Human Agency and the Purposes of Governance. Engaging with Contemporary Chinese Political Philosophy.

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Philippe Brunozzi
• Subject Area: Practical Philosophy
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 567969657

The project addresses two key aspects of contemporary non-classical Chinese political philosophy (i.e. that strand of political philosophy in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that theorises political life at some distance from the arguments and concepts inherited from the philosophical tradition). On the one hand, it examines what purposes of governance contemporary Chinese philosophers identify as fundamental for a political society. On the other hand, it explores the influence that background conceptions of human agency have on the determination of these purposes. By analysing how contemporary Chinese philosophers determine the purposes of governance and what conceptions of human agency they draw upon in doing so, the project addresses two theoretical aspects that point to a central systematic juncture in contemporary non-classical Chinese political philosophy. Exploring them will not only greatly enhance the understanding of this neglected but important part of contemporary Chinese philosophy, it will also lend itself to a systematic philosophical engagement with it that is currently lacking in Western scholarship. As such, the project has two concrete objectives: 1. First, it aims to analyze in detail the relationship between conceptions of human agency and the determination of the purposes of governance in the contemporary non-classical Chinese philosophical discourse through case studies, and to engage both critically and constructively with how this relationship has been conceived in selected philosophical accounts. 2. On this basis, it seeks secondly to place these accounts in a global context and to explore the implications that their approaches to the purposes of governance have for how we conceive of global governance. In doing so, it seeks to tease out a dialogue between Western and Chinese political philosophy on an important issue of common concern. Thus conceived, the project falls within the field of global political philosophy. Like global philosophy in general, global political philosophy is concerned with redressing an imbalance that plagues political philosophy. While 'Western' political philosophy receives overwhelming attention in academic curricula and major publication venues worldwide, non-Western political philosophy is rarely included in 'Western' philosophical debates, even though the problems addressed in non-Western discourses are often of global relevance. The project and its objectives aim to contribute to the further deparochialization of philosophy with a focus on contemporary (non-classical Chinese) political philosophy.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants