Dr. Stephen Asma, Professor of Philosophy at Columbia College Chicago, will speak on the topic, Capitalism in a Confucian Communist Context. Just before President Nixon arrived in China in 1972, Chairman Mao jokingly asked whether he, as the “socialist devil,” should take a meeting with Nixon, the “capitalist devil.”  If Mao could see the rampant capitalism of present day China, he would turn in his plexiglass coffin.  A 2014 Pew Research Poll revealed that 76% of Chinese people now believe they are better off in a free market economy.  How did Capitalism overtake the ideals of shared ownership in Chinese culture? And is there growing tension between capitalism and deep Confucian cultural traditions?
 
Dr. Asma is a founding Fellow of the Research Group in Mind, Science and Culture at Columbia College. He is the author of seven books, including Against Fairness (Univ. of Chicago Press) and The Gods Drink Whiskey (HarperOne).  He writes regularly for the New York Times, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Skeptic magazine.  His work has been translated into German, Spanish, Hebrew, Czech, Romanian, Hindi, Portuguese, Korean and Chinese.  Asma has researched Asian philosophies in Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Mainland China and Laos.  In 2014, he was a Fulbright Scholar, teaching philosophy in Beijing, China.   He has been an invited lecturer at Harvard, Brown University, the Field Museum, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Fudan University (Shanghai), Xi’an Jiaotong University, University of Macau and many more.