Speaker:        Wang Fan-Sen, Academician

                           Academia Sinica

Moderator:   Chen Wen-Song,  Professor Department of History,                                     Dean, College of Liberal Arts (NCKU)

In this lecture, Academician Wang Fan-Sen will explore the major challenges confronting the study of intellectual history and offer a critical reflection on the discipline's evolution, methodologies, and continuing relevance in contemporary scholarship. As a field dedicated to examining the formation, transmission, and transformation of ideas across time, intellectual history must continually grapple with issues such as the fragmentary nature of historical sources, the complexities of textual interpretation, and the limitations of established analytical frameworks. These methodological challenges have become increasingly significant in an era characterized by globalization, rapid social change, and the growing integration of interdisciplinary approaches.

Drawing on more than four decades of pioneering scholarship, Academician Wang will reflect on the intellectual and methodological developments that have shaped the discipline. He will examine how changing theoretical perspectives have transformed the ways scholars interpret historical thought and investigate the relationship between ideas and their historical contexts. The lecture will also consider how interdisciplinary inquiry and global perspectives can deepen our understanding of classical texts, expand the horizons of intellectual history, and generate new approaches to interpreting the intellectual traditions of China and beyond.