Title:What Has Contemporary Neo-Confucianism Left Us?

Date and Time:August 1, 2025 (Friday) 13:00–18:10

Venue: Sohyang Seminar Room (6th Floor), 600th Anniversary Hall, Sungkyunkwan University

Purpose: Contemporary Neo-Confucianism has made a significant contribution to establishing Confucianism as a modern philosophy. This conference was designed as a venue for reflecting on the directions and methodologies proposed by contemporary Neo-Confucian scholarship, identifying the aspects that merit continuation as well as those that may require revision. Through such reflection, the aim was to envision new trajectories for the future development of Confucian thought.

Outcomes: Participants engaged in an in-dept discussion of core Confucian values and virtues—most notably ren (仁)—as well as the methods of self-cultivation needed to realize them. The discussion extended to how these ideas might be rearticulated as a relevant philosophical framework for the contemporary era. As a result, the conference provided a shared understanding of the critical issues that must be addressed in order to establish Confucianism as a living philosophical tradition for the present day.