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Human Rights In Chinese Tradition, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2018

Human Rights In Chinese Tradition, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

This chapter in Sarah Biddulph and Joshua Rosenzweig, eds., Handbook on human rights in China (Edward Elgar, 2019) -- examines three different approaches: the Chinese tradition is (1) an obstacle to human rights, (2) an alternative to human rights, or (3) a source of human rights. While some scholars have insisted on one or another of these approaches, I will argue here that there is truth in all of them. Nothing about the Chinese tradition determines, once-and-for-all, what modern Chinese must think about human rights, but there is no question that it has had, and will continue to have, varying …


Buddhism And Zhu Xi’S Epistemology, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2017

Buddhism And Zhu Xi’S Epistemology, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

There are at least superficial reasons for thinking that Zhu Xi’s epistemology is significantly influenced by Chinese Buddhism. For one thing, in his youth Zhu studied with Kaishan Daoqian 開善道謙 (d. 1150?), a leading disciple of the most influential Chan teacher of the era, Dahui Zonggao大慧宗杲 (1089-1163). For another, his discussions of epistemology lean heavily on terms like “genuine knowing 真知” that also figure significantly in Buddhist discussions. As is well known, subsequent critics of the Daoxue movement with which Zhu was centrally associated regularly accused it of being strongly colored by Buddhism. Finally, modern scholars have also …


Tian As Cosmos In Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2017

Tian As Cosmos In Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle


Tian” is central to the metaphysics, cosmology, and ethics of the eight-hundred-year-long Chinese philosophical tradition we call “Neo-Confucianism,” but there is considerable confusion over what tian means—confusion which is exacerbated by its standard translation into English as “Heaven.” This essay analyzes the meaning of tian in the works of the most influential Neo-Confucian, Zhu Xi (1130-1200), presents a coherent interpretation that unifies the disparate aspects of the term’s meaning, and argues that “cosmos” does an excellent job of capturing this meaning, and therefore should be adopted as our translation of tian.


Building Bridges To Distant Shores, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2015

Building Bridges To Distant Shores, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

Late in 1987, having graduated from college and headed to Taiwan to study more Chinese, I decided to attend an international conference on Confucianism. At lunchtime on the first day I was sitting by myself, intimidated by the luminaries all around, when a smiling scholar sat down across from me, introduced himself as Roger Ames, and immediately made me feel at home. (Although he did question the wisdom of my intention to attend a graduate school other than Hawaii.) 1987 also saw the publication of Thinking Through Confucius, Roger’s seminal collaboration with David Hall; shortly after I met Roger …


Building Bridges To Distant Shores, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2015

Building Bridges To Distant Shores, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

Late in 1987, having graduated from college and headed to Taiwan to study more Chinese, I decided to attend an international conference on Confucianism. At lunchtime on the first day I was sitting by myself, intimidated by the luminaries all around, when a smiling scholar sat down across from me, introduced himself as Roger Ames, and immediately made me feel at home. (Although he did question the wisdom of my intention to attend a graduate school other than Hawaii.) 1987 also saw the publication of Thinking Through Confucius, Roger’s seminal collaboration with David Hall; shortly after I met Roger …


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 …


Virtue Ethics, Rule Of Law, And Self-Restriction, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2014

Virtue Ethics, Rule Of Law, And Self-Restriction, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

It is a provocative coincidence that 1958 saw the publication of both Elizabeth Anscombe’s “Modern Moral Philosophy,” an essay widely seen as initiating the revival of Western philosophical interest in virtue ethics, and the “Manifesto to the World’s People on Behalf of Chinese Culture,” a jointly-authored argument that Confucianism was still alive and had much to offer to the world. A great deal of research and debate has flowed from each of these sources over the last half-century, but so far there has been very little dialogue between modern Western virtue ethics and modern Confucianism.1 Scholars of ancient Confucianism …


Mou Zongsan And His Nineteen Lectures On Chinese Philosophy, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2013

Mou Zongsan And His Nineteen Lectures On Chinese Philosophy, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

Mou Zongsan (1909-95) was a philosophical giant whose legacy looms large over Chinese-speaking regions of the world, and who is in the process of being discovered by non- Sinophone thinkers. Faced with many challenges to earlier Chinese self-understandings, Mou and his contemporaries undertook sustained, critical engagement with philosophical thought from outside their native traditions. In the twenty-first century, philosophers in the Western world are slowly beginning to follow suit. Some are motivated by worries about the narrowness or unsustainability of present Western trends; others are prompted by worries about the rise of China; and some are simply attracted to the …


Mou Zongsan And His Nineteen Lectures On Chinese Philosophy, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2013

Mou Zongsan And His Nineteen Lectures On Chinese Philosophy, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

Mou Zongsan (1909-95) was a philosophical giant whose legacy looms large over Chinese-speaking regions of the world, and who is in the process of being discovered by non- Sinophone thinkers. Faced with many challenges to earlier Chinese self-understandings, Mou and his contemporaries undertook sustained, critical engagement with philosophical thought from outside their native traditions. In the twenty-first century, philosophers in the Western world are slowly beginning to follow suit. Some are motivated by worries about the narrowness or unsustainability of present Western trends; others are prompted by worries about the rise of China; and some are simply attracted to the …


Is Conscientiousness A Virtue? Confucian Responses, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2012

Is Conscientiousness A Virtue? Confucian Responses, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

Among contemporary philosophers sympathetic to the theoretical centrality of virtue, there is little agreement on the status of conscientiousness. Indeed, there is little agreement even on what the word “conscientiousness” means; for the time being, let us take it to mean consciously ensuring that one does one’s duty. Adams and Wallace both take conscientiousness to be a virtue, whereas Roberts calls it a “quasi-virtue” and Slote argues that it is both different from and inferior to virtue.The landscape becomes still more complicated when we add in the vexed concept of “continence,” which we can initially gloss as forcing oneself to …


The Analects And Moral Theory, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2012

The Analects And Moral Theory, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

Over the last century, scholars both within China and without have considered how the Analects relates to modern, Western philosophy. Should we think of the Analects—or the early Confucian tradition more broadly—as “philosophy,” and if so, should we seek to analyze its contents in terms of Western philosophical categories? With regard to the ethical teachings in the text, a more specific concern has also been raised: does it make sense to think of the Analects as engaging in “moral” theory, or is its framework adequately different from modern Western moral philosophy that a different set of categories are necessary?1 …


The Analects And Moral Theory, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2012

The Analects And Moral Theory, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

Over the last century, scholars both within China and without have considered how the Analects relates to modern, Western philosophy. Should we think of the Analects—or the early Confucian tradition more broadly—as “philosophy,” and if so, should we seek to analyze its contents in terms of Western philosophical categories? With regard to the ethical teachings in the text, a more specific concern has also been raised: does it make sense to think of the Analects as engaging in “moral” theory, or is its framework adequately different from modern Western moral philosophy that a different set of categories are necessary?1 …


Is Conscientiousness A Virtue? Confucian Responses, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2012

Is Conscientiousness A Virtue? Confucian Responses, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

Among contemporary philosophers sympathetic to the theoretical centrality of virtue, there is little agreement on the status of conscientiousness. Indeed, there is little agreement even on what the word “conscientiousness” means; for the time being, let us take it to mean consciously ensuring that one does one’s duty. Adams and Wallace both take conscientiousness to be a virtue, whereas Roberts calls it a “quasi-virtue” and Slote argues that it is both different from and inferior to virtue.The landscape becomes still more complicated when we add in the vexed concept of “continence,” which we can initially gloss as forcing oneself to …


人权与中国思想的中文版序 [Preface To The Chinese Edition Of Human Rights And Chinese Thought], Stephen C. Angle Dec 2011

人权与中国思想的中文版序 [Preface To The Chinese Edition Of Human Rights And Chinese Thought], Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

自本书首次出版以来的这些年中,东西方的学者和普通公民仍在继续探讨人权的普遍性 与历史和文化特殊性之间的关系问题。中国在经济和政治实力方面的不断崛起无疑也增加了 中国人希望看到中国价值观崛起的渴望:一个拥有五千年文明历史的国家当然可以给当代世 界的贡献很多东西。近几年来,中国在“普适价值观”的倡导者与“中国模式”的支持者之 间掀起了一场广泛的争论。当然,人权并非是此场争论的唯一主题,争论也涵盖了经济和政 治组织、自由和福利之类的一般价值观,以及全世界是否或应否趋向一套单一的价值观等问 题。也许从此争论中可以得到的一个启示是,无论是对“普适价值观”还是对单纯“中国模 式”的单一理解而言,没有一个答案会适用于所有这些不同领域。 


A Productive Dialogue: Contemporary Moral Education And Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucian Ethics, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2011

A Productive Dialogue: Contemporary Moral Education And Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucian Ethics, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

The essay asks whether contemporary Western empirical studies of moral education, as exemplified in the distinctive research programs of Lawrence Kohlberg and Martin Hoffman, can enter into productive dialogue with the Neo-Confucian theories of Zhu Xi (1130-1200). The proposed dialogue proceeds in two stages. I begin with Zhu’s notion of “lesser learning” and the role therein of ritual, and consider their relations to Kohlberg’s ideas about the construction of moral rules and Hoffman’s findings concerning parental discipline (and particularly “induction”). The second stage turns to Zhu’s “greater learning” and its central concept of reverence, which I explain is best understood …


A Productive Dialogue: Contemporary Moral Education And Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucian Ethics, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2011

A Productive Dialogue: Contemporary Moral Education And Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucian Ethics, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

The essay asks whether contemporary Western empirical studies of moral education, as exemplified in the distinctive research programs of Lawrence Kohlberg and Martin Hoffman, can enter into productive dialogue with the Neo-Confucian theories of Zhu Xi (1130-1200). The proposed dialogue proceeds in two stages. I begin with Zhu’s notion of “lesser learning” and the role therein of ritual, and consider their relations to Kohlberg’s ideas about the construction of moral rules and Hoffman’s findings concerning parental discipline (and particularly “induction”). The second stage turns to Zhu’s “greater learning” and its central concept of reverence, which I explain is best understood …


Translating And Interpreting The Mengzi: Virtue, Obligation, And Discretion, Stephen C. Angle Nov 2010

Translating And Interpreting The Mengzi: Virtue, Obligation, And Discretion, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

The essay focuses on two aspects of the translation and interpretation of Mengzi in Bryan Van Norden’s new translation. First, I argue that Van Norden’s explanation of virtues in terms of obligations is potentially problematic, and show instances in which this unusual understanding of virtue influences the translation itself. Second, I highlight the ways in which Van Norden’s translation and commentary have effectively thematized the role of “discretion (quan )” in Mengzi’s text, and make some suggestions for how we can arrive at an even deeper understanding of this important concept. 


How Serious Is Our Divergence?, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2007

How Serious Is Our Divergence?, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

Near the beginning of his magisterial A Cloud Across the Pacific, Thomas Metzger sums up what he calls his “paradoxical combination of reflexivity with cultural patterns” as follows:
This book is based on the premise that thinking about how to improve political life cannot be the product of either a closed cultural system or of reason as a uniform cognitive faculty with which all persons try to apprehend and reflect on objective realities or universal principles. Insisting that both dimensions are paradoxically combined in everyone’s thinking, I take issues with two groups — the Western scholars fascinated just with …


How Serious Is Our Divergence?, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2007

How Serious Is Our Divergence?, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

Near the beginning of his magisterial A Cloud Across the Pacific, Thomas Metzger sums up what he calls his “paradoxical combination of reflexivity with cultural patterns” as follows:
This book is based on the premise that thinking about how to improve political life cannot be the product of either a closed cultural system or of reason as a uniform cognitive faculty with which all persons try to apprehend and reflect on objective realities or universal principles. Insisting that both dimensions are paradoxically combined in everyone’s thinking, I take issues with two groups — the Western scholars fascinated just with …


'Dao' As A Nickname, Stephen C. Angle, John A. Gordon Dec 2002

'Dao' As A Nickname, Stephen C. Angle, John A. Gordon

Stephen C. Angle

Few would deny that the Dao De Jing is a puzzling text.One puzzle that has particularly vexed interpreters in recent years is how to understand the central term of the text, ‘dao.’ The difficulty can be brought out by considering the first lines of two consecutive chapters:
[41] When the highest type of men hear the way, with diligence they are able to practice it....
[42] The way gives birth to the one....
‘Way’—the ubiquitous and appropriate translation for ‘dao’—seems to be used in two very different fashions in these two passages. In [41], ‘way’ looks to be used in …


Review Of Jensen: Manufacturing Confucianism, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2000

Review Of Jensen: Manufacturing Confucianism, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

Confucianisms, according to Lionel Jensen, are the results of a four-century long process
of pious manufacture: pious, because aimed at truth rather than manipulation; manufacture,
because the work has been done out of materials close to hand. These materials are the texts,
words, and symbols out of which traditions are invented and re-invented. Jensen’s book is
simultaneously a meditation on the ecumenical goals of “traditionary invention” and a close
study of the specific ways in which sixteenth- and twentieth-century communities have
negotiated between inherited meanings and current circumstances. Its case studies splendidly
exemplify its broader theoretical themes; I will look …


Review Of Jensen: Manufacturing Confucianism, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2000

Review Of Jensen: Manufacturing Confucianism, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

Confucianisms, according to Lionel Jensen, are the results of a four-century long process
of pious manufacture: pious, because aimed at truth rather than manipulation; manufacture,
because the work has been done out of materials close to hand. These materials are the texts,
words, and symbols out of which traditions are invented and re-invented. Jensen’s book is
simultaneously a meditation on the ecumenical goals of “traditionary invention” and a close
study of the specific ways in which sixteenth- and twentieth-century communities have
negotiated between inherited meanings and current circumstances. Its case studies splendidly
exemplify its broader theoretical themes; I will look …