The Department of Asian Languages and Cultures is presenting its Inaugural Tang Junyi Lecture Series, examining the importance of Confucian philosophy, political practices, ethics and values and their relevance to issues in today’s China and the contemporary world.

All lectures happen in Room 1022 S. Thayer, first floor, featuring Professor Stephen Angle, Wesleyan University.

Angle received his Bachelor of Arts from Yale University in East Asian Studies and his doctorate in philosophy from U-M. Since 1994 he has taught at Wesleyan University. Angle is the author of “Human Rights and Chinese Thought: A Cross-Cultural Inquiry” (Cambridge, 2002), “Sagehood: The Contemporary Significance of Neo-Confucian Philosophy” (Oxford, 2009) and numerous scholarly articles.

The lecture series, which opened March 9, continues at 4 p.m. Tuesday with “Rethinking Confucian Sovereignty.” Traditional Confucianism rests sovereignty in “Heaven,” even while relying on the reactions of the masses as a barometer to gauge the success and legitimacy of the current ruler.

Building on insights about Confucianism and democracy from New Confucians like Junyi (1909-78) and Mou Zongsan (1909-95), this lecture articulates a new, yet still distinctively Confucian, way of understanding sovereignty and political legitimacy.

At 4 p.m. Thursday the series concludes with “Virtue’s Dependence on Politics: Confucian Social Critique.”

Confucianism long ago anticipated an important finding of contemporary psychology: that social and physical environments have significant effects on the ways and degrees to which people can be virtuous. Since politics inevitably influences these environments, it follows that ethics and politics are intertwined at a deep level.

This lecture explores ways in which traditional and contemporary Confucian teachings, as well as Western research at the borders between ethics and political philosophy, converge on an understanding of the role that social critique plays in one’s ethical development.