[SydPhil] Philosophy Seminar, UNSW, Professor HUANG Yong, Sagely Actions: Wang Yangming’s Challenge to the Standard Theory of Agency, 13th August

[Karyn Lai]

13 August 2026, 12:00-1:30pm, UNSW Morven Brown 209 + Online



Sagely Actions: Wang Yangming’s Challenge to the Standard Theory of Agency



UNSW Philosophy and the School of Humanities and Languages invite you to a seminar by Professor Yong Huang, Fudan University.





Abstract:

Agency is a central topic not only of philosophy of action but also of moral, political, and legal philosophy, as it is closely related to the issue of responsibility. While there are different theories of agency in contemporary philosophy, the one whose foundation was laid by Donald Davidson, deeply influenced by G.E.M. Anscombe, has often been considered to be the standard theory. This theory regards the intention, understood to be the reason for action, which is further explained in terms of belief and desire in a means-end relationship, as the key to our understanding of agency. In this paper, I shall argue that this theory encounters a difficulty in explaining the agency of sagely actions, especially as characterized by the neo-Confucian philosopher Wang Yangming, which are spontaneous. While the historical approach is primarily developed to explain the sagely action, it can also provide an explanation of the agency of skilled activities, more adequate than both the one provided by Hubert Dreyfus and the one by defenders of the standard theory: the skilled person can act spontaneously precisely because they have consciously taken a long and painstaking process of practice to become skilled persons.





Professor HUANG, Yong

            Yong Huang is Fudan Distinguished Chair Professor at the School of Philosophy of Fudan University. Prior to his coming to Fudan University, he was a professor of philosophy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2013-2025) and Kutztown University of Pennsylvania (1996-2013). With training in both Western and Chinese philosophical traditions, his research focus has been on moral (both ethical and political) issues from a comparative perspective. He is the founding editor-in-chief of Dao: A Journal of Comparative philosophy, the most prominent journal in English in non-Western philosophy. Huang is also the founding editor of the first and still the only companion series exclusively focused on Chinese philosophy, Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy.



            13 August 2026

            12:00-1:30pm

            Morven Brown 209 + Online



Online on Teams

Join the meeting<https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/477891165897560?p=PzV5doKASKmqsAUajB>

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For more information

t.oleary at unsw.edu.au<mailto:t.oleary at unsw.edu.au>



School of Humanities & Languages

Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture

UNSW Sydney. CRICOS Provider Code 00098G




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