Daoist political discourse offers a tantalising vision of leaders who are somehow effective without being oppressive. But is there any way for it to work in practice? Inspired by the lesser-known outer and miscellaneous chapters of the Zhuangzi, I argue that a strand of Daoist political thought prefigured some aspects of what we now call the “wisdom of crowds” phenomenon, including the non-obvious insights that crowds can be collectively wise, that diversity is valuable, and that too much reliance on expertise or authority can be problematic. This prefiguration is not merely a matter of historical curiosity: the Zhuangzi’s discussions of leadership offer helpful and relevant observations about how to be an effective aggregator of the crowd’s wisdom in situations where quantitative methods are not an option. Zhuangzian political methods are also potentially more compatible with Western liberal democracy than Confucian ones. Finally, a “wisdom of crowds” understanding of Zhuangzian political advice also makes sense of several difficult puzzles in Zhuangzi interpretation, such as the apparent arbitrariness of Ziporyn’s wild-card perspectivalism and the text’s seemingly contradictory lessons regarding the uses of the useless.
Monday July 6, 2026 3:00pm - 3:55pm AEST Steele-3203 Staff House Rd, St Lucia QLD 4067, Australia
Buddhist Philosophy offers the concept of anattā, the principle of no-self that leads people to the always changing present in life. Buddhism believes that everyone needs to have one’s own responsibility to purify one’s life to reach its purification state out of the suffering cyle of saṃsāra. In 2028, Indonesia will celebrate the 100th birthday as a nation. It was through the Youth Pledge or Sumpah Pemuda in Indonesian, young Indonesians proclaimed three ideas of one motherland, one nation, and a unifying language: Indonesia. They came with this narration as a respond for the colonization practice for 350 years that eventually has brought Indonesia to its proclamation of independence in 1945. In parallel, Paul Ricœur comes with similar ideas that the concept of self has the unchanging side (idem) and the changing side (ipse). The balance of these sides of self helps people to form a narration of one’s own life to overcome one’s experience in life. By comparing the Buddhist’s concepts of anattā and self-purification with Paul Ricœur’s concept of self-narrative, we can reflect on the phenomenon of the Indonesian Youth Pledge as a capable self that leads to the purification process through the narrative process of a nation.
Wednesday July 8, 2026 11:00am - 11:55am AEST GCI-275 HYBRID
While writing aids like Grammarly promise to improve students’ work, they also marginalise the role played by teachers. To grasp the scope and implications of this problem, I turn to one of the earliest accounts of the good of learning and teaching we have, the Xunzi. This early Confucian text identifies two key components of the social value of education, which services like Grammarly threaten to undermine: the importance of learning proper models, li (禮), for self-expression and of accruing active effort, wei (為), in one’s studies.
While Grammarly can correct work to a tolerable standard, it does not teach proper models, which risks making students reliant on it not only to express themselves but to understand their work without its help. Moreover, while Grammarly primarily helps students to capitalise on the effort they do put into their studies by offering them significant shortcuts that again leave them dependent on this software. If AI writing aids risk making students more exploitable like this in turn for an easier time in the classroom, then we ought to be extremely worried about the genuine possibility that students, and perhaps even institutions, will delegate teaching responsibilities to this software.
Wednesday July 8, 2026 12:00pm - 12:55pm AEST GCI-275 HYBRID
The Sāṁkhyakārikā is one of the classical texts of the Sāṁkhya philosophy. In this text, the concept of Puruṣa is regarded as 'a pure conscious being' and the ultimate reality of the universe. It relates to Prakṛti for an evolution. During evolution, if a living creature is created, an element of Puruṣa is believed to be embedded in it, i.e., life/consciousness. Since many living creatures exist on the earth, a plurality of selves exist. We consider a living creature (i.e., a person) a 'narrative self.' In contrast to a narrative self, we regard Puruṣa as the 'minimal self.' Against this backdrop, the paper examines the minimal self's origin, nature, and function. It elucidates the differences between the 'minimal self' and a 'narrative self.' It analyzes Sāṁkhyakārikā's arguments about the minimal self and narrative self by relating them to Dan Zahavi's and Shaun Gallagher's interpretations of the minimal and narrative self. The paper illustrates transcendental and empirical consciousness by considering the minimal and narrative selves. In the end, the paper submits that the minimal self is a prerequisite for the existence of a narrative self, and they have an inherence relation to their subsistence.
Thursday July 9, 2026 11:00am - 11:55am AEST Steele-3093 Staff House Rd, St Lucia QLD 4067, Australia
According to Asian nondual traditions, the apparent separation between subject and object is an illusion. If this is true, then how do we understand the nondual experience and even more importantly how do we experience it? I argue that we can distinguish between two types of nonduality: (1) Nonduality by exclusion: An experience in which there is no distinction between subject and object. (2) Nonduality by inclusion: An experience in which subject and object are non-separate, but in which an experiential distinction can still be drawn. While there are certainly many reports of contemplative experiences that involve the former, I am particularly interested in how to experience the latter in everyday life. To explore this and most importantly to experience nonduality directly for ourselves, I will guide the audience through a series of Douglas Harding’s first-person experiments. While conceptualisations of the phenomenology of nonduality may never be entirely adequate, I believe that different accounts can be useful for bringing out different aspects of these experiences. I will hence conclude by outlining five potential accounts: reductive identity (the bundle theory), substance-mode, the paradoxical account, co-constitution and the dialectical account.
Thursday July 9, 2026 12:00pm - 12:55pm AEST Steele-3093 Staff House Rd, St Lucia QLD 4067, Australia
The doctrine of Dependent Origination is a view of a great Philosopher Buddha. Seeing Dependent Origination is seeing the truth of the Selflessness of dharmas (Emptiness of dharmas). This is a unique view of the history of Philosophy. The doctrine of No-self is a feature of Buddhist teachings, which is entirely different from all philosophies and beliefs of the world. Nagarjuna appeared several centuries after the Buddha and followed the thought of Dependent Origination to establish the Madhyamika (Sunyata) school or Middle Way. Although many centuries have passed, Nagarjuna’s doctrine of emptiness is still valid for breaking all attachments. This empty foundation can be seen as the pinnacle of wisdom that has brought Buddhism above all other doctrines. Nagarjuna Philosophy of Logic of Emptiness on Logic Two truths and Logic of Non-Dualism, or Logic of Eight Negations. The Two Truths logic clearly explains the existence of emptiness as well as its practicality. The logic of Non-Dualism (Eight negations) smashes all thoughts of attachment to worldly phenomena as well as creative ideas of some schools.
Thursday July 9, 2026 2:00pm - 2:55pm AEST Steele-3093 Staff House Rd, St Lucia QLD 4067, Australia
