Three decades of economic and social reform have given rise to a brave new China. Whatever its achievements, this new China lacks something of the uttermost importance: a new moral subject that is fit to act morally and meaningfully in the post-communist way of life. The result is a prolonged moral crisis that has followed the reform as its shadow and is showing no signs of abating. At bottom this crisis is a crisis of moral subjectivity rather than merely of moral behavior. As such, it has profound implications not only for the moral and spiritual wellbeing of the Chinese but also for China’s political development. This talk explains the nature of the moral crisis, especially its causal relation to lack of freedom, and addresses its political implications, especially as regards China’s readiness for democracy.

Philosophy Seminar Series
Date: Thursday, 20 Aug 2015
Time: 2pm – 4pm
Venue: AS3 #05-23
Speaker: Ci Jiwei, University of Hong Kong
Moderator: Dr. Qu Hsueh Ming

About the Speaker:

Jiwei Ci is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong, and author of Dialectic of the Chinese Revolution: From Utopianism to Hedonism (Stanford University Press, 1994), The Two Faces of Justice (Harvard University Press, 2006), and Moral China in the Age of Reform (Cambridge University Press, 2014).