Tang Chun-I Visiting Professorship Public Lecture: Confucian Learning and University Education

Prof. Shun Kwong-loi |
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4:30 – 6:30 pm |
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Cho Yiu Hall |
Joining the Face-to-Face Talks (Please register by 21 February 2024):
https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13703488
For inquiries, please email to philosophy@cuhk.edu.hk
Abstract:
Confucian thinkers discourse at length on the nature of the learning process for adults (da xue 大學), and the Confucian conception has been influential on traditional educational practices such as those incorporated in the traditional academies (shu yuan 書院). This lecture examines the four main components of the learning process under this conception, which might be abbreviated as “depth,” “breadth,” “aspirations,” and “moral transformation.” The four components are integrated in a process that leads to a total transformation of the person, both intellectually and ethically.
On the basis of this discussion, the lecture responds to certain misconceptions of Chinese educational practices, such as those recently voiced by Richard Levin, former President of Yale University. It also relates this conception to contemporary Western discussions of university education, such as those by Cardinal John Henry Newman and by philosopher John Dewey. While aligned with some of these discussions in certain respects, the Confucian conception also goes beyond them in important respects, such as its emphasis on the inseparability of the intellectual and the ethical, and the depth to which it probes the nature of these four components of learning and their interconnections.
Conducted in English
All are welcome