This talk places master-student relations in the context of Confucian social theory, focusing on issues of obedience, remonstration, and respect for different sorts of authorities. I survey early Confucian accounts of the good society centered on role relations, personal development, and flourishing, both individual and communal. I then examine the question of autonomy within these relationships, looking closely at remonstration, obedience, and disobedience. The talk concludes with a broader discussion of human dependence, placing Confucian conceptions in dialogue with Eva Feder Kittay, Martha Fineman, and Alasdair MacIntyre. All three, like the Confucians, see dependency relations as central to human life and the problems of politics, in sharp contrast to most liberal views that imagine a social contract between autonomous, free, and equal individuals. Confucians view extreme dependence as a special case of the pervasive interdependence of all human beings on each other, with family relations serving in many respects as the model for other relations.
Despite contemporary American resistance to dependence as servile (and thus incompatible with freedom and autonomy), dysfunctional, or lazy, it is an essential condition of human life. None of us could flourish or even survive without care, assistance, and cooperation from others, especially in childhood and old age but also throughout the whole lifespan. As these Confucians argue, dependence on other people is socially and individually good: it satisfies our strong desires for connection to others, as well as many of our other desires, through the practices supported and wealth produced and distributed through efficient, just social cooperation.
Furthermore, despite contemporary American suspicions to the contrary, deference to experts and even to other social authorities is often good. In the case of students, it provides the most effective path to cultivating one’s own autonomy. And general social deference smooths social relations and helps society function, as long as people perform their role-specific duties well. Early Rú accounts of the varieties of authority, as well as the ritual propriety appropriate to different sorts of hierarchically ordered relations, help us to see that deference is quite different from objectionable obsequiousness or lack of judgment.
With responses from: TIMOTHY CONNOLLY (East Stroundsburg University)
We are delighted to announce our Spring meeting dates for the Comparative Philosophy seminar. Please save these dates!
January 24 – Aaron Stalnaker (Indiana University)
February 28 – Karsten Struhl (John Jay College, CUNY)
March 27 – Jin Y Park (American University)
May 1 – Sin yee Chan (University of Vermont)
The notion of an occurrence of a proposition in discourse is the subject of the following observation:
(O) A proposition may occur in discourse, now asserted, now unasserted, and yetbe recognizably the same proposition.
I shall argue that the true significance of this observation is utterly distorted by Geach’s manner of construing of it — a construal widely known today as “the Frege-Geach point”. Though it serves as a basis for a contemporary understanding of logical form, strictly thought through, this way of construing (O) can be shown to lead to absurdity. I will further argue that a straightforward, undistorted, acceptance of (O) is the key to a genuine philosophical logic.
— Irad Kimhi (The Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago)
Reception to follow.
We’re a community of philosophers of language centered in New York City. We have a meeting each week at which a speaker presents a piece of their own work relating to the philosophy of language. Anyone with an interest in philosophy of language is welcome!
3 February
Paul Pietroski (Rutgers)
10 February
Brian Leahy (Harvard)
17 February
No Workshop
24 February
Elizabeth Coppock (Boston)
2 March
Maria Biezma (UMass)
9 March
Jenn McDonald (CUNY)
16 March
No Workshop
23 March
Liina Pylkannen (NYU)
30 March
Bob Beddor (NUS)
6 April
Cameron Domenico Kirk-Giannini (Rutgers Newark)
13 April
Masha Esipova (Princeton)
20 April
Nate Charlow (Toronto)
27 April
Eric Tracy (City College)
4 May
Dilip Ninan (Tufts)
11 May
Jim Pryor (NYU)
We’re a community of philosophers of language centered in New York City. We have a meeting each week at which a speaker presents a piece of their own work relating to the philosophy of language. Anyone with an interest in philosophy of language is welcome!
3 February
Paul Pietroski (Rutgers)
10 February
Brian Leahy (Harvard)
17 February
No Workshop
24 February
Elizabeth Coppock (Boston)
2 March
Maria Biezma (UMass)
9 March
Jenn McDonald (CUNY)
16 March
No Workshop
23 March
Liina Pylkannen (NYU)
30 March
Bob Beddor (NUS)
6 April
Cameron Domenico Kirk-Giannini (Rutgers Newark)
13 April
Masha Esipova (Princeton)
20 April
Nate Charlow (Toronto)
27 April
Eric Tracy (City College)
4 May
Dilip Ninan (Tufts)
11 May
Jim Pryor (NYU)
We’re a community of philosophers of language centered in New York City. We have a meeting each week at which a speaker presents a piece of their own work relating to the philosophy of language. Anyone with an interest in philosophy of language is welcome!
3 February
Paul Pietroski (Rutgers)
10 February
Brian Leahy (Harvard)
17 February
No Workshop
24 February
Elizabeth Coppock (Boston)
2 March
Maria Biezma (UMass)
9 March
Jenn McDonald (CUNY)
16 March
No Workshop
23 March
Liina Pylkannen (NYU)
30 March
Bob Beddor (NUS)
6 April
Cameron Domenico Kirk-Giannini (Rutgers Newark)
13 April
Masha Esipova (Princeton)
20 April
Nate Charlow (Toronto)
27 April
Eric Tracy (City College)
4 May
Dilip Ninan (Tufts)
11 May
Jim Pryor (NYU)
We are delighted to announce our Spring meeting dates for the Comparative Philosophy seminar. Please save these dates!
January 24 – Aaron Stalnaker (Indiana University)
February 28 – Karsten Struhl (John Jay College, CUNY)
March 27 – Jin Y Park (American University)
May 1 – Sin yee Chan (University of Vermont)
We’re a community of philosophers of language centered in New York City. We have a meeting each week at which a speaker presents a piece of their own work relating to the philosophy of language. Anyone with an interest in philosophy of language is welcome!
3 February
Paul Pietroski (Rutgers)
10 February
Brian Leahy (Harvard)
17 February
No Workshop
24 February
Elizabeth Coppock (Boston)
2 March
Maria Biezma (UMass)
9 March
Jenn McDonald (CUNY)
16 March
No Workshop
23 March
Liina Pylkannen (NYU)
30 March
Bob Beddor (NUS)
6 April
Cameron Domenico Kirk-Giannini (Rutgers Newark)
13 April
Masha Esipova (Princeton)
20 April
Nate Charlow (Toronto)
27 April
Eric Tracy (City College)
4 May
Dilip Ninan (Tufts)
11 May
Jim Pryor (NYU)
We’re a community of philosophers of language centered in New York City. We have a meeting each week at which a speaker presents a piece of their own work relating to the philosophy of language. Anyone with an interest in philosophy of language is welcome!
3 February
Paul Pietroski (Rutgers)
10 February
Brian Leahy (Harvard)
17 February
No Workshop
24 February
Elizabeth Coppock (Boston)
2 March
Maria Biezma (UMass)
9 March
Jenn McDonald (CUNY)
16 March
No Workshop
23 March
Liina Pylkannen (NYU)
30 March
Bob Beddor (NUS)
6 April
Cameron Domenico Kirk-Giannini (Rutgers Newark)
13 April
Masha Esipova (Princeton)
20 April
Nate Charlow (Toronto)
27 April
Eric Tracy (City College)
4 May
Dilip Ninan (Tufts)
11 May
Jim Pryor (NYU)
We’re a community of philosophers of language centered in New York City. We have a meeting each week at which a speaker presents a piece of their own work relating to the philosophy of language. Anyone with an interest in philosophy of language is welcome!
3 February
Paul Pietroski (Rutgers)
10 February
Brian Leahy (Harvard)
17 February
No Workshop
24 February
Elizabeth Coppock (Boston)
2 March
Maria Biezma (UMass)
9 March
Jenn McDonald (CUNY)
16 March
No Workshop
23 March
Liina Pylkannen (NYU)
30 March
Bob Beddor (NUS)
6 April
Cameron Domenico Kirk-Giannini (Rutgers Newark)
13 April
Masha Esipova (Princeton)
20 April
Nate Charlow (Toronto)
27 April
Eric Tracy (City College)
4 May
Dilip Ninan (Tufts)
11 May
Jim Pryor (NYU)
We are delighted to announce our Spring meeting dates for the Comparative Philosophy seminar. Please save these dates!
January 24 – Aaron Stalnaker (Indiana University)
February 28 – Karsten Struhl (John Jay College, CUNY)
March 27 – Jin Y Park (American University)
May 1 – Sin yee Chan (University of Vermont)