Faculty

AMY OLBERDING

Amy Olberding Associate Professor
Ph.D., Hawai'i
Research areas: Chinese Philosophy, Roman Philosophy, Comparative Philosophy

(405) 325-6834
aolberding@ou.edu
office hours

My research interests are concentrated on pre-Qin Chinese philosophy.  My work in this area further divides into two particular research foci:  philosophical approaches to mortality and the ethics of the Analects.  Within the former, I have been primarily interested in Confucian efforts to render bereavement an occasion for ethical mastery, as well as responses to these efforts by critics of Confucianism.  Within the latter, I am particularly interested in developing accounts of the ethics of the Analects that foreground the text’s narrative depictions of moral exemplars.  My current major project develops an account that employs exemplarist virtue theory as a model for understanding the Analects.

In addition to early Chinese philosophy, I occasionally also work on Roman philosophy and Seneca is a particular favorite.  Here too my focus has largely been on therapeutic aspects of Roman philosophical treatments of mortality.

Recent courses:

Phil 1203 – Human Destiny
Phil 1223 – Introduction to Asian Philosophy
Phil 3033 – Philosophy and Literature
Phil 3343 – Chinese Philosophy
Phil 3743 – Feminist Philosophy
Phil 3811 – Writing Workshop for Philosophy Majors
Phil 4900/5900 – Early Chinese Philosophy
Phil 6393 – Seminar in Chinese Philosophy

Award:

2009-2010 Howard Foundation Fellowship for "Exemplarism and the Analects"

Recent work:

Click here for full CV (.doc)

Mortality in Traditional Chinese ThoughtMortality in Traditional Chinese Thought

Moral Exemplars in the Analects:  The Good Person is That. Routledge, 2011.

Mortality in Traditional Chinese Thought.  Co-edited with Philip J. Ivanhoe.  State University of New York Press, 2011.

“'I Know Not “Seems”’:  Grief for Parents in the Analects.”  In Mortality in Traditional Chinese Thought, Amy Olberding and Philip J. Ivanhoe (eds.), State University of New York Press. (.doc)

“'Ascending the Hall’:  Demeanor and Moral Improvement in the Analects.” Philosophy East and West 59:4 (2009):503-522. (.doc) 

“Dreaming of the Duke of Zhou:  Exemplarism and the Analects.” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 35:4 (2008):625-639. (.doc)

“'A little throat cutting in the meantime’:  Seneca’s Violent Imagery,” Philosophy and Literature 32 (2008):130-144. (.doc)

“Sorrow and the Sage:  Grief in the Zhuangzi,” Dao:  A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 6:4 (2007):339-359. (.doc)

“The Educative Function of Personal Style in the Analects,” Philosophy East and West 57:3 (2007):357-374. (.doc)

“The Stout Heart:  Seneca’s Strategy for Dispelling Grief,” Ancient Philosophy 25 (2005):1-14. (.doc)

“'The Feel of Not to Feel it’:  Lucretius’ Remedy for Death Anxiety,” Philosophy and Literature 29 (2005):114-129. (.doc)

“The Consummation of Sorrow:  An Analysis of Confucius’ Grief for Yan Hui,” Philosophy East and West 54 (2004):279-301. (.doc)

Works in progress:

Dao Companion to the Analects.  Edited volume, under contract with Springer Press.

“Moral Success and Moral Failure in the Analects”