In this more technical colloquium talk to support the Katz Distinguished Lecture on “learning to see” in the Analects, Edward Slingerland will review some of the academic and scientific controversies the project required him to navigate. How deeply does cognition shape perception? Is any aspect of perception modular and completely independent from other cognitive processes? Does it make sense to treat early Confucianism as a virtue ethic? What could the Odes have meant to the people who assembled the Analects? Is the Analects even a Warring States text? 

Edward Slingerland is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Distinguished University Scholar and Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, where he also holds appointments in the Departments of Psychology and Asian Studies and directs the Database of Religious History (DRH)