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Full-Text Articles in Ethics and Political Philosophy
Review Of Li, The Confucian Philosophy Of Harmony, Stephen C. Angle
Review Of Li, The Confucian Philosophy Of Harmony, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
The core argument of Chengyang Li’s new book is that harmony—understood in particular through the categories of “deep harmony” and “creative tension”—is the central idea of classical Confucianism. Part I contains five chapters that collectively explore the “philosophical concept” of harmony; the five chapters in Part II examine “harmony in practice” by looking at the ways that harmony structures Confucian thinking about person, family, society, world, and cosmos. The Confucian Philosophy of Harmony is a learned work, drawing on Li’s familiarity with a broader corpus of early Confucian texts than is often found in works on Confucian philosophy. I believe …
Review Of Li, The Confucian Philosophy Of Harmony, Stephen C. Angle
Review Of Li, The Confucian Philosophy Of Harmony, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
The core argument of Chengyang Li’s new book is that harmony—understood in particular through the categories of “deep harmony” and “creative tension”—is the central idea of classical Confucianism. Part I contains five chapters that collectively explore the “philosophical concept” of harmony; the five chapters in Part II examine “harmony in practice” by looking at the ways that harmony structures Confucian thinking about person, family, society, world, and cosmos. The Confucian Philosophy of Harmony is a learned work, drawing on Li’s familiarity with a broader corpus of early Confucian texts than is often found in works on Confucian philosophy. I believe …
Review Of Jiang: A Confucian Constitutional Order - How China’S Ancient Past Can Shape Its Political Future, Stephen C. Angle
Review Of Jiang: A Confucian Constitutional Order - How China’S Ancient Past Can Shape Its Political Future, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
How important is Jiang Qing, whose extraordinary proposals for political change make up the core of the new book A Confucian Constitutional Order: How China’s Ancient Past Can Shape Its Political Future? In his Introduction to the volume, co- editor Daniel Bell maintains that Jiang’s views are “intensely controversial” and that conversations about political reform in China rarely fail to turn to Jiang’s pro- posals. At least in my experience, this is something of an exaggeration. Chinese pol- itical thinking today is highly pluralistic, and for many participants Jiang is simply a curiosity—if indeed they are aware of him. …
Review Of Jiang: A Confucian Constitutional Order - How China’S Ancient Past Can Shape Its Political Future, Stephen C. Angle
Review Of Jiang: A Confucian Constitutional Order - How China’S Ancient Past Can Shape Its Political Future, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
How important is Jiang Qing, whose extraordinary proposals for political change make up the core of the new book A Confucian Constitutional Order: How China’s Ancient Past Can Shape Its Political Future? In his Introduction to the volume, co- editor Daniel Bell maintains that Jiang’s views are “intensely controversial” and that conversations about political reform in China rarely fail to turn to Jiang’s pro- posals. At least in my experience, this is something of an exaggeration. Chinese pol- itical thinking today is highly pluralistic, and for many participants Jiang is simply a curiosity—if indeed they are aware of him. …
Review Of Zhang, Kleinman, And Tu: Governance In Life In Chinese Moral Experience, Stephen C. Angle
Review Of Zhang, Kleinman, And Tu: Governance In Life In Chinese Moral Experience, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
The goal of the volume under review is to articulate the ways in which the governance of life in China has transformed over the last three decades. Under Mao, power was deployed toward the twin goals of maintaining “sovereignty” (i.e., Mao as ruler) and achieving utopian revolution; in the subsequent reform era, power has been increasingly exercised as “governmentality,” whereby the regime seeks to control and enhance the state’s population. The volume’s authors tend to agree that under the new configuration of power, citizens’ achievements of “adequate lives” has come to be valued as it was not under Mao. The …
Review Of Zhang, Kleinman, And Tu: Governance In Life In Chinese Moral Experience, Stephen C. Angle
Review Of Zhang, Kleinman, And Tu: Governance In Life In Chinese Moral Experience, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
The goal of the volume under review is to articulate the ways in which the governance of life in China has transformed over the last three decades. Under Mao, power was deployed toward the twin goals of maintaining “sovereignty” (i.e., Mao as ruler) and achieving utopian revolution; in the subsequent reform era, power has been increasingly exercised as “governmentality,” whereby the regime seeks to control and enhance the state’s population. The volume’s authors tend to agree that under the new configuration of power, citizens’ achievements of “adequate lives” has come to be valued as it was not under Mao. The …
Piecemeal Progress, Stephen C. Angle
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 …
A Reply To Ruiping Fan, Stephen C. Angle
A Reply To Ruiping Fan, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
I have been offered the chance for a brief reply to Professor FAN’s response to my review, and would like to make just two points. In the penultimate paragraph of his response, Professor FAN raises the question of the efficacy of Confucian moral commitments in contemporary China, and suggests that we can get evidence of this efficacy by comparing China with Eastern Europe. I agree that such a comparison may be very helpful, but suggest that it cannot be undertaken in a superficial way. For one thing, the differences between the two regions are more complicated than …
Review Of Woodruff: Ritual And Reverence, Stephen C. Angle
Review Of Woodruff: Ritual And Reverence, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
It is a sad commonplace that works in moral philosophy rarely do much to make their readers more moral. Unusually gifted classroom teachers can sometimes make a difference in students' lives, though, and now and again there appears a piece of philosophical writing that makes a similar impact. Paul Woodruff has written an extraordinary book that has a chance of joining this select company. Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue wears its scholarship and philosophy lightly; in addi- tion to lucid exposition and argument, it employs anecdotes, readings of a range of poems, and in one chapter a question-and-answer format in …
Review Of Woodruff: Ritual And Reverence, Stephen C. Angle
Review Of Woodruff: Ritual And Reverence, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
It is a sad commonplace that works in moral philosophy rarely do much to make their readers more moral. Unusually gifted classroom teachers can sometimes make a difference in students' lives, though, and now and again there appears a piece of philosophical writing that makes a similar impact. Paul Woodruff has written an extraordinary book that has a chance of joining this select company. Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue wears its scholarship and philosophy lightly; in addi- tion to lucid exposition and argument, it employs anecdotes, readings of a range of poems, and in one chapter a question-and-answer format in …
Review Of Cheng And Bunin: Contemporary Chinese Philosophy, Stephen C. Angle
Review Of Cheng And Bunin: Contemporary Chinese Philosophy, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
This handsome volume encompasses sixteen essays on leading twentieth-century Chinese philosophers, all specifically written for the collection, as well as an introduction by Bunin and a preface plus two essays (one on more recent trends, the other an over-all interpretation) by Cheng. Each of the main selections includes a bibliography listing the subject’s main works and important studies on the subject, as well as a list of ten discussion questions. The thoughtful design of the collection makes it clear that its goals go beyond simply conveying information: in Bunin’s words, it aims to furnish “a platform for further investigation and …