开展。与会学者讨论的子议题包括：“中国哲学的理论特征和研究方法”、“中国哲学中的政治与人性”、“中国哲学的历史与理论”、“儒家哲学研究的新视界”、“道家哲学的多样进路”、“道家政治哲学和境界理论”、“作为中国哲学问题的语言、逻辑和知识”、“中西哲学之间理解之路：翻译、研究和讨论”、“中国哲学通向亚洲哲学”、“印度哲学和佛教哲学”、“印度美学中的Mimesis（Anukaran？a or Anukr？ti）”、“对比哲学人类学”、“自由与个人主义”、“比较伦理学”、“作者与评论者面对面：现象学与跨文化理解——寻找一个新的文化体”、“中国哲学的成己之学”、“榜样的作用”、“经典诠释和理论分析”、“认识论与共同体”、“世界哲学”、“面向未来的中国哲学和亚洲哲学”等，通过自由而热烈的讨论，促进了学问之研讨、思想之交流、文化之对话。
World Philosophy Day is annually observed on the third Thursday of November to honor philosophical reflections around the world. It is a day for people to share thoughts, openly explore and discuss new ideas and inspire public debate or discussion on society’s challenges.
