Abstract
Compared with previous decades, recent years have seen more attention paid to non-canonical and historically overlooked philosophical figures and texts; indeed, the very idea of what counts as a ‘philosophical’ text has been called into question. The ‘global turn’ taking place across the fields of Classics and Philosophy has led to increasing calls to diversify and expand beyond the existing philosophical canon, which has very much been dominated by western Classics. In this talk, I begin by reviewing some recent trends in comparative studies of ancient Greek and early Chinese philosophy. I then discuss how such studies have the potential to make a contribution not merely through the comparison of philosophical ideas, but also through reflections on the very nature and forms of philosophical practice, which can reveal much about the contexts of persuasion. At a time when Classics is facing a disciplinary crisis and the Greek ‘invention’ of philosophy no longer taken for granted, Sino-Hellenic comparative philosophy offers exceptional opportunities to raise new sets of questions and lead to new routes for future work.