CHOP Seminar - Karyn Lai (UNSW): The Zhuangzi on Place
Description
The CHOP Research Seminar showcases work-in-progress from leading Australian and international historians of philosophy.
SPEAKER: Professor Karyn Lai (University of New South Wales)
ABSTRACT: The Zhuangzi’s stories and imagery feature characters and animals that are often somewhere, in a specific place. Varieties of human activities, such as conversing, creating, wandering, or simply going about life are often embedded in places. Consider how Zhuangzi and Huizi are both on the bridge, over the river Hao, in which the fish are swimming—happily, as Zhuangzi says (17/87-91). In this story—and there are many more—the places and positions of its characters could have been omitted. But, instead, each has a unique place; I suggest this is for a reason. In this paper, I propose that the Zhuangzi pays close attention to the places we inhabit, roam in, leave behind, travel to, and move beyond. I discuss key themes and imagery in the text that highlight the centrality of place in human experiences: we are grounded in and by place.
Speakers
Professor Karyn Lai
Karyn Lai is Professor of Philosophy at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Her research in Chinese and comparative philosophy seeks to offer culturally-inclusive and relevant models of human wellbeing. Her publications include Introduction to Chinese Philosophy (2017, Cambridge UP), now translated into Chinese, Korean and Portuguese; edited volumes; and peer-reviewed articles. Karyn is co-editor of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s Chinese philosophy entries; of the book series New Texts in the History of Philosophy (Oxford UP); and Associate Editor of the Australasian Journal of Philosophy. She is co-author (on the classical Chinese philosophical tradition) of the podcast series History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps.
In person or online
In person location: NDS22/102 - 140 Myrtle St, Chippendale NSW 2008, Australia
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