I studied philosophy and Chinese studies at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). Graduated in 2015, I obtained a doctoral fellowship from the Fond pour la Recherche Scientifique F.R.S-FNRS for a PhD in comparative philosophy. In 2020, I obtained my PhD from the ULB and from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, with a dissertation entitled Fathoming the Origin and Expressing the Many in Neoplatonism and Dark Learning (玄學 Xuanxue): A Comparative Approach of the Question of the First Principles in Damascius and Guo Xiang 郭象. Between 2015 and 2020, I travelled to Taiwan several times. In 2017, I obtained the MOFA Taiwan Fellowship to carry research at the Center for Chinese Studies at the National Central Library in Taipei. In 2021-2022, I obtained à postdoctoral fellowship from the Foundation Wiener-Anspach and I spent one year at the University of Oxford. I was back in Brussels in October 2022, where I spent three years as a F.R.S-FNRS Postdoc Research Fellow. In the meantime, in autumn 2023, I was invited by the Faculty of Philosophy at Université Laval (Quebec, Canada) to teach a course in comparative philosophy. In 2025-2026, I taught ancient philosophy at the ULB.

Focusing on metaphysics, philosophy of Late Greek Antiquity and classical Chinese thought, my research questions the philosophical value of classical Chinese thought in a comparative perspective. Through a historical and text-centred approach, I aim to study both terms of the comparison in their own terms. My publications include articles on early medieval Chinese thinkers, neoplatonic metaphysics, and methodological issues in comparative philosophy.`

Profil

Contact : Raphael.Van.Daele@ulb.be