3. Karyn Lai on Classical Chinese Philosophy

We will have an opportunity to use the giraffe I think - there will be an episode about animals in the Zhuangzi!

One the interviews, that is a bit of a moving target, we always have for each series some ideas for people to invite, then people who have been invited but not yet recorded, and then people who have already done it but the interview is not published yet (Franklin Perkins, in this case). That’s why I don’t usually say who will be appearing in advance, it is all too nebulous. 

On the happy fish: I actually wrote a paper which talks about that passage, recently, and draws on Lea’s work! I agree, it is a super interesting piece. I can send you my article if you want to email me.

And finally, on the fusion issue: that’s an interesting thought. I guess it wasn’t really part of my plan though maybe we could have an episode towards the end of this series (even with Karyn again perhaps) about the various ways that modern-day philosophers have engaged with Classical Chinese thought, and your idea would fit in there. One thing I’ve noticed already working on these episodes is that a lot of work on Chinese philosophy is comparative, like, say, Confucius and Aristotle on virtue. My instinct is that for HoPWaG the right approach is not to be comparative but to look at each tradition in its own right. But soon I’m actually writing a script on “Confucian virtue ethics” and in that case the comparison to Aristotle is pretty much unavoidable. Still I think that as with India, we want to avoid suggesting that the best or only way to explore, and even legitimate, these non-European traditions would be to compare them to European ones. Of course one can also compare Chinese and Indian philosophy and before long we’ll have those streams meeting when Buddhism comes to China so that will certainly be part of our story.

Ok, thanks - maybe you can “follow” or “subscribe” to the series and see everything?