In this 71st episode of the Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show and podcast, Eric Thomas Weber and Anthony Cashio interview Dr. Bryan Van Norden on “A Multicultural Manifesto,” the subtitle of his recent book Taking Back Philosophy and the theme underlying a very popular piece that he published in The Stone series in The New York Times, titled “If Philosophy Won’t Diversify, Let’s Call It What It Really Is.”

Bryan is currently Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple Professor at Yale-NUS College. A recipient of Fulbright, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Mellon fellowships, he has been honored as one of The Best 300 Professors in the US by The Princeton Review. He is also Chair Professor in Philosophy in the School of Philosophy at Wuhan University, China, and Professor of Philosophy at Vassar College (USA). He has authored, edited, or translated a number of books on Chinese and comparative philosophy, including Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy (2011), Readings in Later Chinese Philosophy (2014, with Justin Tiwald), and Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy (2nd ed., 2005, with P.J. Ivanhoe).

Listen for our “You Tell Me!” questions and for some jokes in one of our concluding segments, called “Philosophunnies.” Reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.

(1 hr 6 mins)

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Notes

1. Bryan’s 2016 piece in The New York Times, “If Philosophy Won’t Diversify, Let’s Call It What It Really Is.”
2. Fung Yu-lan (or Feng Youlan), entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
3. Lao Tzu (or Laozi) entry on the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
4. Thich Nhat Hahn’s page of books about Buddhism on Amazon.com.
5. Consequentialism, entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
6. The Hua Yan Buddhist mentioned in this episode was Fazang, whose Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry is here.
7. Virtue ethics, entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
8. Mo-tzu, or Mozi, entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
9. Mencius (or Mengzi), entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
10. Zhang Xuecheng.
11. Zhu Xi (Chu Hsi), entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
12. Joseph Chan at the University of Hong Kong.
13. Martha Nussbaum at the University of Chicago, and a past guest on Philosophy Bakes Bread in Episode 19 of the show, on “Anger and Forgiveness.”
14. Bryan’s 2018 op-ed in The New York Times, “The Ignorant Do Not Have a Right to An Audience.”

You Tell Me!

For our future “You Tell Me!” segments, Bryan posed the following question in this episode:

“When you’re on your deathbed and you look back on your life, what kind of accomplishment do you think will make you proud of the life you’ve lived?”

Following up on that: “Are you going to be proud of how much money you earned, about the car you bought in 2019, or about the time you showed integrity in a time of crisis, or the time you stood up for somebody who could defend themselves, or the time you spent with your family?”

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