Overview of the Topic

Nowadays, the term philosophy is a common currency across cultures, university curricula, and public discourses around the world. But what happens when φιλοσοφία (philosophia) meets contemporary philosophy and its non-Western counterparts such as Chinese zhexue 哲學? The term encompasses a plethora of conceptions of philosophical practices that vary between East and West cultures. 

This edition of the Summer School will provide a platform for participants to explore and learn from the plurality of philosophical subjects, methods, and purposes. In addition, the Summer School will focus on the past and present bridges between ancient and modern/contemporary philosophy, as well as between Western and non-Western philosophical traditions, and on the global lessons about philosophy that can be drawn from these interactions.

The summer school will, in addition, host keynote lectures on Western Philosophy (with a focus on Ancient Greek Philosophy) and Eastern Philosophy (Daoism, Confucianism and Indian Philosophy).

The summer school will also feature:

• Workshop sessions on the Keynote lectures
• Guided group discussions on East and West classic texts (Confucius’ Analects, Laozi, Aristotle’s Metaphysics, Plato’s Republic and more)
• Student presentations
• Chinese calligraphy workshops 
• Poetry sessions
• A guided visit to the Austrian Parliament with a focus on the bridges between modern and Ancient Greek architecture.
• A visit to the art collection and the antiquities of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien

Keynote Speakers

• Ricardo Alcocer Urueta (Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Vienna):
  History of Philosophy - Early Greek Philosophy, Theoretical Philosophy 
• Dimitra Amarantidou (Senior Instructor, University of Macau):
  Irony and Paradox in Early Chinese Thought, Early Confucianism, Comparative Philosophy between Chinese and Western
• Nevim Borçin (Postdoctoral Fellow, Central European University):
  Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy, Aristotle’s Ethics
• Arno Böhler (Lecturer, University of Vienna):
  History of European Philosophy, Indian Philosophy
• George Karamanolis (Associate Professor, University of Vienna):
  Ancient Philosophy, Medieval Philosophy
• Liangjian Liu (Professor, East China Normal University):
  History of Chinese Philosophy, Comparative Study of Chinese and Western Philosophy
• Graham Parkes (Professorial Research Fellow, University of Vienna):
  Environmental Philosophy, Asian philosophies
• Derong Pan (Professor, East China Normal University):
  Hermeneutics, Comparative Study of Eastern and Western Hermeneutical Thought
• Guorong Yang (Professor, East China Normal University):
  Chinese Philosophy, Comparative Philosophy between Chinese and Western
• Zhenhua Yu (Professor, East China Normal University):
  Epistemology, Metaphysics, Comparative Philosophy between Chinese and Western

Application & Fees

Applications from PhD students, postdocs, and Masters students in philosophy and related disciplines are welcome.

To apply, please send a short academic CV (max. 2 pages) and a letter of motivation (max. 500 words) as a single PDF file to summerschool2024.philosophy@univie.ac.at by March 15 until 23:59 CET.

The Summer School is free of charge. However, according to Austrian law, students have to pay a fee to the student union in order to be registered at the University of Vienna and to receive a certificate. The current fee is 22.70 Euro. 

All travel, accommodation and visa costs are the responsibility of the participant.

Diversity Statement

We actively welcome applications from members of disadvantaged or underrepresented groups in philosophy.

Please note that due to Austrian law, the University is required to use people's legal names and the pronouns of their legal sex in registration and associated official correspondence. The organizing committee is strongly committed to an inclusive practice in our informal correspondence and for the event itself. We will refer to all participants by the names and pronouns you provide.

Organizing Committee

George Karamanolis
Bishakha Dutta
Wenzhen Jin
Nikolina Kamzola

Click here for more information.