Prof. Loubna El Amine Talks about Classical Confucian Political Thought
A lecture titled "The Problem of Political Order in Classical Confucian Thought" was held in the School of Political Science and Public Administration on April 5, 2017. Loubna El Amine, assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, Northwestern University, introduced her research into the Confucian conception of political order in her recent book Classical Confucian Political Thought: A New Interpretation. Professor Daniel A. Bell, Dean of the School of Political Science and Public Administration, hosted the lecture.
Starting with an introduction of the "Virtue Argument", Loubna presented the basic components of its structure from three perspectives: first, the goal of morality is virtue; second, all human beings have the potential to become virtuous; third, the goal of government is to make all human beings actualize their potential to become virtuous. Then she showed the problems of this interpretation by citing Confucian classics and listing political facts in Chinese ancient times. She argued that the central motivating concern of Confucian political thought is "order" instead of "virtue". She further explicated that the "order" consists of the "ritual order" and the "basic order".
Through the case of the hegemons in the Spring and Autumn Period, the lecturer explained that the "order" could be achieved through welfare policy, punishment as well as merit-based promotions. In the end, she shared her final thoughts on why order matters by discussing the question of consent as well as comparing Hobbes and the Confucians, with historical continuity highlighted. There were also many engagements during the Q&A session. The audience raised several questions that merged Chinese classical thoughts into the contemporary context, contributing to an inspiring exchange of ideas with the professor. The lecture also aroused students' interests in Chinese classical analects and helped them expand their horizons.
Source: the School of Political Science and Public Administration
Tanslated by: Gan Xinyu, Sang Weilin
Edited by: Xie Tingting
A "Campus Asia" Project Signed Officially
Recently, the signing ceremony of the China-Japan-ROK Intercollegiate Cooperative Project for Nurturing Leading Infrastructure Engineers, collectively applied by Shandong University, Nagasaki University and Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) as one of the "Campus Asia" projects, was held in Nagasaki University, Japan.
The President of Nagasaki University Shigeru Katamine attended the ceremony. Yasuhiro Shimizu, Dean of the School of Engineering, Nagasaki University, Kyung Soo Jun, Dean of the Graduate School of Water Resources, SKKU and Liu Jian, Assistant Dean of the School of Civil Engineering, SDU signed the trilateral cooperation agreement and the MOU of student cultivation on behalf of their respective university.
According to the agreement, the three universities will launch the cooperation projects including student exchange and duel degrees in civil engineering, hydraulic engineering, environmental engineering and chemical engineering. At present, the cooperation is conducted by the School of Civil Engineering and the School of Environmental Science and Engineering.
The project was approved in December, 2016 and would last for five years. The first group of Japanese students has already concluded their exchange program. Meanwhile, SDU will soon begin to choose candidates to go to Japan and the ROK for long-term or short-term exchange study. Delegates from the School of Civil Engineering, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Graduate School and Department of International Affairs of SDU attended the signing ceremony.
"Campus Asia" Project is a high-end inter-governmental educational cooperation program initiated by the leaders from China, Japan and the ROK. Aiming to ensure the high quality of the student exchange and play a leading role in Asia-Pacific region, this project has been highly appraised on the China-Japan-ROK leaders’ meeting. It is also one of the key high-end international cooperation programs supported by the Ministry of Education of the P.R.C. Participants of the "Campus Asia" Project are all top universities in their countries. Entering the project means that the curriculum system of SDU is accepted by top universities in Japan and the ROK, which will exert positive impact on the international stage.
Translated by: Meng Shuai
Edited by: Xie Tingting, Zhao Yan
Green Campaigns Take Place on the Campuses of Shandong University
To mark China's Arbor Day on March 12, university officials and students took this opportunity to plant trees and green the campuses. Among the university officials were Li Shouxin, Zhang Rong, Li Jianjun, Wang Qilong, Tong Xinghua, Chen Xiangyang, Cao Shengyuan, and Hu Jinyan, who participated a tree-planting event on the Xinglongshan Campus on March 13.
Lecture on "Properties of Conformal Metrics Associated with the Singular Yamabe Problem"
Speaker: Shen Weiming, Doctor, School of Mathematical Science, Peking University
Date: April 27, 2017
Time: 2:00 pm-3:00 pm
Location: 1032 Lecture Hall, Block B, Zhixin Building, Central Campus
Sponsor: the School of Mathematics
Abstract:
A version of the singular Yamabe problem in bounded domains in Riemannian mainfoldsyields complete conformal metrics with negative constant scalar curvatures. In this talk, I will talk about the properties of conformal metrics associated with the singular Yamabe problem, such as the boundary behaviours of metrics, the negativity of Ricci curvatures, and ect. Both geometric and analytic aspects will be discussed.
Bio:
Dr. Shen completed his Ph.D. from Peking University in 2016. He is currently working on his Post-Doctorate of the School of Mathematical Science at Peking University. His main research interests include partial differential equations and geometric analysis.
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Edited by: Shi Yajie
