Courses taught in English by Prof. Dr. Volker Heubel (何心鹏) and Biographical Information
Global Aesthetics and Philosophy
Comparative Philosophy East and West
Chinese Aesthetics of Life in comparative Perspectives
Because of increasing exchange and communication between different cultures in a globalizing world it is more and more important to understand one's own cultural background and the background of other cultures. Understanding culture and people's different mentalities, behaviors and aesthetic values means to understand similarities and differences of notions and attitudes towards: nature, happiness, feelings, self, friendship, love, values, cultivation and education, technique, time, space, work and leisure, food and drink, taste, death, illness and suffering, just to mention a few. The above courses aim at a better understanding of these notions, attitudes and values which influence - consciously or unconsciously - our way of life and our daily decisions. Besides understanding their specific characteristics, we will also look for common grounds among them from a global perspective of shared mankind.
The courses focus each semester on specific topics of comparison and are based on lectures, readings, individual and group presentations and discussions.
Transcultural Tea Aesthetics and Philosophy
In this course we introduce, experience and discuss Chinese tea culture, tea ceremony and its aesthetic and spiritual connotations from a cross-cultural perspective. The course covers different dimensions of tea culture and the way of tea: nature, social interaction, utensils, space, time as well as spiritual values related to Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. As an art form integrating different arts like poetry, painting, music, ceramics, food preparation, flower arrangement, incense, architecture and interior design and garden design into a whole piece of art or a "Gesamtkunstwerk", understanding the relations of tea art to other arts in an exemplary way is also an important part of the course. The main topics of the course vary each semester.
The course aims at combining theoretical and historical learning with experience and practice of different preparations of tea. As a way of integrating and deepening the different elements of the way of tea students are invited to actively participate in a tea gathering each semester with different topics.
The course consists of lectures, readings, individual and group presentations, discussions and practical exercises. The basic requirements are active participation in the course, the discussions and practices, the preparation of readings, a group presentation and of one individual presentation.
Biographical information:
Volker Heubel (何心鹏), German, Associate Professor at the School of Humanities, Institute of Philosophy at Tongji University, supervisor for doctoral students. After his Postdoctoral Research at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, PR China he was Guest Professor there, received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Würzburg University, Germany and his M.A. in Chinese Studies, Philosophy and Comparative Studies of Religion from Tübingen University, Germany. Professor Heubel did advanced studies at Shandong University, PR China, at Dôshisha University in Kyôto, Japan with the support of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach Foundation and at Ôsaka University, Japan with support by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). Besides his academic studies he studied the Japanese Way of Tea in Kyôto and in Germany for several years.
Fields of Research:
Comparative Philosophy and Aesthetics (China, Europe, Japan); Aesthetics of Life, Food and Drink; Tea Philosophy and Aesthetics in East and West; Daoism
Main courses taught:
Global Aesthetics and Philosophy, Comparative Philosophy East and West, Aesthetics and Philosophy of Life, Transcultural Philosophy and Aesthetics of Tea
Selected Publications:
Monographs:
-Qigong Science and Culture in China, Berlin: LIT-Verlag 2018. (in German, Qigong-Wissenschaft und Kultur in China)
-Moments of the Way. Aspects of a Philosophy of Tea in the Constellation of Rombach, Hisamatsu and Laozi, Bochum: projektverlag 2014. (in German, Wegmomente. Aspekte einer Philosophie des Tee-Weges in der Konstellation von Rombach, Hisamatsu und Laozi)
Articles:
-"Vague darkness: The phenomen of xuan 玄in the Daodejing, Japanese tea aesthetics and the seascapes of Hiroshi Sugimoto", in: Sun Zhouxing (ed.): Critique of German Thought, Vol. 19, Peking 2022, 168-186. (in Chinese, 暧昧的幽暗：《道德经》，日本茶道美学和 杉本博司海洋风景三者相互参证中的“玄”的现象)
-"Daoism and the Japanese Way of Tea viewed from nature aesthetics, with water as example", in: Zen Tea, Vol. 1, Peking 2019, 72-86. (in Chinese, 道家与日本茶道，一个自然美学解释-以水的现象为例)
–"The image of China in the travel diary of the philosopher Hermann Graf Keyserling", in: Zeitschrift für Qigong Yangsheng 2016, 101-109. （in German, Das Chinabild im Reisetagebuch eines Philosophen von Hermann Graf Keyserling）
–"Aspects of stillness in the Laozi", in：Zeitschrift für Qigong Yangsheng 2015, 24-39.（in German, Aspekte der Stille im Laozi）
– "The motif of the way in the tea philosophy of Hisamatsu Shinichi久松真一", in: Schmücker, Marcus u. Heubel, Fabian (Hg.): Dimensionen der Selbstkultivierung. Beiträge des Forums für Asiatische Philosophie, Freiburg: Alber 2013, p. 431-466. (in German, Das Motiv des Weges in der Philosophie des Tee-Weges von Hisamatsu Shinichi)
–"German research on Chinese Philosophy: a bibliography (until 2006)", in: Newsletter of the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy, Academia Sinica, Vol.17, No.2 (June 2007), 53-146 (ed. with Fabian Heubel, in German, Deutschsprachige Forschung zur Chinesischen Philosophie: eine Bibliographie (bis 2006)
Translations:
–Zhang, Xianglong 张祥龙著: „Heidegger and Chinese Philosophy“ (Heidegger und die chinesische Philosophie, orig. in Chinese: 海德格尓与中国哲学), translated with Wang Jun from the Chinese into German, in: Denker, Alfred u. Zaborowski, Holger (Hg.): Heidegger-Jahrbuch Bd. 7: Heidegger und das ostasiatische Denken, Freiburg: Alber 2013, p. 118-138.
–Böhme, Gernot 伯梅著: 《气氛美学作为新美学的基本概念》(Atmosphere as a basic notion of a new aesthetics, orig. in German: Atmosphäre als Grundbegriff einer neuen Ästhetik), with Zhai Jiangyue and Fabian Heubel translated from the German into Chinese, in:《当代》，Taipeh，2003，Nr. 188, p. 10-33.
