The Department of Asian Studies presents the inaugural speaker in its new Speaker Series: Lisa Raphals (University of California, Riverside and Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies) on “Psychosomas in Early China: Another Viewpoint on Tripartitism”.

Raphals is a renowned expert on the comparative study of thought and culture in both ancient China and Ancient Greece. This talk uses evidence from early China to reflect on a longstanding philosophical problem arising out of Greek antiquity.  It begins with evidence that in early China, there were two very different views of a person, understood as composed of body (ti 體, shēn 身, xing 形), mind (xin 心) and spirit (shén 神).  In one, which can be called a mind-centered view, mind-and spirit combined to rule the body.  This view is very compatible with Eurocentric mind-body dualism. In a very different spirit-centered view, all three were distinct, often with pride of place given to spirit over mind.  The second part of the talk uses the Chinese divergence between mind- and spirit-centered views to reconsider the Greek discourse on body and soul (sōma-psychē).”