Bo Mou, "Philosophy of Language, Chinese Language, Chinese Philosophy" (Brill, 2018)
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What is the book “Philosophy of Language, Chinese Language, Chinese Philosophy” about?
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Welcome to New Books in Language, a channel on the New Books Network. I'm Malcolm Keating. Today we'll be talking to Bo Mu, editor of Philosophy of Language, Chinese Language, Chinese Philosophy, published as volume thirty-seven in Brill's Philosophy of History and Culture series. So I am speaking today with Professor Bo Mo about his book with Brill Chinese excuse me, Philosophy of Language, Chinese Language and Chinese Philosophy, published by uh by Brill in twenty eighteen. So thank you for Professor Mo for for taking the time to speak with us today.
Oh, it's my prizer. Okay.
So what we usually start with is telling our listeners briefly how you came to be interested in the topic of this of the book, um in particular here the Chinese language, Chinese philosophy, and philosophy of language more broadly.
Oh, okay. Um I think it's uh it's uh the question's uh uh how you came to interest it in the Chinese language, Chinese last language language. But actually in my case the water is uh kind of the this. Uh Philosophy and the class for Chinese philosophy and then contemporary philosophy in the mainstream relation and then analytic philosophy and then we're write down the philosophy of language. So let me very briefly uh highlight My interest uh my interest pay. Interesting. Uh yeah, I'm uh it's uh I was born in the Beijing, China. I recognize uh ima uh the beijing environment was his uh distinct manifestation of the richness in Chinese culture and the humanity. have recessively impacted on my outlook and character in multiple connection layers since my childhood.
So uh people sometimes say uh each of the uh people in the Chinese tradition is uh partially Confucian and partially uh Taoism, more or less. Uh to some extent. Yeah, I think that's true. So generally speaking Uh you see there's a no religion uh in Chin in the Western sense in the Chinese tradition. But philosophy as a counterpart of religion regarding his uh You really orientation and the social function. So I would like to say I I have been uh uh influenced by the orientation of the pursuit shared by many ordinary people in the China. Uh which just like I mentioned is uh people more or less is a kind of the partially confusion, partially uh Taoism. So it can be summarized in a more reflective way in a
confusion slogan in the Chinese pronunciation the nation Wai Wang. Uh it's uh it's roughly the mean each people try to uh becomes uh uh uh cultivated itself uh inside Uh and what's all try to make the society and the environment better. Uh and when I say is uh pa partially confusion, partially uh Taoism, I mean so this confusion. Um a slogan orientation in the uh combined with uh does Anti toting uh is uh excessive.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the book “Philosophy of Language, Chinese Language, Chinese Philosophy” about?
0:00–11:30
2
How did Bo Mou’s early life and education shape his interest in Chinese language and philosophy?
11:30–24:25
3
What is “constructive‑engagement” and why does Mou consider it crucial for comparative philosophy?
24:25–34:57
4
How does the White Horse paradox illustrate unique features of classical Chinese semantics?
34:57–45:32
5
What do the contributions on Chinese names and measure words reveal about reference and meaning?
45:32–57:19
6
How do the chapters on cross‑contextual meaning explore communication across linguistic traditions?
57:19–1:07:17
7
What are the main arguments about truth‑pluralism in Chinese philosophy presented in the volume?
1:07:17–1:19:58
8
What future projects is Bo Mou planning to extend the constructive‑engagement model?
1:19:58–1:31:09
Speakers
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