Both in the Ancient Greco-Roman World and in Ancient China, philosophers of different schools attempted to construct an ideal of a just ruler and a just society. They did so not only by writing treatises and educating future leaders, but even – as Plato and Confucius did – by advising rulers directly. Our purpose in this mini-conference is to examine how philosophers in East and West constructed ideals of political and moral leadership, how they tried to influence those in power, and what we can learn from their political philosophies today.
Program
Christina Tarnopolsky (Yale-NUS College), Leadership and Noble Lying in Sophocles’ Philoctetes and Plato’s Republic
Loy Hui Chieh (National University of Singapore), Getting Through to a War-loving Ruler: The Mohists and their Elite Audiences
Steven Green (Yale-NUS College), Seneca’s De Clementia: (Revised) Instructions for an Empire
Máté Veres (University of Hamburg), Sceptics and Tyrants: Conformism and Ethical Responsibility in Cicero and Sextus Empiricus
Chad Hansen (Hong Kong University, Emeritus), Contrasting Conceptions of Leadership: The Pathfinder Model in China
Winnie Sung (Nanyang Technological University), The Heart/mind of Ceyin and Mencius’s Conception of Ideal Leadership
Matthew Walker (Yale-NUS College), Non-Ordering Rule in Confucius and Aristotle
Abstracts and speaker bios: https://hass.sutd.edu.sg/news-events/event/seminar-series/ideals-leadership-ancient-greece-rome-china-international-workshop/
Organizers: Christine Habbard (Singapore University of Technology and Design), Bart Van Wassenhove (Yale-NUS College)