Books by Ady Van den Stock
Articles & Book chapters by Ady Van den Stock
Ethiek & Maatschappij, 2023
Although comparative philosophy (also commonly referred to as “transcultural” or “intercultural” ... more Although comparative philosophy (also commonly referred to as “transcultural” or “intercultural” philosophy) would at first sight seem to present itself as a highly suitable if not ideal discursive space for contributing to the decolonization of philosophical knowledge, my paper argues that this relatively recent subdiscipline of academic philosophy has generally failed to reflect on its own historical entanglement with colonialism as well as practices of epistemic exclusion intrinsically related to processes and experiences of colonization. My argument is focused on analyzing how the very notion of “culture” (and “civilization”) can be read as a symptom of, rather than a solution for, this overall lack of historical self-awareness and uses examples drawn from specific subfields within the discipline of comparative philosophy (African, Chinese, Latin-American) to call attention to the latter’s profound entanglement with comparative religion and ethnography, fields of knowledge which are quite simply impossible to separate from colonialism. In doing so, I offer some reflections on the implications of arriving at a better understanding of the history of the comparative endeavor for calls to decolonize the practice of philosophy more generally speaking.
Dao Companion to Liang Shuming's Philosophy, 2023
This chapter provides an overview of the historical background as well as philosophical outlook b... more This chapter provides an overview of the historical background as well as philosophical outlook behind the twentieth-century Confucian thinker Liang Shuming’s 梁漱溟 (1893-1988) engagement with the movement for “rural reconstruction” (xiangcun jianshe 鄉村建設) which took off during the 1930s in Republican China. After situating Liang’s turn toward the countryside and his activities in Shandong province as leader of the Institute for Rural Reconstruction in their broader socio-political context and his own trajectory as an intellectual and reformer, I describe and analyze the complex constellation of cultural, historical, social, political, and economic elements in his 1937 Theory of Rural Reconstruction (Xiangcun jianshe lilun 鄉村建設理論). In doing so, I pay particular attention to the relation between Liang’s idiosyncratic reinterpretation of premodern China’s social order as grounded in an affirmation of “reason” (lixing 理性) and his vision for a form of “national self-awakening” (minzu zijue 民族自覺) rooted in the countryside as a place where the traditional Confucian primacy “ethical relations” (lunli 論理) has supposedly been preserved. In conclusion, I argue that Liang’s idea of rural “collective life” (tuanti shenghuo 團體生活) as the basis for a wholly new form of society counts as a non-state-centered approach to modernization which continues to resonate in contemporary postrevolutionary China.
Modern China, 2022
The academic discipline of “ethnic minority philosophy,” which emerged at the beginning of the 19... more The academic discipline of “ethnic minority philosophy,” which emerged at the beginning of the 1980s in the People’s Republic of China, has thus far remained virtually unstudied in Western-language scholarship. The aim of this article is to place the genesis and development of this little-known discipline against the wider background of modern Chinese scholarly and political discourses on the interrelated issues of national, ethnic, cultural, philosophical, and religious identity. In doing so, this article analyzes what I call the “hierarchical inclusion” of minority traditions into the history of Chinese philosophy, the perceived proximity between ethnic minority philosophies and “primitive religion,” and the role of the problematic concept of “culture” in the reinvention of minoritarian traditions of thought as philosophy.issues of national, ethnic, cultural, philosophical, and religious identity. In doing so, this article analyzes what I call the “hierarchical inclusion” of minority traditions into the history of Chinese philosophy, the perceived proximity between ethnic minority philosophies and “primitive religion,” and the role of the problematic concept of “culture” in the reinvention of minoritarian traditions of thought as philosophy.
Philosophy East and West, 2021
The Awakening of Faith and New Confucian Philosophy, 2021
Comparative philosophy has a thing with borders. It likes to dwell in frontiers, passageways, bou... more Comparative philosophy has a thing with borders. It likes to dwell in frontiers, passageways, boundaries, fissures, or fault lines and seems obsessed with delineating, uncovering, redrawing, crossing, bypassing, and - last but not least - overcoming them. But is it really so easy to identify, let alone transcend, philosophical boundaries? Do we not often at the same time rely on them to get a sense of orientation? After all, how could we even refer to what we are trying to reach in this movement of transcendence without first tracing the contours of what is supposedly standing in our way? Comparative thinkers may, not without good reason, look upon themselves as more nomadic than their somewhat sedentary peers operating within the confines of the Western tradition, but at the end of the day, they too have to set up camp somewhere. We may be justified in wanting to dismantle certain borders (which ones?), but might have to begin by convincing others of their existence, or - alternatively - of their illusory. Passports need to be issued by the proper authorities (Aristotle? Kant? Rawls?), documents need to be stamped (“is there philosophy at all in China or Africa?”, certain funding bodies may ask - and they do). The still relatively marginal status of comparative or “non-Western” thought in the global landscape of philosophy as an academic discipline is obviously an important factor to take into account here. While often deplored, the “Balkanization” of philosophy along different national, cultural, or civilizational fault lines seems to be an institutionalized fait accompli (not only in “the West”), even if not necessarily in an irreversible sense. Waving to those looming across the border like a desert mirage with the little white flags of “multiculturality”, “transdisciplinarity” and “inclusiveness”, a brief look at most curricula in philosophy at Euro-American universities goes to show that all manner of walls, fences (with or without barbed wire), and watch posts remain firmly in place.
Asian Philosophy, 2021
The aim of this paper is to offer a new interpretation of the controversial concept of “immanent ... more The aim of this paper is to offer a new interpretation of the controversial concept of “immanent transcendence” (neizai chaoyue 内在超越) in modern and contemporary Chinese philosophy. After a series of introductory remarks on the semantic and conceptual range of the terms “immanence” and “transcendence” in comparative philosophy, I go on to provide a historically sensitive analysis of the origins of the notion of “immanent transcendence” in the work of the twentieth-century Confucian philosopher Mou Zongsan 牟宗三 (1909-1995), who has generally been credited with having first put forward this concept. In doing so, I attempt to make clear that rather than merely reflecting a blanket ontological or epistemological claim serving to differentiate Chinese from Western culture and thought, Mou’s insistence on uniting the transcendent and the immanent should be understood as having a profoundly socio-political dimension. More specifically, I argue that the paradoxical concept of “immanent transcendence” reflects his efforts to reconceptualize and maintain a form of continuity between the normative and the factual in the face of the unprecedented challenges faced by the Confucian tradition in the modern era.
International Communication of Chinese Culture , 2020
Liang Shuming's 梁漱溟 (1893-1988) China: the Country of Reason (Zhongguo: lixing zhi guo 中国：理性之国) i... more Liang Shuming's 梁漱溟 (1893-1988) China: the Country of Reason (Zhongguo: lixing zhi guo 中国：理性之国) is a little-known, posthumously published manuscript composed between 1967 and 1970 during the Cultural Revolution. It offers a unique perspective on Liang's philosophical attempt to reconcile the Communist revolutionary legacy with the Confucian tradition he continued to uphold in mainland China after the founding of the People's Republic. By presenting and analyzing the main themes and concepts of this book, I try to cast some light on Liang's idiosyncratic repurposing of historical materialist concepts in reinterpreting what he takes to be "early enlightenment" accomplished through the Confucian celebration of "reason" (lixing 理性) and its "replacement of religion by morality." In doing so, I explore the complex relations between revolutionary, religious, and ethnic identity in his late philosophy.
Dao Companion to Contemporary Confucian Philosophy
Asian Studies, 2021
The intellectual impact of the First World War in China is often understood as having led to a di... more The intellectual impact of the First World War in China is often understood as having led to a disenchantment with the West and a discrediting of the authority of "science," while at the same time ushering in a renewed sense of cultural as well as national "awakening." Important developments such as the May Fourth Movement, the rise of Chinese Marxism, and the emergence of modern Confucianism have become integral parts of the narrative surrounding the effects of the "European War" in China and bear witness to the contested relation between tradition and modernity in twentieth-century Chinese thought. Through a case study of a number of wartime and postwar texts written by the "cultural conservative" thinker and publicist Du Yaquan (1873-1933), this paper tries to draw attention to the complexity and occasional ambiguity of responses to the "Great War" in modern Chinese intellectual history. More specifically, the following pages offer an analysis of Du's critique of "materialism" in the context of his quest for social freedom and cultural continuity, his enduring commitment to scientific notions of social evolution and political governance, and his approach to the relation between war, the nation-state, the individual, and the international interstate order developed against the background of the First World War.
Asian Studies, 2020
While the twentieth-century Confucian thinker Mou Zongsan (1909-1995) has left behind one of the ... more While the twentieth-century Confucian thinker Mou Zongsan (1909-1995) has left behind one of the most thought-provoking and intensively studied bodies of philosophical writings in modern Chinese intellectual history, his own life and its relation to his philosophy (or “learning”), a theme at the center of the "Autobiography at Fifty" from the mid-fifties, has so far remained largely unexamined. After some introductory remarks on the context and outlook of the "Autobiography", my paper turns to the close relation between Mou’s conception of life and his approach to the “cultural life” of China as a nation. In doing so, I examine the notion of a distinctly Chinese (more precisely, Confucian) “learning of life” in his writing and explore the motif of “life in itself” running through the "Autobiography". I argue that this motif is crucial for gaining a better understanding of Mou’s relation to his teacher Xiong Shili (1885-1968), his own father, the social conditions of his childhood in rural Shandong, as well as his overall approach to subjectivity as a space for articulating socio-political concerns.
Asian Studies, 2020
Kant’s concept of the “thing in itself” constitutes a formidable challenge to the project of “(an... more Kant’s concept of the “thing in itself” constitutes a formidable challenge to the project of “(anthropological-)historical ontology” with which the name of Li Zehou has become synonymous. Li’s radical reinterpretation of Kantian critical philosophy, which locates the conditions of the possibility of knowledge and experience within historical and social evolution and thus allows for a form of human self-determination, brings us face to face with the close relation between the epistemological/ontological and normative dimensions of the notion of the thing in itself. My paper attempts to tease out some of the conceptual repercussions and presuppositions of Li’s approach to the thing in itself in his "Critique of Critical Philosophy" (Pipan zhexue zhi pipan) while locating his reading in the broader context of Kant’s transcendentalism.
Asian Studies, 2019
The work of the Marxist historian Jamāl al-Dīn Bai Shouyi (1909-2000), a member of the Chinese Mu... more The work of the Marxist historian Jamāl al-Dīn Bai Shouyi (1909-2000), a member of the Chinese Muslim Hui ethnic group, offers a window into the close and complex relation between the contested categories of politics, religion, and ethnicity in modern Chinese intellectual history, particularly with respect to the historical development of Chinese Muslim identity in its encounter with Marxist historical materialism. In this article, I provide a limited case study of this broader problematic by analyzing of Bai’s writings on Sino-Islamic identity . In doing so, I attempt to contextualize his arguments with reference to the changing status of religion in contemporary Chinese Marxist discourse and reflect on the entanglement of nationalism, religion, and ethnopolitics in modern China.
Asian Philosophy, 2018
After some introductory remarks on the work of the modern Chinese philosopher Feng Qi, I begin th... more After some introductory remarks on the work of the modern Chinese philosopher Feng Qi, I begin this article by providing some observations concerning the ambiguous notion of ‘wisdom’ in Orientalist representations of non-Western thought and in comparative philosophy, as well as on the peculiar form of subjectivity ascribed to the ‘wise’ subject. I then proceed by offering an account of Feng’s philosophical universalism and historical materialist outlook, outlining the identification of wisdom with metaphysics in his early work and exploring the status and function of wisdom in his mature writings. In doing so, I analyze the tension in Feng’s work between the theoretical rationality and systematicity of ‘metaphysics’ on the one hand and the existential and transformative orientation of ‘wisdom’ on the other.
Frontiers of Philosophy in China, 2018
In this article, I offer a provisional analysis of the philosophical semantics of " wisdom " in t... more In this article, I offer a provisional analysis of the philosophical semantics of " wisdom " in the thought of the New Confucian thinker Tang Junyi. I begin by providing some pointers concerning the concept of wisdom in general and situating the discourse on wisdom in comparative philosophy in the context of the later Foucault's and Pierre Hadot's historical investigations into ancient Graeco-Roman philosophy as a mode of spiritual self-cultivation and self-transformation. In the remainder of the paper, I try to describe and think through what Foucault identifies as a " Cartesian moment, " in which self-knowledge becomes the ultimate precondition for the ethico-spiritual project of " caring for the self, " in Tang's approach of wisdom. In the course of my argument, I outline the complex relation between his vision of a renewed Confucian mode of religious practice on the one hand and his philosophical presuppositions concerning the transcendental status of subjectivity and the reflexivity of consciousness on the other. Keywords Tang Junyi, wisdom, New Confucianism, modern Chinese philosophy, transformative knowledge, philosophy as a way of life
Critique, Subversion, and Chinese Philosophy Sociopolitical, Conceptual, and Methodological Challenges, 2020
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Books by Ady Van den Stock
Articles & Book chapters by Ady Van den Stock
which occupies an important position in early Daoist thought. As is the case with
dao, “oneness” can also be traced back to the Laozi and subsequently went through
a complex process of conceptual change. As a foundational concept, it serves as a
description of dao while also referring to the innermost basis for the emergence
and unity of everything that exists. As the foundation of the dao of political authority
and effective governance, “oneness” refers to a basic principle and method which
the ruler should grasp and put into practice 執一, but also designates an elementary
goal and value in the ruler’s own process of self-cultivation 貴一. In comparison to the
idea of dao, the concept of “oneness” approaches the relation between the one and
the many as entailing a rich variety of relations of identity/difference and commonality/
diversity which manifest themselves within the myriad things and affairs in the
world in a more direct manner.
new conception of politics beyond the struggle for power. Thirdly, the vision of ‘All-under-Heaven’ is grounded in three constitutive concepts, namely the ‘internalization of the world’, relational rationality, and ‘Confucian Improvement’, which together constitute
a politics capable of transforming hostility into hospitality
The other of and in Chinese history was not simply a nondescript conceptual counterpart to an equally abstract notion of the subject or self, but rather was often located on the other side of Chinese civilization (huaxia 華夏) or even of humanity as such. China as “All-under-Heaven” (tianxia 天下) could only claim an all-inclusive position by, in one way or another, engaging with its others and with what lies beyond the “nine regions” (jiuzhou 九州), even if by way of exclusion.
Distinguishing between what and who qualifies as Chinese and non-Chinese involved and still involves very real and tangible practices of distinction, exclusion, and othering and thus continues to be closely related to complex questions of territorial, racial, religious, cultural, political, and religious identity in present-day China. If we follow the famous historian Ge Zhaoguang 葛兆光 in posing the question “What is China?”, it is obvious that if we always have to ask, as Ge himself does, “What isn’t China/Chinese?” at the same time.
The goal of this workshop is to bring together scholars working in the field of (intellectual) history, philosophy and religion to reflect on the topic of otherness in Chinese history and thought from within their own area of expertise. The convenors welcome contributions with an empirical focus as well as more conceptually oriented discussions related to the theme of the workshop.