An Uncommon Dialogue Among 12 Philosophers at UCU
Chiara Robbiano (UCU) applied for and received a generous grant from TOSHIBA International Foundation (TIFO) to organize an international philosophy meeting: “Japanese and Cross-cultural philosophy Meeting: a dialogue about assumptions” (UCU, Utrecht, September 28-29, 2017).
The meeting will have an uncommon format: it will be a dialogue among 12 philosophers.
University College Utrecht (UCU) students and faculty as well as other interested people are welcome to be present at the meeting. They need to notify Chiara. Students of the World Philosophies course will attend at least one session.
We have asked Chiara a few questions.
What is the aim of project?
The aim of this meeting is to promote a dialogue on fundamental assumptions —about what is real, what is a human being, what we can know, what should we do— among scholars of Japanese philosophy and scholars of other philosophical traditions. We will confront our answers and profit from the perspective of Japanese philosophers on the issues under discussion by engaging in truly cross-cultural philosophical dialogue.
In the Netherlands there is a strong tradition of Western Philosophy, great interest in non-Western traditions, and the awareness of a strong historical bond with Japan. The Netherlands are the logical place to host a meeting in which assumptions are compared, and Japanese answers to traditional philosophical questions are discussed among Western, Indian and Chinese ones.
The meeting I have organized will take place in Utrecht (the Netherlands), September 28-29, 2017. This is the second meeting. The first, very successful, one has been organized by professor Rein Raud in Tallinn (October 2016). During that meeting all present scholars who were not acquainted with the insights of Japanese philosophers, such as Dōgen, Nishida and Watsuji, were convinced that these Japanese voices needed to be heard beyond the walls of the departments of Areas Studies or East Asian philosophy. Our discussions started as comparative in nature and resulted in practicing real philosophy. By drawing from multiple sources, we envisioned fresh perspectives on our topics, which allowed us to achieve a firmer understanding of them than we had before. New answers were found and old questions were sharpened and reformulated.
What is the precise schedule of the meeting?
- How do concepts help us know reality? (What are concepts? What is their relation to what is fundamentally real? What is rationality?)
Thursday, Sept 28, 10.30-13.00.
Japan: Rein Raud [Tallinn University, Estonia, Japanese and Asian philosophy]
India: Joanna Jurewicz [University of Warsaw, Poland, Indian philosophy, Vedic Studies, cognitive linguistics]
West: Jan van Ophuijsen [University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, Greek, Islamic and Analytic philosophy] - How do ideas about what we are influence what we do?
Thursday, Sept 28, 15.00-17.30.
Japan: Makio Takemura [Toyo University, Tokyo, Japan, Japanese Buddhist philosophy]
India: Stephen Harris [Leiden University, the Netherlands, Indian Buddhist philosophy and contemporary ethics]
West: Richard Seaford [University of Exeter, UK, Greek tragedy and philosophy, Indian philosophy] - How is dialogue among those who do not share fundamental assumptions possible?
Friday, Sept 29,10.30-13.00.
Japan: Gereon Kopf [Luther College, U.S.A., Japanese, Buddhist, Comparative philosophy],
West/India: Chiara Robbiano [University College Utrecht, Utrecht University, the Netherlands, Greek and Indian philosophy]
China/India/West: Douglas Berger [Leiden University, the Netherlands, Chinese, Indian, 18th-19th Continental philosophy] - What is philosophy?
Friday, Sept 29, 15.00-17.30.
Japan: Sarah Flavel [Bath Spa University, UK, Japanese, Chinese & Continental Philosophy]
India: Shalini Sinha [Reading University, UK, Hindu and Buddhist Indian philosophy]
West: Paul Ziche (Utrecht University, the Netherlands, History of modern Western philosophy, Japanese philosophy)
What is the format of the meeting?
The meeting will consist of 4 sections of 2h and 30 min each. The leading questions of the four sections are the following:
- How do concepts help us know reality? (What are concepts? What is their relation to what is fundamentally real? What is rationality?)
- How do ideas about what we are influence what we do?
- How is dialogue among those who do not share fundamental assumptions possible?
- What is philosophy?
Before the actual meeting —by the 31st of August 2017— each scholar selects a philosophical text (or portions of various texts, around 1500-2000 words in total) and circulate it among all participants, together with his or her provisional answer to the question: “What hidden preconceptions or explicit assumptions (e.g. about what is real, what is a human being, what we can know, what should we do) are present in your chosen text?”
At the beginning of every session (Sept. 28 and 29, 2017), introductions will be offered by three scholars expert in either Japanese philosophy, or comparative philosophy, or philosophy of a different tradition.
Each of us will have 10 minutes to present our text(s) and our provisional answer to the question about what assumptions are present in their text.
Then, a 2-hour discussion will follow in which we may go beyond our selected text and engage in a dialogue, in which we try to answer together the leading question of our session.
The objective is to both explore the conditions for a dialogue across traditions that may not share fundamental assumptions and to practice such a dialogue. I believe that awareness of assumptions will facilitate the constructive and creative part of the philosophical conversation.
Students of UCU, the Liberal Arts and Science Honours College of Utrecht University, as well as other interested students and colleagues may be present during the discussions.
What can I expect from this meeting?
Just as it happened after the first meeting on Japanese and cross-cultural philosophy, the discussions during the meeting will hopefully lead to academic contacts that will engender collaborative projects, including joint appearances at major conferences, e.g. the next East and West conference in Honolulu in 2020.
We expect that articles resulting from the meeting will be accepted by international peer-reviewed journals.
We hope that, after the meeting, we will have a deeper understanding and awareness of assumptions at play in answering similar philosophical questions in different cultural contexts, and an increased awareness on what works and what does not work in a dialogue between scholars with different assumptions.
The most important goal is the increasing presence of Japanese philosophical thought both in the cross-cultural philosophy arena and in philosophy as a whole.