Chengde Chen

This is the user page of Chengde Chen

Chengde is a philosopher-poet, the author of Five Themes of Today – philosophical poems (Open Gate Press, London, 2001). His poems tackle practical issues of philosophical significance, and are regarded as a “new genre”, appearing in The Guardian, The Philosopher, Philosophy Now, Philosophy Today, ENVOI, Acumen, Poetry Monthly, etc. as well as in Chinese publications in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China.

He can be contacted on chengde.chen [snail sign] hotmail.com


From The Philosopher:

"I have changed my way of doing philosophy since the mid-nineties, from writing papers to writing philosophical poems, with the conviction that philosophy can be made more interesting and accessible. 

It is reality that the academic style of writing scares off many who would otherwise be interested in reading philosophy. Can literature help? (There are at least twenty times more people who read poetry than those who read philosophical papers.)
The answer may be inferred from the fact that in the 20th Century there were two, but only two, philosophers who won the Nobel Prize for Literature - Russell and Sartre. 

Understandably, writing philosophy in the form of poetry is unlikely to be recognised as either philosophy or poetry. However, whether this is something that can be done is not a matter that can be concluded by debating, but should be judged by the works that have been written - to see if they are philosophically valuable as well as poetically worthy. "