Under the Heaven: China and the Global Ethic Project

Lecturer

Dr. Jonathan Keir

Type of Course

Seminar; Master’s course, EPG II

Hours per Week

2

Language

English

Max. no. of participants

30

Registration

To register, please send an email including your name, student number and address to Dr. Keir: keir@weltethos-institut.org. Please also indicate your major concentration and how many semesters of study you have completed.

Registration deadline

Wednesday, 7th October 2015

Planned start

Wednesday, 21th October 2015

Date / Time

Wednesday, 10-12am

Location

Weltethos-Institut

Hintere Grabenstraße 26

Tübingen

Target Group

Postgraduate students; Lehramtsstudierende (having studied 5 semesters and more)

Method of Assessment

Attendance, Presentation, Paper

ECTS-Credits

6 ECTS

Literature

 

  • Tu Weiming, The Global Significance of Concrete Humanity: Essays on the Confucian Discourse in Cultural China, (New Delhi: CSC, 2010).
  • Dallmayr, Fred and Zhao Tingyang (eds.), Contemporary Chinese Political Thought: Debates and Perspectives, (University Press of Kentucky, 2013).

 

Content

The Global Ethic Project began with Hans Küng’s work on the deep similarities between Catholic and Protestant theology, extending gradually to include Judaism, Islam and the other major world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. There exists, however, a parallel tradition in the Sinic world which, amid the destruction wrought by Mao’s Cultural Revolution, sought to preserve the best of China’s ancient civilisational heritage and to integrate that heritage into an evolving store of global wisdom. A meeting of minds between Küng and the New Confucian philosopher Tu Weiming led to the establishment of parallel Global Ethic Institutes in Tübingen and Beijing; this course explores Chinese approaches and contributions to the Weltethos idea and considers the importance of developments in China for the future of the Global Ethic movement. Group readings and class discussions will be conducted in English, although students will be encouraged, where language proficiency allows, to incorporate German and/or Chinese texts into their bibliographies and to write their course essays in the language of their choice.