Prof. Hans-Georg Moeller receives the “2018 Dao Best Essay Award” together with Paul J. D’Ambrosio (East China Normal University) and Hans-Rudolf Kantor (Huafan University) for their article “Incongruent Names: A Theme in the History of Chinese Philosophy.” Prof. D’Ambrosio’s has been a UM Macau Distinguished Visiting Professor, and Prof. Kantor a UM Visiting Scholar. Dao is one of the reputable and highest ranked journals in Chinese and Comparative Philosophy. The award announcement states:
“In Pre-Qin Chinese philosophy, there is a mainstream view that names (ming 名) ought to be congruent by corresponding correctly to actualities (shi 實) or forms (xing 形), which is also one of the fundamental themes of modern philosophy in the west. In their co-authored essay, “Incongruent Names: A Theme in the History of Chinese Philosophy,” both a historical survey and a philosophical reflection, Paul D’Ambrosio, Hans-Rudolf Kantor, and Hans-Georg Moeller have accomplished the difficult job of detecting a long competing discourse on incongruent names that spans centuries and involves different voices, including the classical Daoist text Zhuangzi 莊子, neo-Daoism or Xuanxue 玄學, and Chinese Buddhism represented by Sengzhao 僧肇. The identification of this trans-textual resonance adds a level of historical understanding to the reading of philosophical texts. By focusing on this theme, the article brings to light both continuities and discontinuities as the discourse transformed over time. It represents the type of work Dao aims to promote.”