Gao Haibo, tenure-track associate professor in the department of Philosophy at Tsinghua University, will give a lecture entitled “Reversion is the Movement of the Way: the Philosophical Method in Laozi” at 18:00-21:00 on March 19^th.

The lecture is the fifth one of the English Lecture Series: Classical Interpretations and the Philosophy of Daoism, co-hosted by the School of Philosophy, the Confucius Research Institute, and the Research Center for Development of Contemporary Chinese Philosophy, RUC. The lecture will be held in Room 2106 in the Second Public Teaching  Building.

Abstract: In comparison with the Western philosophy, the Chinese philosophy has its particularity. For example, Feng Youlan noticed the special methodology in Chinese philosophy after his middle age. For him, the Chinese philosophy has developed a special “negative method” comparing to the “positive method” found in the west. The “negative method” can be best shown in Taoism and Chan-Buddhism. This lecture will focus on the “negative method” showed in Laozi. I will talk about how Laozi teaches people to use this method to disclose the Tao (way), and that how to live an ideal life to imitate the Tao.

Introduction: Gao Haibo got his Ph.D. of Philosophy at Peking University. Now he is a tenure-track associate professor in the department of Philosophy at Tsinghua University. He is also the sectary of the Professional Committee On Zhu Xi and the Academic Society of the History of Chinese Philosophy, and the vice president of the Professional Committee on Chuanshan and the Chinese Academic Society of Confucius. He was a visiting scholar in the department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University from July 2011 to August 2012. His research areas include Chinese Philosophy in Pre-Qin period, Neo-Confucianism, and the modern Chinese Philosophy. He has published three academic books, such as Learning Guidance for Chinese Philosophy (Jinan:Qilu Publishing Press, 2007), Study on Liu Jishan’s Philosophical Thought, (SDX Joint Publishing Company,2016), Studies on the Methodology in the History of Modern Chinese Philosophy, (Beijing:Tsinghua University Press,2021), and more than fifty articles.