Requirements and Grading
- What is Metaphysics?
- How does Ancient Chinese Metaphysics (Yijing) 易經 ☯ ☱ ☵ ☷ etc.) differ from Western systems?
- How does Chinese language influence Chinese metaphysics?
- Does Chinese thought have anything like the Indo-European division of mind and body?
- Is there anything distinctive about Chinese writing that is philosophically significant? Are Chinese "Ideas" written symbols?
- Is there a Chinese word for 'being' (and 'non-being')?
- How does Ancient China's "being" conception differ from that of the West?
- What is dao? Really?
- What is the difference between Laozi's dao and Confucian dao?
- In what form do ancient Chinese thinkers address questions about "what is?"
- What is the relation between normative dao and metaphysical dao.
- What metaphysical doctrines underlay the School of Names' doctrines of names?
- Is "white horse not horse" a metaphysical thesis? Is it right?
- What is the Chinese "part-whole" metaphysical structure?
- How is Zhuangzi's metaphysical system different from Laozi's? Is his relativism a metaphysical stance?
- Is 5-element (5-phase) 五 行cosmology scientific?
- What is the nature of Buddha-nature? of Nirvana? of Enlightenment?
- Is Neo-Confucian liprinciple-qilife force/matter理 氣metaphysics anything like Aristotle's substance-attribute analysis?
- What is the difference between tisubstance體and yongfunction用
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Grading: Coursework will count for 50% of the grade (see tutorials). For the final examination, I will distribute ten questions before the end of the semester. On the scheduled day of the examination, I will have selected five and you will be asked to write on three of them. You can prepare and discuss these questions together, share insights and argue about the correct approach, but you must not copy others' answers either in wording or outline. Answers that are too similar in wording or structure will both be marked down severely for lack of originality. The questions and the course will be challenging but the grading will be generous so as to approximate the distribution of grades in other courses.
Plagiarism: You must be careful that in none of your written work do you use a sentence from someone else’s work without putting it in quotes and identifying the source (it can just be in parentheses—doesn’t require a full footnote). This is true in quizzes, take-home examination or your paper. Quoting itself is not the problem. It is quoting without the marks that identify it as someone else’s way of stating the point. Be very careful because I will deduct marks severely for any violation.
