From Conceptual Misalignment to Conceptual Engineering: A Case Study on Emotion from Early Chinese Philosophy

The Socratic Society presents Wenqing Zhao from Whitman College, “From Conceptual Misalignment to Conceptual Engineering: A Case Study on Emotion from Early Chinese Philosophy” 

Sponsored by the Philosophy Department

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Talk abstract: Conceptual misalignment is a pervasive phenomenon in the studies of Non-Western philosophy and the History of Philosophy (NW&HP). However, conceptual misalignment is often undetected, unsuspected, or seen as a hurdle that NW&HP materials need to overcome to contribute to contemporary discussions. Specifically, conceptual misalignment refers to the following: In the process of crystalizing NW&HP materials, a linguistic coordination of concepts is formed between the speaker, i.e., NW&HP, and its context of contemporary anglophone philosophy. However, in philosophically meaningful ways, the original NW&HP concept and its anglophone counterpart misalign. This misalignment is particularly intricate and hard to detect when it comes to concepts of emotion, as they are thought to involve phenomenal and/or intentional features. Through investigating the concept of emotion in early Chinese philosophy, this paper proposes a refocusing on conceptual misalignment as both as necessary feature and method of cross-cultural comparative and history of philosophy. Moreover, I argue that conceptual misalignments between NW&HP and its contemporary counterpart can provide meaningful resources for contemporary conceptual engineering and amelioration projects.