(W.E. Talk) Thomas Michael: The Westward Transmission of Eastern Learning—Why Does Daoist Thought Resonate More Profoundly?(3)

CNS: As an American scholar studying Chinese philosophy, what do you think is the significance of international academic exchanges and dialogues?

Thomas Michael: Through international academic exchanges and dialogues, Chinese and Western scholars can understand each other’s style of scholarship, appreciating what their counterparts is doing, and thus cooperate. Via exchange programs, students with different nationalities can learn languages of other countries and then communicate with each other, which helps to improve mutual understanding and nurture friendship.

I think that one of the worst things America has done lately is to close itself off. It suspended many international academic exchange programs. I think that it’s called isolationism or protectionism, from which that there’s nothing good will ever come. Our survival as human beings depend upon all of us communicating and cooperating with each other, as well as mutual support.

Thomas Michael’s Bio

Thomas Michael received his PhD in History of Religions at the University of Chicago. He taught at George Washington University and Boston University before taking his current position in the School of Philosophy at Beijing Normal University in 2016. Michael’s primary research focuses on the early philosophy of the Daodejing, and it pays great attention to the excavated editions of the text. His books on the topic include In the Shadows of the Dao: Laozi, the Sage, and the Daodejing (State University of New York Press, 2016), and his recently published articles include “On the Fiercely Debated Questions of a Chinese Metaphysics and a Tradition of Early Daoism: Western and Chinese Perspectives on the Daodejing and Huang-Lao Daoism” (Religions, 2023), and “The Philosophy of Time in the Daodejing: From the Perspective of Heshang Gong’s Huang-Lao Daoism” (Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy, 2024).

Edited by An Yingzhao and Ma Delin