Explorations in Confucian Philosophy (MOOC)

[Luxi]

I found this Mooc  a little late (been going a few weeks) but I'm enjoying the lectures so much that I'd feel guilty if I didn't share.

 

Coursera: Explorations in Confucian Philosophy by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Prof: Alan K.L.Chan

Language: English 

Course duration 6 weeks (ends 11 June, for certificate but students who don’t finish all graded assignments before the end of the session can enroll in the next session and pick up where they left.)

Official certificates require a fee (£34 in UK, may vary in different countries) but the course can be audited and all lectures & reading material accessed for free.

 

I think the professor is brilliantly clear. I've done several moocs on Confucian though (from various very prestigious universities) and this promises to be one of the best. {Warning:  I'm only on the first week, but I'm optimistic that it will continue in the same way.]

 

[mungouk]

Good find, @Luxi!

 

I managed to locate a public domain (19th century) translation of The Analects at Project Gutenberg.  

 

Does anyone who knows anything about these matters have an opinion on whether a more recent translation is preferable?  

 

 

[Jim]

By no means an expert but I recall that many of the earlier translations such as Legge are seen as being a bit too heavily influenced by Western philosophical frameworks, in his case Christianity (he was a missionary), though his language is pretty good from a prosody point of view IMO. One excellent book I read was Ames and Hall's Thinking Through Confucius where a Sinologist and philosopher collaborate to give the text a very thorough treatment: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/228603.Thinking_Through_Confucius

[Luxi]

Most of us (oldies) started with Legge's translations.

Yes, as @Jim says, his translations are influenced by Christian ideas, and he writes like a Victorian - obviously, but he was good with the language. The Project Guttenberg version has the Chinese text alongside - not that it is an easy read even with dictionaries, but it's good to have next to the translation in this case. You'll have a chance to compare with the quotes and readings in these classes.

[mungouk]

23 minutes ago, Luxi said:

The Project Guttenberg version has the Chinese text alongside

 

Not in the Epub or the HTML version that I could see... is it in the Kindle version?

 

 

[Jim]

Looks like there's several versions up - this one has the Chinese text: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4094

[Luxi]

It's in the html Read Online version:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4094/4094-h/4094-h.htm

 

and in the Kindle & epub with images versions

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4094.kindle.images?session_id=fcc01dcdfdc7256643b3027cd4c2cd3182c5bdec

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4094.epub.images?session_id=fcc01dcdfdc7256643b3027cd4c2cd3182c5bdec

 

 

[Angelina]

I think I have shared the complete works of 牟宗三  before, if you can understand Mandarin (as spoken today), and are interested in Confucian philosophy, the best way to start is starting with 牟宗三. 

 

http://www.ximalaya.com/12366487/album/328545/

 

 

 

English 

https://nineteenlectures.wordpress.com

[LuDaibola]

On 5/11/2018 at 11:43 AM, Luxi said:

I found this Mooc  a little late (been going a few weeks) but I'm enjoying the lectures so much that I'd feel guilty if I didn't share.

 

 

Thanks so much for letting us in on this.  I've just begun the course and it's, indeed, fascinating.  I've been wanting to learn about Confucianism ever since 1) I read "The black-bearded barbarian : Mackay of Formosa"  which describes the missionary, Robert Mackay's, debates with Confucius scholars and 2) I began watching Asian historical dramas in which Confucian scholars often play a major role.   This is going to be good.

[艾墨本]

2 hours ago, Angelina said:

think I have shared the complete works of 牟宗三  before, if you can understand Mandarin (as spoken today), and are interested in Confucian philosophy, the best way to start is starting with 牟宗三. 

 

http://www.ximalaya.com/12366487/album/328545/

Your link is to the 综论部 did you mean to link to his 中国哲学十九讲 as implied by the link to the translation?

 

I hope so, because the link you shared is terribly 书面语 and I didn't understand any of it.

 

EDIT: for the original 论语 check out https://ctext.org/

[Luxi]

@Angelina,  I too am intrigued by the link you posted. An audio book in literary language without transcript or as much as a reference to the book or an explanation of what is it about? You credit us with the scholarship and linguistic proficiency of an Oxford professor! 

 

I'm also curious as to what makes you think that a 20thC Neoconfucian philosopher influenced by Kant and Tiantai Buddhism would be a good introduction to Confucius? Valuable and profound as this philosopher's writings may be, they don't sound like an ideal starting point to Confucian thought. 

 

From what I've seen of these lectures so far, one of the good points in Prof Chan's mooc is that it helps understand basic Confucius, without the heavy coating of  Neoconfucianism, which is a much later movement with a accretions from Daoism and Buddhism and who knows what else - a sort of Song Dynasty-and-later 'New Ageism'.

 

[mungouk]

The Annalects are on the reading list for the MOOC, hence the interest. 

 

Anyway... next round of the course is now open: https://www.coursera.org/learn/confucian-philosophy/home/welcome