Video Interviews or Lectures Featuring

Professor Van Norden

Here is the documentary I hosted, "Wisdom of China" (中国智慧·老子篇) for China Central Television (CCTV9). This episode is on Laozi (老子), the legendary author of the Classic of the Way and Virtue (道德经) and founder of Daosim (道家). Most of this version is in Chinese, but we are hopeful that they will eventually release a cut for foreign audiences with my original English voice-over and English subtitles.

The Oxford University PPE Society hosts a discussion among Professor Charles Mills, Professor Bryan Van Norden and Professor Anita L. Allen, who discuss their views on the importance of acknowledging and confronting racism in philosophy.

Professor Bryan W. Van Norden expands upon his New York Times editorial, "The Ignorant Do Not Have a Right to an Audience," which argues that we do not have to platform extremist views that we know to be false or morally reprehensible. Van Norden discusses the arguments of thinkers including John Stuart Mill and Herbert Marcuse, and how they apply to contemporary issues of freedom of expression. 

This is a lecture on the Neo-Confucian philosophers Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming, given by Professor Bryan VAN NORDEN, at Yale-NUS College in Singapore for the course Philosophy and Political Thought 2, on 22 January 2020.

Professor Bryan W. Van Norden gives an introductory lecture on a classic work of epistemology and metaphysics of the Nyāya School of Indian philosophy, the Tarkasamgraha, written by Annambhatta.

In this talk delivered at the University of Johannesburg, Professor Van Norden explains that, when Europeans first encountered Chinese Confucians, Daoists, and Buddhists, they immediately recognized them as serious philosophers. However, this attitude changed due to the influence of imperialism and pseudo-scientific racism, so that (beginning with Kant) Chinese philosophy was dismissed and banned from academic philosophy in the West.

A lecture at the University of Witwatersrand by Prof Bryan Van Norden on the fate of Chinese philosophy in China in the 20th century.

For this interview, we had the honor to converse with acclaimed philosopher Bryan Van Norden to run through several aspects of his work on Asian philosophy, metaphysics, politics and philosophy of science. We discussed how philosophy should incorporate multiculturalism, the ramifications of anti-intellectualism as observed in US politics, whether the ignorant are entitled to a public audience, why the hermeneutics of faith, suspicion and relativism matters, what people get wrong about Confucius and other irrelevant topics such as whether one can learn philosophy from zombie movies and games.

Bryan Van Norden is interviewed by Dan Kaufman on Meaning of Life TV. Highlights include: 04:45 Just how Euro-centric are American philosophy departments, anyway? 12:33 Is racism baked into Western philosophy? 21:46 A brief account of Western dalliances with Eastern thought 34:51 Why new movements in philosophy must kill their ancestors 46:55 Why do philosophy departments stay white? Subtle self-selection, Bryan says 58:38 Is philistinism killing philosophy as a discipline?

On the Seize the Moment podcast, Prof Van Norden is interviewed about Confucianism and how it is relevant to contemporary life.

Videos Written by Professor Van Norden

Most people recognize his name and know that he is famous for having said something, but considering the long-lasting impact his teachings have had on the world, very few people know who Confucius really was, what he really said... and why.

Videos about Professor Van Norden

Philosophy in the West needs broadening! Doug Smith looks at a recent book by Bryan Van Norden that argues that Western philosophy has for far too long been parochial in its outlook towards non-Western thinkers. We'll consider the history behind this problem, look at some areas of overlap between West and East, and finally answer the question as to whether philosophy is still relevant to us today.

In this Majority Report clip, Nomi Konst joins Sam Seder and the crew to watch Jordan Peterson deny ever saying that men can't control 'crazy women'.