Curie Virag
I am an Associate Professor in World Philosophies 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. In recovering and reconstructing past ways of thinking about foundational philosophical questions, I seek to channel the rich conceptual resources to be found across the world’s traditions to rethink our understanding of ourselves and our relationship to the world.
I have organized and directed a number cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary initiatives on these questions, including the conference, Composing the Self: Writing and the Cultivation of the ‘Human’ in the Shadow of AI (with Yasmin Haskell, Monash), the conference series, Before Emotion. Conceptions of Affectivity in Pre-modern Cultures and Before Emotion II. Further Conversations on Affectivity in Pre-modern Cultures (with David Konstan, NYU), the lecture series, The Human and the Sciences of Nature: Chinese and Comparative Perspectives, the Summer University course, What Makes Us Human? Philosophical and Religious Perspectives in China and the West, and the conference, The Self in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds.
I am the author of The Emotions in Early Chinese Philosophy (Oxford, 2017) and co-editor, with Douglas Cairns, of In the Mind, in the Body, in the World. Emotions in Early China and Ancient Greece (Oxford, 2024) I am currently writing a second monograph that continues my investigations of emotions in the Chinese tradition into the early imperial and medieval periods, highlighting the role of emotions in ongoing debates about moral and cognitive authority, self and personhood, and the contours of the ethical and political community.
Before coming to Warwick, I worked at the University of Toronto and at the University of Edinburgh, where I was a Co-Investigator and Co-Project Director of the PAIXUE Project (funded by an ERC Consolidator Grant), dedicated to the study of classicising learning in the Chinese and Byzantine traditions. I have been recurring visiting faculty in Philosophy and Medieval Studies at Central European University (Budapest) and have also held research fellowships at the CEU Institute for Advanced Study and at the Collegium Budapest.
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.
Current Teaching
Early Chinese Philosophy (Term 1)
World Philosophies (Term 2)
Publications
Books
The Emotions in Early Chinese Philosophy. Oxford, 2017.
In the Mind, in the Body, in the World. Emotions in Early China and Ancient Greece. Co-edited with Douglas Cairns. Oxford, 2024.
Selected Articles and Chapters
‘Cosmic and Human Agency in the Daodejing’. In Xiaogan Liu and Ai Yuan eds., Dao Companion to the Philosophy of the Daodejing. Springer, Forthcoming Oct 2025.
'Seongho Yi Ik’s Natural Theory of Emotions'. In press, to appear in Philosophy East and West 76.1 (Jan 2026) Early Release May 7, 2025.
'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 Review15(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: Classical Greece and China. 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).
