Chinese Philosophical Traditions and Contemporary Taiwanese Political Culture with David Lorenzo

For the latest event in the Sigur Center for Asian Studies Spotlight Taiwan Program, Associate Professor David Lorenzo will discuss the ways in which Chinese philosophical traditions (particularly Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism and Mohism) may affect contemporary Taiwanese political culture.

David J. Lorenzo is an associate professor in the College of International Affairs, National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. He received a Ph.D. in political science from Yale University and teaches a variety of courses in international relations, American government and political theory.
His primary research is in the realm of political arguments, particularly the use of concepts and terms of discourse in the justification of policy positions involving political freedoms, foreign policy and democracy. He has published articles in such journals as Political Theory, History of Political Thought, the American Journal of Political Science and the American Journal of Chinese Studies. His most recent books are Conceptions of Chinese Democracy: Reading Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), and Cities at the End of the World: Using Utopian and Dystopian Stories to Reflect Critically on our Political Beliefs, Communities and Ways of Life (Bloomsbury Press, forthcoming 2014). He is currently working on a book analyzing domestic critiques of activist American foreign policy norms, including criticisms put forth by Ron Paul, Chalmers Johnson and Noam Chomsky.