Event

Living Metaphysics: Process Thought, Buddhist Philosophy, and the Impact of Ontology

Date: December 16, 2025
Location: All Sages Bookstore

Livestream available here (or on BI's WeChat channel)

Overview

The event aims to explore and interweave two strands of investigation.

On one hand Dr. Tina Röck will explore why process philosophers should engage seriously with Buddhist thought. There are firstly great overlaps and similarities between their respective views on the nature of things. There is secondly a shared skepticism as to whether language and conceptual thought are adequate tools or vehicles to discover, reveal and discuss the nature of things.

In drawing on Whitehead and Buddhist philosophy, this seminar outlines key affinities between process thought and Buddhist ways of seeing the world, namely as characterized by impermanence and interdependence. It will also explore the idea that the basic habit of reification, which criticized by both Buddhists and process thinkers, leads to a misunderstanding of the nature of reality.

While there is great overlap in these theoretical areas, Buddhism provides a deep sense of the practical and ethical dimension that results from understanding of reality as impermanent and co-dependently arising.

Speaker

Tina Röck

Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Dundee

Tina Röck's research addresses the question of what it means for something to be in a world of constant change. She developed such a dynamic, process-oriented account of reality in her last book Dynamic Realism. Drawing on ancient Greek philosophy, phenomenology and process philosophy she explores whether the world is best understood through organic, interconnected processes rather than through static building blocks. Tina is increasingly integrating Buddhist philosophy (particularly ideas of impermanence, dependent arising, and emptiness) into her work, seeking ways to bring Vajrayana Buddhism into dialogue with process metaphysics and phenomenology.

Commentator

Ruoyu ZHANG

Lecturer, School of Philosophy, Huazhong University of Science and Technology

He has studied in Oxford, Aberdeen and got his PhD from Durham University. He has mainly published in metaphysics and anthropology. He has authored and translated several books and hosted the National Social Science Funds of China.

About The Berggruen Institute

The Berggruen Institute’s mission is to develop foundational ideas and shape political, economic, and social institutions for the 21st century. Providing critical analysis using an outwardly expansive and purposeful network, we bring together some of the best minds and most authoritative voices from across cultural and political boundaries to explore fundamental questions of our time. Our objective is enduring impact on the progress and direction of societies around the world.