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Shame is frequently viewed as a destructive emotion; but it can also be understood in terms of change and growth. This essay highlights the problematic values that cause pervasive and frequent shame and the importance of resisting and changing these values. Using Confucian insights, I situate shame in an interactive process between the individual's values and that of their society, thus, being vulnerable to shame represents both one's connection to a community and an openness to others' negative feedback. This process provides an important arena where personal values interact with communal ones. The Confucian tradition, I argue, affords individuals a degree of autonomy in internalization through urging them to cultivate and maintain a keen sense of shame. My discussion also offers resources for understanding the various aspects of this interactive process—how individuals with similar experiences of shame may, through channeling their experiences, influence social values and propel moral progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pain caused by the patriarchal totalitarianism of different modern political regimes is felt by everyone in our time: poverty, unemployment, high exploitation of both nature and humans, systematic oppression, persecution and domination, and pollution that threatens human existence. This article analyzes the different forms of patriarchy in contemporary China and explores a feminist way out. The first part examines how modern patriarchy unfolds itself through the land-enclosure movement that has caused serious pollution in China. I will show that the patriarchal process of development is a double exploitation of both nature and humans. The second part turns to the patriarchy in traditional Chinese philosophies and explores possible dangers in Confucian feminism. In the last part I try to posit as a solution Daoist ecofeminism as a new democracy, wherein the feminist ontology and the freedom of all beings will be explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For Bell, academic meritocracy is a microcosm reflecting China's political meritocracy, also referred to as "democratic meritocracy" (p. 111 and elsewhere), which he forcefully argues is a viable and worthy alternative to Western liberal democracies. Although the confessional elements of the book are rather light-hearted, Bell's chief concern is to "de-demonize" our understanding of China's political system (p. 17) - a timely, serious and challenging task. Moreover, I am not fully convinced by Bell's assertion that the virtues of China's meritocratic structure in academia also apply to other government bureaucracies. [Extracted from the article]

In this discussion I explore challenges to a particular Confucian system of morality that generally eschews reliance on rights. I argue that such a system may at the same time both assert that there are moral problems with rights and assert that it is acceptable to invoke rights in limited contexts. Adam Bailey has objected that the position I defend is inconsistent. I answer Bailey's objections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Confucius's teachings fall under four headings: "culture, moral conduct, doing one's best, and being trustworthy in what one says" (7/25). Trust or, more precisely, being trustworthy, plays a central role in the Confucian ethic. This paper begins by examining the Confucian concept of trustworthiness. The second part of the paper discusses how the ideal of trustworthiness makes itself felt in business practices within China. The paper concludes by raising and addressing several objections to the Confucian emphasis on trustworthiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nevertheless, the more advanced student of Zhu Xi will still want to consult the original version of the I Zhuzi yulei i , especially the rich records of his explorations on the classics, many of which complement and further elucidate his celebrated glosses and interlinear commentaries on canonical works. Yet his highly accessible translations, supported by a general introduction, concise notes and a glossary of key terms, offer a good elementary overview on the basics of Zhu Xi's system of thought. Building on his previous work, namely his earlier translations in part two of his I Learning to Be A Sage i and elsewhere, Gardner brings into focus the paradigmatic views on learning and reading of Zhu Xi, who devoted much of his life to education. [Extracted from the article]

Criticisms of the liberal-individualist idea of the 'unencumbered self' are not just a staple of communitarian thought. Some modern Confucian thinkers are now seeking to develop an ethically particular understanding of social roles in the family that is sensitive to gender-justice issues, and that provides an alternative to liberal-individualist conceptions of the 'unencumbered self' in relation to family roles. The character of Nora in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House seemingly exemplifies such conceptions of the unencumbered self in her rejection of her housewife role for a more authentic selfhood. Drawing upon the capabilities approach to justice, and positive early Japanese bluestockings' responses to Ibsen's play, I argue that Nora's character is better understood as exemplifying an ethically compelling disencumbered self in potentially cross-cultural circumstances: a self criticizing and rejecting social roles that are found to be unjust according to universal, as opposed to particularist, 'Confucian' ethical standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since Esping-Andersen classified the 18 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries into the "three worlds of welfare capitalism" in 1990, the comparative studies of welfare have been dominated by the responses to this study. This paper focuses on two of these responses. The first response is concerned with the gender insensitivity of Esping-Andersen's way of categorizing the welfare regimes. The second response is concerned with the issue that the East Asian countries are under-represented in the 18 OECD countries. To make contributions to these responses, two analytical tasks are conducted. First, we build new defamilisation typologies covering both East Asian countries and OECD countries. Second, we demonstrate that the evidence generated from the typologies suggest that some of the indispensable conditions for the development of a Confucian welfare regime do not exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a while now, there has been much conceptual discussion about the respective natures of knowledge-that and knowledge-how, along with the intellectualist idea that knowledge-how is really a kind of knowledge-that. Gilbert Ryle put in place most of the terms that have so far been distinctive of that debate, when he argued for knowledge-how's conceptual distinctness from knowledge-that. But maybe those terms should be supplemented, expanding the debate. In that spirit, the conceptual option of practicalism has recently entered the fray. Practicalism conceives anew the nature of knowledge-that, as being a kind of knowledge-how. In this paper we enlarge upon this conceptual suggestion. We draw from an ancient Chinese text, the Analects of Confucius, explaining how it lends some support to practicalism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

By examining Xunzi's and Mencius's contrary reactions toward royal transmission by individual merit or “abdication” (shanrang 禪讓), this article attempts to reveal the distinctive features of their respective political theories, which I reconstruct in terms of lizhi constitutionalism and dezhi constitutionalism. Resisting the conventional tendency to capture Mencius's and Xunzi's political theories in such dichotomous terms as idealism and realism, this paper draws attention to the complex mixture of idealism and realism found in both thinkers' constitutional political theories and identifies such common ground in terms of “Confucian constitutionalism.” This paper presents Mencius's idealistic defense of abdication and his realistic resolution of the constitutional crisis latent in it, then it examines Xunzi's refutation of the three conventional rationalizations of abdication, and it concludes by recapitulating the common Confucian constitutionalist ground that Mencius and Xunzi shared and discussing its implications for the study of constitutional theory. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper discusses crisis from the standpoint of philosophical ideas. It argues that philosophy, as a structure of our deep understanding of the world, has been derailed by metaphysics of things for a long time, and claims that a philosophical turn to a metaphysics of facts might be a useful tool to rethink the problems of the world. It considers ‘‘relational rationality’’ as a key theoretical feature to change human coexistence, and conceives coexistence as prior to individual existence. It finally discusses the relations between human duties or obligations and rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the current revival of Confucianism in China. It analyzes its political issues and outcomes, underlines the possible defects in Confucianism as a theory of politics, i.e., as a science and art of government and a public ethics. It looks back to the dialectical relationship between Confucius and Mencius and shows how the presence of Confucianist elements in 20th-century politics contributed to shape the public and political sphere in contemporary China. The strains between revolutionary and reformist orientations through the last century are still at work in current social movements and reflected in political debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractKorean Confucianism has been described as ?the enemy of feminism?: feminists often argue that Confucianism is the source of the patriarchal society. Feminist scholars have produced significant works about Confucianism's role in preserving the idea of women's subordination to men; they argue that the idea of men's superiority to women is embedded in Confucian philosophy. In this article I will examine whether Confucian philosophy is responsible for women's subordination to men in such Confucian texts as Naehun, The Book of Change, The Book of Poetry, and The Analects. Naehunwas written by the mother of King S?ngjong in 1475, for the purpose of the Confucian education of Korean women; I will look also at other, related, Confucian texts used for Korean women's education. Confucian classics such as The Book of Change, The Book of Poetryand Confucian Analectswill be included in the analysis to investigate whether Confucianism legitimizes women's subordination tomen. In the analysis of these Confucian classics, I will focus on the ongoing debate between scholars of Confucianism and feminism in Korea today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is difficult, arguably, for modern leftist thinkers to sympathize with Confucian values that seem best suited to old, boring and deadly serious defenders of conservative traditions. But this stereotypical image may be mistaken. Drawing on his own experience, the author argues that Confucians can and should have a sense of humour and engage in social and political criticism. He also questions the idea that Confucians need to be elderly gentlemen. The article ends with some reflections on Chineseness and Confucianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates the issue of whether East Asian cities with their Confucian heritage can support institutions of liberal democracy. Comparisons of classical Confucian and contemporary communication.