Berkley Center

Contemporary moral psychology aims to explain the psychological processes involved in moral judgments, emotions, and virtues by drawing on the results of recent research in empirical and evolutionary psychology as well as cognitive neuroscience. The study of East Asian philosophy by philosophers trained in the Anglo-American tradition has applied these results and shown several promising directions to explore traditional East Asian thought. Nevertheless, an issue that needs to be further addressed is the extent to which the study of East Asian philosophy has not yet been sufficiently indigenized in terms of taking the experiences of East Asian people seriously, in their own terms. As a result, the norm of experience in the study of East Asian thought is largely biased in favor of the Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) standard; often Western theories provide the primary concepts, approaches, and goals which are subsequently applied to East Asian traditional materials and to the experience of modern East Asians.

To address this concern, this two-day conference addressed various issues that arise at the point where East Asian thought intersects with contemporary moral psychology and cultural psychology, and it explored the ways in which the study of East Asian philosophy can be relevant not just to what can be learned from traditional Confucian texts, but to understanding the experiences of contemporary people. Please RSVP to receive a link to watch the YouTube livestream. In-person attendance was by invitation only.

This event was co-sponsored by Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, the Center for the Contemporary Study of East Asian Classics and Critical Confucianism (CCECC) at Sungkyunkwan University, and the National Research Foundation of Korea. The co-sponsors also thank the Institute of Confucian Philosophy and Culture (ISCP) and Journal of Confucian Philosophy and Culture (JCPC) at Sungkyunkwan University for their support.

Schedule

Friday, September 23

9:15 – 9:30 a.m. EDT | Opening Remarks
Philip J. Ivanhoe, Georgetown University
Doil Kim, Sungkyunkwan University

9:30 - 10:30 a.m. EDT | ‘Like Loving a Lovely Sight’: Knowledge and Action in Chinese Philosophy
Bryan W. Van Norden, Vassar College

10:30 - 10:45 a.m. EDT | Break

10:45 - 11:30 a.m. EDT | On Lowering Oneself - Construed from a Cross-cultural Perspective
Doil Kim, Sungkyunkwan University

11:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. EDT | Lessons from the Contemporary Debate over Filial Values and Corruption
Hagop Sarkissian, City University of New York Graduate Center

12:15 – 1:30 p.m. EDT | Break

1:30 – 2:30 p.m. EDT | Tribalism and Moral Learning
Shaun Nichols, Cornell University

2:30 – 2:45 p.m. EDT | Break

2:45 – 3:30 p.m. EDT | East Asian Thoughts in Cultural Psychology
Hoon-Seok Choi, Sungkyunkwan University

3:30 – 4:15 p.m. EDT | Sages Are Partial to Humanity
Youngsun Back, Sungkyunkwan University

4:15 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. EDT | Day One Closing Remarks
Thomas Banchoff, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs

Saturday, September 24, 2022

9:30 – 10:30 a.m. EDT | Confucian Affect (情) as the Foundation for Mutual Care and Moral Elevation in Human Relationality
Jin Li, Brown University

10:30 – 11:15 a.m. EDT | Anger: Between Illness and Politics
Keunchang Oh, Sungkyunkwan University

11:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. EDT | Authenticity, Code-Switching, and the Ethics of Consistency
Daniel Kelly, Purdue University
Michael Brownstein, John Jay College of Criminal Justice