Telos-Paul Piccone Institute Conference, New York, NY

China Keywords / 中国关键词

Co-sponsored by the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute

Queens College/CUNY

As part of our five-year China Initiative, the Telos-Paul Piccone Institute seeks to foster a mutually enriching encounter between Chinese and Western critical thinkers parallel to that which we fostered with Soviet-bloc intellectuals during the Cold War.

Although the public sphere in the West is deeply concerned with China’s material might, it pays scant attention to Chinese social and political ideas. This is dangerously one-sided, spurring a sense of rivalry blind to mo-tivating principles. In the face of the dangerous possibilities that confront the world today, both between and within our respective nations, it is vital that critical thinkers in the West form intellectual bridges with critical thinkers in China. This encounter is important not only in strategic terms, but also for the possibilities that it offers for the development of engaged theorizing in the tradition of the Telos circle.

In that spirit, “China Keywords” explores key terms in contemporary Chinese political thought and tests their resources for the theorization of Chinese and Western politics and society. What critical potential do concepts like tianxia, wangdao, daobi, nei-wai, and tianren heyi carry—in both China and the West? What are their implicit assumptions? Where do they challenge ideological dogmas? Where do they ground them? How do they challenge or disrupt bureaucratized power? Likewise, how do Chinese and Western political traditions speak to each other? How do Chinese thinkers interpret both Western liberalism and thinkers critical of liberalism such as Leo Strauss and Carl Schmitt? How can an intellectual encounter between Chinese and Western thought help advance democratic political development? And how can TPPI foster an encounter between Chinese and Western political thinking similar to that which the Telos circle advanced during the 1970s and 1980s, when we helped bring Marxism and phenomenology into conversation?

Our twenty-five speakers include Huimin Jin of Sichuan University, who will be delivering a keynote address about the concepts of “cultural subjectivity” and the “cultural subject” in contemporary China. The talks, though philosophically ambitious, will be accessible beyond the circles of East Asia specialists.

Registration is required. For more information, including fees and registration information, click here or go to the TELOS website at www.telosinstitute.net.

Click here to see the entire program.