[Academic Seminar]Professor Roger T. Ames Gave the 416th Lecture at Luojia Forum

News Network (Correspondent Wang Jiabao) At 9:00 am on March 22nd, Professor Roger T. Ames attended the Luojia Lecture at Wuhan University and delivered a lecture titled "The Confucian Philosophy of Family Feeling" at the Old Library. Professor Shen Zhuanghai, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Wuhan University, attended the lecture, presented the commemorative plaque of the Luojia Lecture to the speaker. Professor Li Dianlai, Dean of the School of Philosophy, also addressed the audience.

In his presentation, Professor Roger T. Ames elaborated on the profound implications of Confucian thought behind the rapid rise of China for the contemporary international order. Firstly, Professor Ames pointed out that although the Peace of Westphalia more than 350 years ago extended individualism to the international level and laid the foundation for the modern nation-state system of sovereign equality, the rapid rise of contemporary China is challenging this international order. Despite philosopher Michael Walzer's advocacy that there exists a thin universal moral agenda in every form of exclusive morality, which can unite people worldwide. However, Confucian thought offers another answer to this "lowest common denominator of morality."

Professor Ames argued that the series of specific vocabulary formed from the moral demands based on "filial piety" in Confucian philosophy makes "family feeling" not only the cornerstone of Confucian's lowest moral agenda but also the root and basis of Confucian social, political, and world order that still thrive to this day.

Professor Ames emphasized that it is precisely because Confucianism has been based on this family model for thousands of years and has pursued growth on this basis, that Chinese culture can provide a unique solution for constructing the lowest universal morality in contemporary times.

During the Q&A session, Professor Ames engaged in warm and friendly interactions with the faculty and students present, discussing topics such as the original family, the exclusivity and extension of the family, the relationship between filial piety and Wang Yangming's school of mind, the family dilemmas in modern society, and how to better translate the concept of "harmony" to the international community. The audience responded enthusiastically.

It is learnt that Professor Roger T. Ames is currently a Distinguished Chair Professor at the Department of Philosophy of Peking University, a senior academic advisor at the Berggruen Institute of Peking University, and an emeritus professor at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Hawaii. He is an internationally renowned philosopher and sinologist, and one of the representative scholars of contemporary Confucianism.