Season 9 comes to an end as the world our children will inherit is in unbelievable turmoil. At times like these we ask ourselves and indeed our children ask us the questions that philosophers from every cultural tradition have grappled with through the ages. What is the best way to live? What character traits do you need to live that life? How do you cultivate those traits? What is it about our nature as humans that make it possible to cultivate those traits and live that life? Our conversation with philosopher Dr. Bryan Van Norden could therefore not come at a better time.

Bryan is the James Monroe Taylor, Chair in Philosophy at Vassar College, in the United States and Chair Professor in the School of Philosophy at Wuhan University, in China. From 2017 to 2020. He also served as a professor at Yale, NUS College in Singapore. Bryan has a BA in Philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD in Philosophy from Stanford University. He is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Mellon. He has published a number of essays as a public intellectual and is a two-time winner of the American Philosophical Association, Public Philosophy, Op-ed prize. His most discussed essays include “Confucius and Gay Marriage”; “If Philosophy won’t Diversify, Let’s Call it What it Really Is”, co-authored with Jay Garfield; and “Studying Philosophy is Useless Except to Scientists, Businesspeople, Attorneys, Physicians, Clergy, Artists, Activists, Influencers, War Heroes and Citizens of a Democracy.” His video lecture series on Chinese philosophy is freely available online as is his Ted video on Confucius, which has over a million views. Bryan has also published 10 books on Chinese and Comparative Philosophy, which, along with his articles, have been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Estonian, Farsi, German, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Turkish. In his latest book, Taking Back Philosophy a Multicultural Manifesto, Bryan argues that American colleges and universities are failing their students by refusing to teach the philosophical traditions of China, India, Africa, and other non-western cultures. He proposes an inclusive multicultural approach to philosophical inquiry, challenging our educational institutions to live up to their ideals and prepare their students to rise to the challenges of our time.

Taking Back Philosophy is the topic of this episode.