University of Heidelberg

Discussion on Philosophy and the History of Knowledge

Jul 05, 2011

Philosophy and the History of Knowledge in Transcultural Perspective was the topic of a roundtable discussion with an academic delegation from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences of Taiwan's National Science Council.

On Monday, the Cluster's Chair of Intellectual History, the Chair of Buddhist Studies and the Philosophy Division of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences of the National Science Council, Taiwan (Republic of China) held a roundtable discussion on "Transcultural Studies Between East and West" with focus on "Philosophy and the History of Knowledge".

After a brief introduction by Prof. Joachim Kurtz and Prof. Chen-Kuo Lin, Prof. Kurtz gave a talk on “What (Good) is a Transcultural History of Concepts?”. It followed a lecture by Prof. Chen-Kuo-Lin on “How did Chinese Understand Buddhist Epistemology in Medieval China? – A Crosscultural Reflection”. Prof. Birgit Kellner spoke on “Toward a Global History of Truth and Rationality: Studying Practices of Argumentation in Transcultural Perspective”, and Dr. Fabian Heubel on “The Transcultural Significance of Contemporary Philosophy in Chinese”. In the afternoon, Dr. David Mervart discussed the question “What`s Left of Comparative Intellectual History? Beyond Convergences, Divergences and Parallels in the Historiography of Political Thought”. The session was closed by Dr. Norman Y. Teng talking on “Confucianism in a Joint Context of Democracy and Science”.

The roundtable discussion was organised by the Cluster’s Chair of Intellectual History, held by Prof. Joachim Kurtz, and the Chair of Buddhist Studies, held by Prof. Birgit Kellner, together with the Philosophy Division of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences of the National Science Council, Taiwan (Republic of China). The aim of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences is to encourage and to improve the standards of basic research in these fields. In this context, a delegation of academic scholars visits the Cluster and other institutions in Germany.