Sep 25
Confucianism for Americans - Public Lecture by Professor Paul Goldin, University of Pennsylvania
Please join us at 4 pm for light refreshments and conversation before the 4:30 pm lecture begins.
Professor Paul Goldin, University of Pennsylvania, will present an overview of some core Confucian texts (Analects, Mencius, and Canon of Filial Piety) with an emphasis on the differences between Confucian conceptions of government and our everyday attitude toward government in the United States today.
Core principles include the conception of government (zheng 政) as rectification (zheng 正); the significance of the ruler as a moral exemplar; and the need for all members of society to live up to the moral demands of their roles, which leads, finally, to an examination of the virtue of filial piety (xiao 孝).
This lecture is sponsored by the Dr. Walter H. Judd Lectureship Fund in Asian Studies.
Professor Goldin's main area of research is classical Chinese history and philosophy, i.e. from the Bronze Age to late antiquity. As the study of this period is necessarily interdisciplinary, his work also involves archaeology, art history, linguistics, literature, and religion.