2^nd Annual Midwest Conference on East Asian Thought

North Central College, Naperville, IL

April 16-17, 2005

Saturday, April 16

9:00-9:15        Continental Breakfast

9: 15-9:30       Welcome!

9:30-11:30      Confucianism

  Dennis Arjo, “Of Unswerving Horses and Immortal Souls: A Comparison of Confucius’ Use of The Book of Songs and Socrates’ Appeal to Poets in the Meno”

 Doyoung Park, “The Independence of Neo-Confucianism from Buddhism in Japan”

 Pauline Lee: Li Zhi (1527-1602) and Kang Youwei (1858-1927): Two Forms of Confucian Feminism

 (Chair: Hans-Georg Moeller)

11:30-1:30      Lunch

1:30-3:30        Japanese Aesthetics, Literature, and Semiotics

 Rohit Dalvi, “Solitude and Sorrow in Japanese Aesthetics”

 Jeff Long, “Taking the Road More Traveled: Hayashi Fusao’s ‘Album’ and his Tenkō”

 Joseph Hankins, “Commemorating Calamity: The Semiotics of Victimhood in the Nagasaki Peace Ceremony”

 (Chair: Elizabeth Lillehoj)

3:30-4:00        Refreshments

4:00-6:00        Keynote Address: Peter Hershock

 “Diversity as Global Public Good: 21^st Century Realities, Shortfalls of Tolerance, and the Growing Relevance of East Asian Thought”

Sunday, April 17

9:00-9:15        Continental Breakfast

9:15-10:35      Daoism

 Hans-Georg Moeller, “How to Read the Laozi?”

 Travis Smith, “Zhuangzi and Xunzi on the Conventionality of Naming”

 (Chair: Brian Hoffert)

10:35-10:50    Refreshments

10:50-12:10    Buddhism

 Jenkuan Shih, “We Are Unenlightened Humans Because We Are Enlightened: Jizang’s Understanding of Buddha-Nature”

 Mary Jeanne Larrabee, “The Experience of Kensho in Zen Buddhsim”

 (Chair: Tao Jiang)

12:15-12:30    Concluding Remarks