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What place does freedom have in Confucianism? We find a wide spectrum of views on the matter: some deny that Confucians value or even conceive of freedom, while others celebrate uniquely exalted forms of Confucian freedom. This paper examines the range of proposals, finding consensus among these diverse views in that all identify distinctive Confucian emphases on (i) subjective affirmation of the good and (ii) the cultivation of desires and intentions to align with that good. The variation among views of Confucian freedom does not result from disparate interpretations of Confucian teachings. Rather, their divergence lies in affirming or denying that these core aspects of Confucian thought should be seen as 'freedom.' This reveals an undiscussed, fundamental question regarding Confucian freedom: Can and should we see the traditional Confucian moral ideal—that is, Confucian goodness and sagely virtue—as versions of freedom? What do we gain by doing so? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to offer a new interpretation of the controversial concept of 'immanent transcendence' (neizai chaoyue 内在超越) in the work of the Confucian philosopher Mou Zongsan 牟宗三 (1909–1995). After a series of introductory remarks on the semantic and conceptual range of the terms 'immanence' and 'transcendence' in comparative philosophy, I go on to provide a historically sensitive analysis of the origins of thenotion of 'immanent transcendence' in Mou's work. In doing so, I argue that rather than merely reflecting a blanket ontological or epistemological claim serving todifferentiate Chinese from Western culture and thought, the paradoxical concept of 'immanent transcendence' has a profoundly socio-political dimension and testifies Mou's efforts to maintain a form of continuity between the normative and the factual in the face of the unprecedented challenges faced by the Confucian tradition in the modern era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Typical modes of reasoning in the Chinese tradition have often been described by Western thinkers as 'correlative' or 'analogical' in contrast with the supposedly rational, Western mode of reasoning. However, analogical reasoning has a prominent place in much of pre-modern writing in the West, including philosophical, medical, and theological treatises. At a glance, some readers may note a similarity between Western analogical thinking and Chinese correlative (tongbian) thinking. However, closer inspection reveals that analogies in the Western tradition and Chinese correlations had very little in common. Analogical thinking in the West often relied on deeper causal relations (as in the Hippocratic tradition) or on underlying principles of similarity (as with Plato's analogies). In contrast, Chinese tongbian thought often constructed correlative arguments based on patterns of similarity inherent in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statistics show that in academic, as well as the conservative part of philosophical society of contemporary Iran, the considerable part of papers, theses and research projects are devoted to comparative philosophy. In the first part of this essay we will struggle to show this domination relying on some official statistics. But this event is associated with numerous side effects and shortcomings which will be discussed in the second part of the paper. In the third part, the causes and roots of this event will be assayed. But among various mentioned causes one cause seems to be more prominent. Serious engagement with comparative studies is a stage of fundamental approach of conservative institutes, and to some extent, of experts of humanities in Iran, to western humanities in order to indigenize those sciences and this in turn has its origin in certain ideological and political motives persuaded by the quarrel with the west. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article opens with a discussion of recent theoretical and methodological innovations in the field of comparative philosophy. In this regard, I propose and explain a new possible method of contrasting particular aspects of divergent philosophical texts or discourses and denote it as a 'philosophy of sublation'. Then, the paper provides a concrete example for such a post-comparative method of reasoning, I will try to apply a 'sublation philosophy' approach for a reinterpretation of certain aspects of the complex philosophical intersections between modern Japanese and Chinese philosophies through the lens of a contrastive analysis of Nishida Kitarō's and Mou Zongsan's dialectical thought. In this way, I hope to shed some new light upon some general questions regarding different models of dialectics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zhi is an important Chinese notion that conveys among other things human capacity to set aims, to determine a course of action, or to persist in a resolve. The term naturally turns up in Chinese contributions to Western Free Will debate. In this paper, I explain zhi by working out a comparison that goes from East to West. I do a three-fold textual analysis of zhi focusing on the Mencius. I outline different usages found in the text, examine a nuanced, dominant meaning suggested in 2A.2, and discuss notional features based on language patterns. My analysis yields a more homegrown understanding of zhi which I shall compare with Western expressions of moral agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After some introductory remarks on the work of the modern Chinese philosopher Feng Qi, I begin this article by providing some observations concerning the ambiguous notion of ‘wisdom’ in Orientalist representations of non-Western thought and in comparative philosophy, as well as on the peculiar form of subjectivity ascribed to the ‘wise’ subject. I then proceed by offering an account of Feng’s philosophical universalism and historical materialist outlook, outlining the identification of wisdom with metaphysics in his early work and exploring the status and function of wisdom in his mature writings. In doing so, I analyze the tension in Feng’s work between the theoretical rationality and systematicity of ‘metaphysics’ on the one hand and the existential and transformative orientation of ‘wisdom’ on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I suggest that Kierkegaard proves a helpful interlocutor in the debate aboutAnalects13.18 and the meaning ofyin隱. After surveying the contemporary debate, I argue that Kierkegaard and the Confucians agree on three important points. First, they both present relational selves. Second, both believe certain relationships (God for Kierkegaard andtian天 and the sages for the Confucians) are integral for moral knowledge. Third, both present a differentiated account of love where our obligations are highest to those with whom we are closest. Moreover, Kierkegaard’s ‘covering’ in the deliberation ‘Love covers a multitude of sins’ inWorks of Loveof ‘covering’ suggests innovative meanings foryin隱 that are compatible with Confucian philosophy. Finally, I argue that sagely discretion in covering on the Confucian account is like the teleological suspension of the ethical. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Confucianism tends to play only a marginal role in current theorizing about justice, which is a global pursuit dominated by Western theory and its strong tendency to assume that justice refers to some substantive conception of distributive, socioeconomic justice. This article examines and compares reconstructions of Confucian justice by Joseph Chan, May Sim, and Fan Ruiping. Each reconstruction makes reference to both classical and modern Western justice theory and thus each involves a comparative approach; indeed, each reconstruction seeks ultimately, in its own distinctive fashion, to present a version of Confucian justice that is comparable with modern Western justice theory. In this article we assess, critically and comparatively, the tertium comparationis and the arguments in each reconstruction. While our analysis does not wholly endorse any of the reconstructions, it shows that there is a richness and vitality to Confucian justice theory that merits proper consideration in justice theory conceived as a truly global and cosmopolitan discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]