{"id":2347,"date":"2026-02-09T19:27:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T19:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/china\/?p=2347"},"modified":"2026-03-04T21:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T21:19:14","slug":"why-classical-chinese-philosophy-still-matters-with-michael-puett-harvard-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/china\/news\/why-classical-chinese-philosophy-still-matters-with-michael-puett-harvard-university\/","title":{"rendered":"MAR 2 &#8211; &#8216;Why Classical Chinese Philosophy Still Matters&#8217; with Michael Puett, Harvard University"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>March 2, 2026 SPECIAL LECTURE brought by the UW Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"firstp\">What is the best way to live a flourishing life? How does one make ethical choices? And what should we concretely do to live in a fuller and more inspiring way? Questions such as these were at the heart of philosophical debates in China. The answers that classical Chinese thinkers developed in response to these questions are among the most powerful in human history. The goal of this talk is to ask what we can learn if we take some of these ideas seriously.<\/p>\n<p class=\"middlep\"><strong>Michael Puett<\/strong> is the Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology and the Victor and William Fung Director of the Asia Center at Harvard University. He is a 2025-2026 Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Co-sponsored by the departments of Asian Languages &amp; Literature, History, and Philosophy; the China Studies Program; and the Simpson Center for the Humanities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>March 2, 2026 SPECIAL LECTURE brought by the UW Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. What is the best way to live a flourishing life? How does one make ethical choices? And what should we concretely do to live in a fuller and more inspiring way? Questions such as these were at the heart of philosophical<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"more\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/china\/news\/why-classical-chinese-philosophy-still-matters-with-michael-puett-harvard-university\/\">Read more<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":2350,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","region-china","region-global"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>MAR 2 - &#039;Why Classical Chinese Philosophy Still Matters&#039; with Michael Puett, Harvard University - China Studies Program<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/china\/news\/why-classical-chinese-philosophy-still-matters-with-michael-puett-harvard-university\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MAR 2 - &#039;Why Classical Chinese Philosophy Still Matters&#039; with Michael Puett, Harvard University - China Studies Program\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"March 2, 2026 SPECIAL LECTURE brought by the UW Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. 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Questions such as these were at the heart of philosophical\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/china\/news\/why-classical-chinese-philosophy-still-matters-with-michael-puett-harvard-university\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"China Studies Program\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-09T19:27:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-04T21:19:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/china\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/02\/Spotlight_Puett-750x583.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"10800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"8400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ellen E. 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