The Siam Society Lecture: A Brief History of Western Philosophy in Thailand
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ม.ค. 2025
- A Brief History of Western Philosophy in Thailand: From Mid-Seventeenth to the end of the Twentieth Century (10 November 2022)
A Talk by Professor Soraj Hongladarom
In this lecture, Soraj Hongladarom will present a narrative of the reception of Western philosophical ideas into Thailand (formerly Siam) from the middle part of the seventeenth century to the end of the twentieth century. The first wave of the reception occurred in the middle decades of the seventeenth century, when the Thai King at that time began to gather foreign advisers around himself and sent out diplomatic missions to western countries, resulting in contact, for the first time, between indigenous and western scientific, religious, and possibly philosophical ideas. However, this first wave was cut short, only to start again in the middle part of the nineteenth century, this time for good. Thailand received western philosophy as part of the package of western education, and the process produced a number of western-trained philosophers who wrote original works.
After World War II, philosophy became professionalised and became a regular part of university curricula. More Thai philosophers went abroad to study and started to make original contributions to the field. The neoliberal autonomisation of universities brought a wholesale change in how professional philosophers work. Furthermore, he will also touch upon the situation of intellectualism in Thailand, the role of public intellectuals, and including the understanding of the clash between western philosophy and the traditional Thai belief system, which includes Buddhism, and how this will likely turn out in the near future.
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Disclaimer
The Siam Society is diffusing this lecture for academic, educational and scholarly research purposes only. At no times does The Siam Society take responsibility for any ideas and opinions presented by the lecturer or persons making comments or asking questions.
The Siam Society is deeply grateful to the James H.W. Thompson Foundation for its generous support of the Lecture Series.
