Envisioning the Human in Early and Medieval China - A Comparative Continuation of the Human Project at CEU

This project is a package of teaching, scholarly collaboration, and research involving the departments of Philosophy and Medieval Studies, with links to other units. It includes teaching courses on early and medieval Chinese philosophy and intellectual culture, as well as collaborative, cross-cultural teaching initiatives, including the CEU Summer University Course (2016), What Makes Us Human? Philosophical and Religious Perspectives in China and the West. It also encompasses the organization and running of a two-year lecture series, funded by a European Region Lectures Series Grant from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation , called “The Human and the Sciences of Nature: Chinese and Comparative Perspectives.” And it involves a significant research component that pertains directly to the theme of the project, and that will feed into two monograph projects.

 The project seeks to continue the aims and work of the Human Project, but within a broader, interdisciplinary format that would foster cooperation among many different academic units at CEU, as well as among other universities and academic institutions in Budapest and throughout Hungary. A basic goal is to provide an on-going forum devoted to the philosophical exploration of our shared humanity, and to understanding the diverse ways in which the question of what makes humans human has been approached in the past.