Curie Virag

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Warwick. I work in the history of ethics, epistemology, moral psychology, and philosophical anthropology in classical China and across traditions, with a particular focus on emotions. My broader interests concern how thinkers in premodern China and across traditions conceptualised the self and the human being, the nature of human agency, and the meaning and sources of knowledge and understanding.

Recently, I have been working on the ethics of anger in early Confucianism, rituals of grief in Xunzi, and pleasure as a form of agency in Song dynasty texts about gardens. I am currently writing a book on the emotions of landscape.

I am an elected member of the Executive Committee at the Mind Association and an Associate Editor for Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, where I have been supporting the journal’s ongoing endeavour to bring Asian and non-Western philosophical traditions into engagement with contemporary practical ethics.

Teaching (2026-2027)

Term 1: On research leave

Term 2: PH150 - World Philosophies

Admin (2026-2027)

Terms 2 & 3:

UG Course Convenor
- History and Philosophy BA
- Philosophy and Global Sustainable Development BASc
PG Senior Tutor

Recent Funded Projects

Monash-Warwick Alliance Project (Research Activation Fund): Composing the Self: Writing and the Cultivation of the ‘Human’ in the Shadow of AI (Co-PI with Yasmin Haskell, Monash, and with Andrew Cooper and Eileen John; 2025-2026)
ERC Consolidator Grant: Classicising Learning in Medieval Imperial Systems: Cross-cultural Approaches to Byzantine Paideia and Tang/Song Xue (Co-I, with Niels Gaul; 2017-2023)

Books

Before Emotion: Conceptualizing Affectivity in Pre-modern Cultures. Co-edited with David Konstan (Palgrave, 2026)
In the Mind, in the Body, in the World. Emotions in Early China and Ancient Greece. Co-edited with Douglas Cairns (Oxford, 2024).
The Emotions in Early Chinese Philosophy (Oxford, 2017).

Selected Articles and Chapters

‘Emotions as Webs of Connectivity in Early China’. In David Konstan and Curie Virág eds., Before
Emotion: Conceptualizing Affectivity in Pre-modern Cultures (Palgrave, 2026)
‘Cosmic and Human Agency in the Daodejing'. In Xiaogan Liu and Ai Yuan eds., Dao Companion to the Philosophy of the Daodejing (Springer, 2026)
Seongho Yi Ik’s Natural Theory of Emotions'. Philosophy East and West 76.1 (Jan 2026).
'Being of Two Minds in Eleventh-Century China: Affective Bimodality in Guo Xi and Su Shi'. In Douglas Cairns and Pia Campeggiani eds., Mixed Feelings. An Interdisciplinary Phenomenology. Ancient Emotions IV (De Gruyter, 2025).
‘Emotion Theory in Early and Medieval China, 500 BCE-1200 CE’. In Andrea Scarantino ed., Emotion Theory. The Comprehensive Guide. Volume I: History, Contemporary Theories, and Key Elements. (Routledge, 2024)
‘Introduction: Emotions as a Topic of Cross-cultural and Historical Investigation’ (with Douglas Cairns). In Douglas Cairns and Curie Virág eds., In the Mind, in the Body, in the World. Emotions in Early China and Ancient Greece (Oxford, 2024).
‘Editorial’. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 26(3). Jul 2023.
‘Virtuous Contempt and the Ritual Community in Confucius and Xunzi’. Emotion Review 15(3), 2023: 178-188.
‘Intercultural Understanding and the Possibility of Cross-Cultural Philosophy: Wittgensteinian and Zhuangzian Perspectives’. In David Pérez-Chico, Carla Carmona and Chon Tejedor eds., Intercultural Understanding After Wittgenstein (Anthem Press, 2023): 93-108.
‘Emotions, Measurement and the Technê of Practical Wisdom in Xunzi’s Ethical Theory’.In David Konstan ed., Emotions Across Cultures: Ancient China and Greece (De Gruyter, 2022).
‘Editorial’. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 24(4). Nov 2021.
‘The Pleasures of Virtue and the Virtues of Pleasure: The Classicizing Garden in Eleventh- and Twelfth-century China and Byzantium’ (with Foteini Spingou). Medieval Worlds 13, Jun 2021: 229-265.
‘Moral Psychology and Cultivating the Self’ (Introduction and translation). In Philip J. Ivanhoe ed., Zhu Xi. Selected Writings. Oxford, 2019: 35-55.
‘Introduction to History of Science Special Issue on Tong 通’ (with Volker Scheid). History of Science 56.2, Jun 2018: 123-130.
‘The Intelligence of Emotions? Debates over the Structure of Moral Life in Early China’. L’Atelier du Centre de Recherches Historiques 16, Jun 2016: 83-109.
‘Self-cultivation as Praxis in Song Neo-Confucianism’. In John Lagerwey and Pierre Marsone eds., Modern Chinese Religion (I). Brill, 2014: 1187-1232.
‘Early Confucian Perspectives on Emotions’. In Vincent Shen ed. Dao Companion to Classical Chinese Philosophy. Springer, 2014: 203-226.
‘Emotions and Human Agency in the Thought of Zhu Xi’. Journal of Song Yuan Studies 37, 2007: 49-88.

Public Writing

‘Rituals Create Community by Translating our Love into Action’. Psyche (29 Jul 2021).