Speaker: Wei Benqun

Moderator: Jifen Li

Date: December 4, 2024

Time: 18:00-19:30

Place: Room 1605, Public Teaching Building 1

About the speaker:

Wei Benqun received his Ph.D. from The Chinese University of Hong Kong Philosophy Department in 2018. Before joining RUC as a lecturer at the School of Philosophy, he was a faculty member at Nankai University. His main area of research is metaethics. He also has interest in the ethical thought of Bernard Williams and Xunzi.

Abstract:

Unlike Mengzi but similar to Thomas Hobbs, Xunzi thinks that human nature is packed with inclinations to seek the satisfaction of desires that if unchecked would lead to chaos. Different from Hobbs, Xunzi believes that at least many people can transform their unlovely characters so that they come to love morality and become truly moral. How is this moral transformation possible? How could the bad human nature gain moral motivations? This talk explores this problem in Xunzi’s moral philosophy.