School of Philosophy
Fudan University
220 Handan Road
Shanghai
China 200433
Ordinary Academicians
Dr. Tongdong Bai, born in Beijing, China, is the Dongfang Chair Professor of Philosophy at Fudan University, Global Professor of Law at NYU’s Law School, and adjunct professor at NYU-Shanghai. He held a bachelor degree in nuclear physics and a master degree in the philosophy of science from Peking University, and a doctoral degree in philosophy from Boston University. He was a tenured associate professor at Xavier University in Cincinnati before he moved to Fudan in 2010. In the academic year of 2016-2017, he was a Fulbright Scholar and a Berggruen Fellow at Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics.
His research interests include political philosophy and Chinese philosophy. He has two books published in English: China: The Political Philosophy of the Middle Kingdom (Zed Books, 2012), and Against Political Equality: The Confucian Case (Princeton University Press, 2019); he also has three books published in Chinese, A New Mission of an Old State: The Comparative and Contemporary Relevance of Classical Confucian Political Philosophy (Peking University Press, 2009), Tension of Reality: Einstein, Bohr and Pauli in the EPR Debates (Peking University Press, 2009), and Tian Xia: Five Lectures on the Mencius (Guangxi Shifan University Press, 2021).
He is now working on the philosophy of Han Fei Zi (circa 250 BCE), a “Legalist” and a harsh critic of Confucians, as well as a real-life princeling who is often compared with Machiavelli and Hobbes. He is also the director of an English-based MA and visiting program in Chinese philosophy at Fudan University that is intended to promote the studies of Chinese philosophy in the world. These and other academic and social activities in which he is involved are all aimed to introduce new political norms that draw their inspirations from traditional Chinese philosophy and are informed by comparative philosophy and political theories.
Dr. Bai has published 5 books and about 100 scholarly articles.
Books
1. China: The Political Philosophy of the Middle Kingdom. Zed Books, 2012 (World Political Theories Series)
2. Against Political Equality: The Confucian Case. Princeton University Press, 2019.
3. Tian Xia: Five Lectures on the Mencius. Guilin: Guangxi Shifan University Press, 2021.
4. A New Mission of an Old State: The Contemporary and Comparative Relevance of Classical Confucian Political Philosophy. Peking University Press, 2009.
5. Tension of Reality: Einstein, Bohr, and Pauli in the EPR Debates. Peking University Press, 2009。
Recent and main articles
1. “Between and beyond Consequentialism and Deontology: Reflections on Mencius’ Moral Philosophy,” Journal of Chinese Philosophy, Issue 4, Vol. 49 (2022), 373-387.
2. “Confucianism Can be Read as Philosophy—A Response to Eske Møllgaard,” Philosophy East and West, Volume 71, Number 4, October 2021, 1046-1055.
3. “How to Defend a Small State? -- Han Fei Zi, Plato, and Mencius,” Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy, Vol. 20, Issue 2/June 2021, 231-44. (DOI: 10.1007/s11712-021-09774-z)
4. “Confucianism and Same-Sex Marriage,” Politics and Religion, Vol. 14, Issue 1 (March 2021), 132–158.
5. “The Pandemic’s Challenges to Liberal Democracy: From a Chinese Philosophy Perspective,” Philosophy Today, Volume 64, Issue 4 (Fall 2020), 827-832.
6. “Heavy Punishment and Light Reward—On Han Fei Zi’s Unequal Reliance on the Two Handles,” Modern Philosophy, Issue 6 (2022), 56-62.
7. “Did Han Fei Zi Inherit Xun Zi’s Theory of the Badness of Human Nature? -- A Case Study of Intellectual Lineage,” The Peking University Journal, Vol. 59, Issue 2 (September 2022), 42-50.
8. “The Edge of Civilizations—Some Reflections on the Status of the Chinese Civilization and the Development of World Civilizations,” Chinese Political Science, Issue 3 of 2021.
6. “Han Fei’s Theory of Human Nature”, Philosophical Research, No. 4 2021, 56-66.
7. “Han Fei Zi’s Criticisms of Confucianism: A Reconstruction,” The History of Chinese Philosophy, Issue 6 (November), 2020, 48-55.
8. “Han Fei Zi’s Account of the Transition from Antiquity to ‘Modernity’,” Fudan Journal (Social Sciences), Issue 5, Vol. 62, 2020, 37-46.
9. “Rethinking the Development of Artificial Intelligence from the Perspective of Chinese Philosophy”, Academic Journal of Zhongzhou, Issue 9 (2019), 104-9.
10. “Whose Tianxia: A Critical Evaluation of Zhao Tingyang’s Tianxia System”, Social Scientists, Issue 12 (2018), 15-24.
11. “Jing Xue or Zi Xue—Reflections on How to Revive Political Confucianism” (revised), Philosophical Review. Vol. 22 (October 2018), 1-24.
12. “The Middle Way in the Face of Technological Challenges”, The Peking University Journal北京大学学报（哲学社会科学版）, Vol. 54 (2017), Issue 2, 125-130.
13. “The Dark Connection between a Dark View of Human Nature and Democracy—A Criticism of Zhang Hao’s Thesis”, Journal of Social Sciences, Issue 10 (Oct.), 2016, 124-132.
14. “How Has China Become a Despotic State?”, Journal of Chinese Humanities, Issue 5, 2016, 34-46.
Educational and working experiences
I am a professor at the School of Philosophy at Fudan University in China, and also an adjunct professor at NYU-Shanghai. I was made a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences in 2023.
I hold a bachelor degree in nuclear physics and a master degree in the philosophy of science from Peking University, China, and obtained my doctoral degree in philosophy from Boston University, with a dissertation focused on the philosophy of quantum mechanics.
After graduating, I worked at the philosophy department at Xavier University in Cincinnati, first as a tenure-track assistant professor and then as a tenured associate professor from 2003 to 2010.
I joined Fudan as a full professor of philosophy in the Spring of 2010, and have worked there since. I was the first (and for a very long time only) tenured philosophy teacher from the U.S. who had returned to China as a full-time faculty member.
In the academic year of 2016-2017, I was a Fulbright Scholar and a Berggruen Fellow at Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics.
Research
Since graduation, I have moved to the fields of political philosophy, comparative philosophy, and Chinese philosophy, with a running theme of the comparative and contemporary relevance of traditional Chinese political philosophy.
In addition to a book in Chinese that was based on my doctoral dissertation, Tension of Reality: Einstein, Bohr and Pauli in the EPR Debates (Peking University Press, 2009) and other books in Chinese, I have two books published in English: China: The Political Philosophy of the Middle Kingdom (Zed Books, 2012), and Against Political Equality: The Confucian Case (Princeton University Press, 2019).
In the latter book, I offer a Confucianism-inspired political alternative to liberal democracy. In domestic governance, I argue that Confucianism can embrace the liberal aspects of democracy along with the democratic ideas of equal opportunities and governmental accountability to the people. But Confucianism would give more political decision-making power to those with the moral, practical, and intellectual capacities of caring for the people, and the ideal regime is a mixed regime made up of Confucian-inspired meritocratic branch with democratic branch of legislature and a quasiliberal system of laws and rights. While most democratic thinkers still focus on strengthening equality to cure the ills of democracy, the proposed hybrid regime recognizes that egalitarian elements are sometimes in conflict with good governance and the protection of liberties, and defends liberal aspects by restricting democratic ones. I apply these views to the international realm by supporting a hierarchical order, the “Confucian New Tian Xia Order,” based on how humane each state is toward its own and other peoples, and the principle of international interventions under this order can be phrased as “humane responsibilities override sovereignty.” It is meant to be a middle ground between nation-state and cosmopolitanism, and a cure of the internal conflict of a nation-state-led globalization. In short, what I try to do in this book is “Confucianism to Save the World.”
In the past a few years, I have been working on the philosophy of Han Fei Zi (circa 250 BCE), a “Legalist” and a harsh critic of Confucians, as well as a real-life princeling who is often compared with Machiavelli and Hobbes. His criticisms of Confucianism can be generalized as challenges to ideal theories, be it liberal democratic or liberal “meritocratic.” Instead, he proposed what I would call “a basic good state,” which may be a far better goal for “failed states” to strive for than various ideal states. Many of his central concerns, such as how to construct a functioning bureaucracy and the arts of governance, are beyond the typical “obsession” with justice and legislation in mainstream Western political philosophy, and thus may broaden the field of political philosophy.
EMA Program in Chinese philosophy at Fudan
At Fudan, I also established an MA, Visiting Student, and Auditing program in Chinese philosophy with courses taught in English that is intended to promote the studies of Chinese philosophy in the world, and is targeted at students who wish to learn Chinese philosophy, but whose Chinese is not yet good enough for them to do so in Chinese. Since its launch in 2011, the program has proven to be the most successful program of its kind in China.
Conclusion
In short, all of my scholarly, administrative and social activities are aimed at promoting new political norms that are informed and inspired by traditional Chinese philosophy and comparative political philosophy. Simply put, what I have been trying to do is to “make Chinese philosophy great again.”