Response To Danielle Macbeth, Stephen C. Angle
Dec 2016
Response To Danielle Macbeth, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
This short piece is a response to Danielle Macbeth's essay “The Place of Philosophy.” In her essay, Macbeth has two principal goals: to diagnose the plight of contemporary Western—and especially analytic—philosophy, and to argue for an alternative conception of philosophy’s role, according to which engagement with its history and with the philosophies of other cultures becomes crucial. I have a great deal of sympathy with both halves of her project, and feel I have learned a considerable amount from her essay. As Macbeth herself emphasizes, though, the a priori and dialectical nature of philosophy urges readers to see for …
Contemporary Confucian And Islamic Approaches To Democracy And Human Rights, Stephen Angle
Mar 2016
Contemporary Confucian And Islamic Approaches To Democracy And Human Rights, Stephen Angle
Stephen C. Angle
Both Confucian and Islamic traditions stand in fraught and internally contested relationships with democracy and human rights. It can easily appear that the two traditions are in analogous positions with respect to the values associated with modernity, but a central contention of this essay is that Islam and Confucianism are not analogous in this way. Positions taken by advocates of the traditions are often similar, but the reasoning used to justify these positions differs in crucial ways. Whether one approaches these questions from an intra-traditional, cross-traditional, or multi-traditional perspective, the essay shows that there is great value in getting clear …
Comparative Philosophy: Reviewing The State Of The Art, Stephen C. Angle
Dec 2015
Comparative Philosophy: Reviewing The State Of The Art, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
Comparative Philosophy: Reviewing the State of the Art
Table of Contents
0. Introduction — Stephen C. Angle 1
Part 1: Pairs
1. Transcending Tradition through Virtue Ethics — Daniel J. Lemieux 7
A Review of Jiyuan Yu, The Ethics of Confucius and Aristotle: Mirrors of Virtue
2. Understanding a New Type of Religion — Gwendolyn R. Pastor 15
A Review of Ge Ling Shang, Liberation as Affirmation: The Religiosity of Zhuangzi and Nietzsche
3. Work Hard, Study Hard, Practice Hard — Jennie He 25
A Review of Aaron Stalnaker, Overcoming Our Evil: Human …
Piecemeal Progress, Stephen C. Angle
Dec 2010
Piecemeal Progress, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
What relevance do alternative moral traditions, such as early Chinese ethical thinking, have for people in the contemporary world? For example, suppose that we can find in early Confucian ethics particular values that are distinctively different from Western notions. How important would such a finding be today? According to three influential accounts of comparative ethics, the presence (or absence) of any given concept is not, on its own, of much significance. Chad Hansen, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Thomas Metzger all emphasize the importance of holistic units of analysis like “traditions” and “discourses” rather than focusing on individual ideas; all would suggest …
