I’m happy to announce a new PEA soup series on cross-cultural normative philosophy. This monthly feature will highlight articles showing how cross-cultural philosophy can advance and enrich debates in normative philosophy. It will kick off on Wednesday with a discussion of “Human Nature and Moral Sprouts: Mencius on the Pollyanna Problem” by Richard Kim (Loyola). Kim argues that fans of Aristotelian naturalism can draw on the conception of human nature developed by the Confucian philosopher Mencius in order provide a satisfying response to the so-called “Pollyanna Problem” – the objection that Aristotelian naturalism, when combined with recent empirical research, generates morally unacceptable conclusions.
The full paper is linked here. Discussion on Wednesday will begin with a precis by John Hacker- Wright (Guelph). You are invited to stop by and add your questions, objections, and thoughts to the conversation.
Here are the scheduled future installments in the series:
October: “Is Sympathy Naive? Dai Zhen on the use of Shu to track Well-being” by Justin Tiwald (SF State); critical precis by Tobias Fuchs (Brown/IIT)
November: “Are Animals Moral?: Zhu Xi and Jeong Yakyong’s Views on Nonhuman Animals” by Youngsun Back (Sungkyunkwan); critical precis by Mark Rowalds (Miami)
December: “Conversation from Beyond the Grave? A Neo-Confucian Ethics of Chatbots of the Dead,” by Alexis Elder (UM-Duluth); precis writer to be finalized.
If you want to nominate a paper for inclusion in the series please email bradcokelet[at]ku.edu. Nominations of papers engaging with non-Asian philosophical traditions are especially welcome!