*UNSW Philosophy Seminar* *"Reconstructing the Early Confucian Theory of the Self.**”*
*Dr Jenny Hung, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology* *Abstract:* There have been animated discussions in recent years regarding the Confucian conception of personhood. Many contemporary scholars believe that, in early Confucianism, persons are constituted principally by their communities and social roles. However, objectors point out that it is difficult to draw a clear line between crucial relationships that define a person and more contingent relationships, thus making it challenging to determine the persistence conditions of a person. Wang (2023), for example, argues that the constitution view may lead to difficulties in appropriating moral attitudes towards numerically distinct persons. In this paper, I argue that the claim that persons are constituted by social roles is theoretically deficient in that it either fails to answer the question of what we are or fails to answer the question of how we persist. I then suggest that we should avoid using the conception of constitution and personhood to characterize early Confucianism. Instead, I argue that, according to early Confucianism, particularly in the *Analects* and *Mencius*, I am a human animal, a living physical organism that essentially possesses (1) a physical body, (2) social roles and relationships, and (3) the capacity to be moral. Moreover, my persistence is determined by the continuity of my physical organization, not the sameness or continuation of my social roles and relationships. *Speaker:* Jenny Hung is an assistant professor in the Division of Humanities at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and a visiting associate professor in the Department of Philosophy at the National University of Singapore. She has two PhDs, one in philosophy, another in nanophysics. She investigates the nature of the self from both the Western and Eastern perspectives. She is now working on two books: *Between Buddha-nature and Emptiness: The Peak Era of Chinese Buddhism* (Oxford University Press) and *Between Identity and Unity: The Self within Chinese Oneness Philosophy* (under review). *Time & Place:* Tuesday, 3 November 2026 12:00-1:30pm Morven Brown 209 + Online Teams: Join the meeting now <https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/457864788980433?p=tCSzWA9FjtSaRqlILG> Contact: Timothy O’Leary ([email protected]) _______________________ Timothy O’Leary Professor and Convenor of Philosophy School of Humanities & Languages UNSW Sydney UNSW is located on the unceded territory of the Bidjigal (Kensington campus), Gadigal (City and Paddington Campuses) and Ngunnawal peoples (UNSW Canberra) who are the Traditional Owners of the lands where each campus of UNSW is situated. --------- SydPhil mailing list To unsubscribe, change your membership options, find answers to common problems, or visit our online archives, please go to the list information page: https://mailman.sydney.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/sydphil
