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New Chinese Dreams – New American Dreams

McDaniel, Jay

CONWAY, Ark. (June 12, 2013) – Dr. Jay McDaniel recently returned from a three-week visit to China

An increasing number of Chinese today are using the process philosophy of the late philosopher and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead as a bridge between East and West and a bridge toward a more sustainable future. They see Whitehead's philosophy of organism as a promising alternative to the mechanistic ways of thinking that dominated their recent past, McDaniel says. 

McDaniel goes to China often at the invitation of more than 20 centers for process studies in mainland China.

"Today Americans are creating a new American Dream and Chinese are creating a new Chinese Dream," says McDaniel. "Much of the world's future depends on the content of these two dreams and on the possibility that, in time, the two nations might dream together. In the spirit of process philosophy, I go to China as a dream weaver and bridge maker."

McDaniel, a religious studies professor, was the primary instructor for eighth annual Whitehead Summer Academy for graduate students and faculty at the Harbin Institute of Technology in Harbin, China. His syllabus and course schedule is here.

He taught a course and gave nine talks, including: 

  • "Transdisciplinarity and the Modern University" at the Conference on Process Thought and Transdisciplinarity at Beijing Normal University 
  • "New American Dream and New Chinese Dream" at Heilongjiang School for Chinese Communist Party in Harbin, China.
  • "New American Dream and New Chinese Dream" Harbin Institute of Technology.
  • "New American Dream and New Chinese Dream" at the International Symposium on Constructive Postmodernism and China Dream at Harbin Institute of Technology
  • "Ecological Civilization" at the International Conference on Ecological Civilization, Jilin College of Science and Technology in Changchun
  • "The Beginning of Wisdom" at the 7th International Symposium on Whitehead Wisdom Education in Beijing
  • "Whitehead and Ch'an Buddhism" at the International Conference on Process Philosophy and Chan Buddhism" in Xian, China
  • "The Systems-Sensitive University" at the Conference on Process Philosophy and System Management" in Guangzhou
  • "Whole Person Education: East and West" at the International Conference on Constructive Postmodernism and the Whole Person Education in Zhuhai

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