2017-06-26
20 分钟Why does apparently trivial ritual play such an important part in some ancient Chinese philosophy? Michael Puett, co-author of The Path, explains in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. This episode of Philosophy Bites was sponsored by the Examining Ethics podcast from the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University. You can subscribe to Examining Ethics on iTunes or listen to episodes at ExaminingEthics.Org
This is philosophy bites with me, David.
Edmonds, and me, Nigel Warburton.
This episode of Philosophy Bytes was sponsored by the examining Ethics podcast from the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePaul University.
You can subscribe to examining ethics on iTunes or listen to episodes@examiningethics.org dot.
The Analects is a collection of sayings attributed to Confucius, but it describes more than just his words.
It also describes the chinese philosopher's behavior.
These included his many and varied rituals.
Why Michael Pewitt teaches a hugely popular course in chinese philosophy at Harvard.
Michael Pewitt, welcome to philosophy bites.
Oh, thank you.
It's an honour to be here.
The topic we're going to focus on is ritual.
What part does it play in chinese philosophy?
It plays a surprisingly strong role in chinese philosophy.
Students today tend to think, well, rituals are those things that people had to do in traditional societies.
Rituals tell us what to do.
And now that we're modern, free individuals, we decide for ourselves what to do.
So why should I think about rituals?
And why in the world should I think about them philosophically as something I should take seriously?
So it's one of the things I find most intriguing about chinese philosophy.