Report 6th Workshop, April 15, 2017: "Rethinking Nationalism, Patriotism, and Cosmopolitanism: A Confucian Perspective"

Report 6th Workshop, April 15, 2017: "Rethinking Nationalism, Patriotism, and Cosmopolitanism: A Confucian Perspective"

Dr. Luis Rodrigues

Professor Peng from Zhejiang University came to speak at the SYSU Department of Philosophy (Zhuhai). He elaborated some criticisms on nationalism and patriotism and argued in favour of a cosmopolitan view based on Confucian values.

After this, Professor Chen, as the moderator, started by summarizing Professor Peng’s talk and give a context of the concepts of nationalism, patriotism and cosmopolitanism. Dr He, who acted as a respondent, asked Professor Peng to clarify his use of concepts of nationalism and patriotism, and raised issues about consistency, logical flow and asked how Prof Peng would reply to those who disagree with his interpretation of Confucianism.

Professor Kwak asked Professor Peng to provide some context on patriotism and nationalism in East Asia and highlighted that this is different from other contexts worldwide. Additionally, Professor Kwak argued that there may be some tensions in the use of Confucian concepts used by Professor Peng.

Dr Ku Wang asked about how other Confucian traditions can reinforce Professor Peng’s article.  Dr Rodrigues asked whether it is possible to have a patriotism without nationalism and how to use Professor Peng’s concepts in the ethics of war. Dr Wang asked for clarification of the translation in Chinese of the concept of ‘Cosmopolitanism’. Dr Beaumont highlighted that Professor Peng’s definition may be contested by scholars of nationalism and patriotism.

Additionally various undergraduate and postgraduate students demonstrated interest on the talk and asked questions regarding Confucian concepts and their relation to nationalism and patriotism.

The Department of Philosophy thanks Professor Peng for his very inspiring and interesting talk.