•  78
    A Way of Practice: On Confucian Learning as a Communal Task
    Philosopical Practice 10 (2): 1581-96. 2015.
    This article aims at showing the applicability of the Confucian Way in non-Confucian contexts, through referring to the inner connectedness between theory and practice in Confucianism. Its first part addresses the Confucian ideas of knowledge, learning, dialogue and self-realization. Its second part suggests an application of the ideas in a project with women who are looking for a way to “check out” from prostitution. The article suggests that treating these women as partners to the Confucian hu…Read more
  •  77
    The Value in Storytelling: Women’s Life-Stories in Confucianism and Judaism
    Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 9 (2): 175-191. 2010.
    This essay retells the stories of four exemplary women from Confucianism and Judaism, hoping that the tension these stories exhibit can teach us something about women’s lives within the boundaries of tradition, then and now. It refers to two ideal “family caretakers”: M eng Mu 孟母, who devoted her life to her son’s learning, and Rachel, who devoted her life to her husband, the famous Rabbi Akiva. Then it tells the stories of two almost completely opposing exemplary figures: The sages B an Zhao 班昭…Read more
  •  57
    Filial Piety, Vital Power, and a Moral Sense of Immortality in Zhang Zai’s Philosophy
    Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 11 (2): 223-239. 2012.
    The present article focuses on Zhang Zai’s 張載 attitude toward death and its moral significance. It launches with the unusual link between the opening statement of the Western Inscription 西銘 regarding heaven and earth as parents and the conclusion that serving one’s cosmic parents during life, one is peaceful in death. Through the analogy of human relations with heaven and earth as filial piety (xiao 孝), Zhang Zai sets a framework for an understanding that being filial through life eliminates the…Read more
  •  54
    Learning and women: Confucianism revisited
    Journal of Chinese Philosophy 36 (2): 243-260. 2009.
    No Abstract
  •  37
    To live a Riddle: The transformative aspect of the laozi
    Journal of Chinese Philosophy 36 (3): 408-423. 2009.
    No Abstract
  •  31
    The Limits of Empathy - A Mengzi 'an Perspective'
    Comparative and Continental Philosophy 2 (2): 253-274. 2010.
    This article suggests how Mengzian ideas of the way [dao], rightness [yi] and rites [li], as related to the presupposition that human nature is moral, respond to rigid notions of “truth” and “law,” which tolerate a banalization of evil. It further suggests that the Mengzian attitude is both rooted in human empathy and draws clear limits to it. This is demonstrated by responding to arguments raised by the protagonist Max Aue in Jonathan Little’s book The Kindly Ones
  •  25
    To live a Riddle: The case of the binding of Isaac
    Philosophy and Literature 27 (2): 269-283. 2003.
    In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Philosophy and Literature 27.2 (2003) 269-283 [Access article in PDF] To Live a Riddle:The Case of the Binding of Isaac Galia Patt-Shamir MOST OF US BELIEVE we know what a riddle is. Usually it is an obscurity, or a set of obscurities, for which—we assume—an answer can be given, even if one is not yet known. Most of us, moreover, believe we know what a solution to a riddle is; in most cases it is a well-defined explanation of the obs…Read more
  •  17
    Whose Tradition? Which Dao? Confucius and Wittgenstein on Moral Learning and Reflection by James F. Peterman addresses the valuable position that Confucius’ dao can and has to be understood within the useful framework of Wittgensteinian forms of life, their concrete language games, and the mastery of techniques and rule- following, and that Wittgenstein’s forms of life embody critical therapeutic interventions that can be better understood through Confucian ideas of moral practice and reflection…Read more
  •  14
    Reading Taijitu Shuo Synchronously: The Human Sense of Wuji er Taiji
    Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 19 (3): 427-442. 2020.
    This article suggests that reading Zhou Dunyi’s 周敦頤 Explanation to the Diagram of Supreme Polarity synchronously instead of diachronically yields a new understanding on the relatedness between infinitude and finitude, or on the One and many. Zhou’s attitude is introduced as a living riddle, in which “Non-Polar and Supreme Polarity” is understood as a new conceptual construct, and one which is issued as a call for action at the end of the text: it is a call to investigate the beginnings and endin…Read more
  •  13
    Kim, Jung-Yeup: Z hang Zai’s Philosophy of Qi: A Practical Understanding
    Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 17 (3): 429-434. 2018.
  •  9
    The objective in this article is to apply a Daoist model of an ethic derived from the Laozi on writings of the Huang Lao tradition to offer a unique Daoist cosmically derived ethic in its own terms. Having our point of departure in the Laozi we refer to its paradoxical language as a living riddle that is inherent to the tradition, and as such it suggests a “model of modeling.” We find this model in Laozi 25, according to which self-so (ziran自然) serves as foundation for an ethic that is neither d…Read more
  •  4
    To Broaden the Way suggests that the texts of both the Jewish and Confucian tradition talk in riddles of a special kind: riddles which are introduced-and answered-by religious forms of life. Using a "dialogue of riddles," Galia Patt-Shamir presents a comparative perspective of Confucianism and Judaism regarding the relatedness between contradictory expressions in texts and living conflicts.
  •  1
    Offers three Neo-Confucian understandings of broadening the Way as broadening oneself, through an ongoing process of removing self-boundaries.
  • The Riddle of Confucianism: The Case of Tongshu
    Dissertation, Harvard University. 1997.
    This dissertation presents a new viewpoint regarding the problem of understanding the nature of religious belief, based on examining apparent contradictions in Confucian religious texts and their implications on the life of the believer. The approach is demonstrated primarily by focusing on a pioneering Neo-Confucian text from the 11th century AD, the Tongshu by Zhou Dunyi. The approach is also used in new readings of a few classical Confucian and Neo-Confucian texts. It is suggested that the ma…Read more