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118Philosophers of the Warring States: A Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy (edited book)Broadview Press. 2018.An anthology of new translations of essential readings from the classical texts of early Chinese philosophy. It includes the Analects of Confucius, Meng Zi (Mencius), Xun Zi, Mo Zi, Lao Zi (Dao De Jing), Zhuang Zi, and Han Fei Zi, as well as short chapters on the Da Xue and the Zhong Yong. Pedagogically organized, it offers philosophically sophisticated annotations and commentaries as well as an extensive glossary explaining key philosophical concepts in detail.
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33Sorai and the Will of TianDao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 5 (2): 313-330. 2006.My purpose has been more negative than positive. That is, I have challenged the view that Sorai understoodtian as an intentional agent. At minimum, Soraiâs philosophical views do not depend upon such a conception oftian, and he refrains from characterizingtian in such terms when he discusses the concept oftian directly. However, I do not claim to have proven that Soraiâs view oftian was completely naturalistic, or even that Sorai did notâat some levelâbelieve thattian had intentions. I h…Read more
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36Ritual and Religion in the Xunzi ed. by T. C. Kline III and Justin TiwaldPhilosophy East and West 66 (2): 676-678. 2016.As the title Ritual and Religion in the Xunzi accurately suggests, this collection of essays edited by T. C. Kline III and Justin Tiwald addresses Xunzi’s perspective on ritual and religion. Some of the essays are new, others are have been published previously. As a whole, the book strives to portray Xunzi as a religious philosopher, and to elucidate his potential contribution to the understanding of religion and ritual. Although there are a variety of views presented, Xunzi is generally charact…Read more
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65Xunzi's use of zhengming: Naming as a constructive projectAsian Philosophy 12 (1). 2002.This paper challenges the view of several interpreters of Xunzi regarding the status of names, ming. I will maintain that Xunzi's view is consistent with the activity we see not only in his own efforts to influence language, but those of Confucius as well. Based on a reconsideration of translations and interpretations of key passages, I will argue that names are regarded neither as mere labels nor as indicating a privileged taxonomy of the myriad phenomena. Rather, Xunzi conceives them as constr…Read more
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77Xunzi and the Prudence of Dao : Desire as the Motive to Become GoodDao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 10 (1): 53-70. 2011.Xunzi is often interpreted as offering a method for transforming our desires. This essay argues that, strictly speaking, he does not. Rather, Xunzi offers a method of developing an auxiliary motivational structure capable of overpowering our original desires, when there is a conflict. When one succeeds in transforming one’s overall character, original desires nevertheless remain and are largely satisfied. This explains why one may be motivated to follow the way even before one has developed nobl…Read more
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18Would Early Confucians Really Support Humanitarian Interventions?Philosophy East and West 66 (3): 818-841. 2016.Many scholars view Confucianism as relatively open to war, as a legitimate tool for maintaining order and rescuing oppressed peoples. Indeed, it is not uncommon for statements such as the following to be presented as though they were straightforward matters of fact: “Confucians would approve the use of force by one state against another state for the protection against abusive rule in the latter if properly carried out”.1 Such claims find support in the work of Daniel A. Bell, Tongdong Bai, and …Read more
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77Conspiracy Theories and Stylized FactsJournal for Peace and Justice Studies 21 (2): 3-22. 2011.In an article published in the Journal of Political Philosophy, Cass Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule argue that the government and its allies ought to activelyundermine groups that espouse conspiracy theories deemed “demonstrably false.” They propose infiltrating such groups in order to “cure” conspiracy theorists by treating their “crippled epistemology” with “cognitive diversity.” They base their proposal on an analysis of the “causes” of such conspiracy theories, which emphasizes informational a…Read more
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141Conspiracy Theories and the Paranoid Style: Do Conspiracy Theories Posit Implausibly Vast and Evil Conspiracies?Social Epistemology 32 (1): 24-40. 2018.In the social science literature, conspiracy theories are commonly characterized as theories positing a vast network of evil and preternaturally effective conspirators, and they are often treated, either explicitly or implicitly, as dubious on this basis. This characterization is based on Richard Hofstadter’s famous account of ‘the paranoid style’. However, many significant conspiracy theories do not have any of the relevant qualities. Thus, the social science literature provides a distorted acc…Read more
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35Bai, Tongdong, China: The Political Philosophy of the Middle Kingdom: New York: Zed Books, 2012, viii+206 pages (review)Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 12 (4): 545-549. 2013.
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70Are ‘Conspiracy Theories’ So Unlikely to Be True? A Critique of Quassim Cassam’s Concept of ‘Conspiracy Theories’Social Epistemology 36 (3): 329-343. 2022.The philosopher Quassim Cassam has described a concept called ‘Conspiracy Theories’ (capitalized) that includes several ‘special features’ that distinguish such theories from other theories positing conspiracies. Conspiracy Theories, he argues, are unlikely to be true. Indeed, he implies that they are, as a class of ideas, so unlikely to be true that we are justified in responding to them by criticizing the ideology they are (presumed to be) associated with, rather than engaging them solely on t…Read more
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728Do Conspiracies Tend to Fail? Philosophical Reflections on a Poorly Supported Academic MemeEpisteme 20 (2): 429-448. 2023.Critics of conspiracy theories often charge that such theories are implausible because conspiracies of the kind they allege tend to fail. Thus, according to these critics, conspiracy theories that have been around for a while would have been, in all likelihood, already exposed if they had been real. So, they reason, they probably are not. In this article, I maintain that the arguments in support of this view are unconvincing. I do so by examining a list of four sources recently cited in support …Read more
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49Sorai and Xunzi on the construction of the wayAsian Philosophy 15 (2). 2005.While Sorai's intellectual debt to Xunzi is often mentioned, the similarities between their views have not often been explored at length in English2.2 Further, while Maruyama Masao does compare the two thinkers in his influential monograph Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan, he stresses (apparent) differences between Xunzi and Sorai, in order to hail Sorai's uniqueness. Without meaning to take anything away from Sorai as an independent thinker, I maintain that with regard to p…Read more
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72Artifice and virtue in the XunziDao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 3 (1): 85-107. 2003.Xunzi was chronologically the third of the three great Confucian thinkers of Chinaâs classical period, after Confucius and Mencius. Having produced the most comprehensive philosophical system of that period, he occupies a place in the development of Chinese philosophy comparable to that of Aristotle in the Western philosophical tradition. This essay reveals how Xunziâs understanding of virtue and moral development dovetailed with his positions on ritual propriety, the attunement of names, th…Read more
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26Confucian Education: From Conformity to Cultivating Personal DistinctionDao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 21 (2): 213-234. 2022.This article explores contrasting interpretations of early Confucian philosophy as they apply to education, focusing primarily on the Analects of Confucius, the Mencius, and the Xunzi 荀子. I first describe a common interpretation of the Confucian worldview, according to which an already perfected way is thought to have been established. This view tends to encourage thinking of education as a process of conveying the True Way and ensuring conformity to the norms that constitute it. I then describe…Read more
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45Virtue, Nature, and Moral Agency in the Xunzi (review) (review)Philosophy East and West 51 (3): 434-440. 2001.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Virtue, Nature, and Moral Agency in the XunziKurtis HagenVirtue, Nature, and Moral Agency in the Xunzi. Edited, with introduction, by T. C. Kline III and Philip J. Ivanhoe. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2000. Pp. xvii + 268.Virtue, Nature, and Moral Agency in the Xunzi, edited by T. C. Kline III and Philip J. Ivanhoe, is an anthology that has much to recommend it. It brings together several seminal papers on X…Read more
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23Mencius and Xunzi on the legitimate use of offensive force: A pacifistic critique of recent just war interpretationsPhilosophy Compass 17 (6). 2022.This essay offers a critical evaluation of competing interpretations of the early Confucian thinkers Xunzi and Mencius regarding their view of the legitimacy of war. First, I briefly describe and critique Daniel Bell’s “just war” interpretation of Mencius, which is relatively permissive regarding the legitimation of war. I then consider and critique the position of Sumner Twiss and Jonathan Chan regarding Mencius’ and Xunzi’s ostensible support for what we call “humanitarian intervention,” which…Read more
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Confucianism as a Tradition of Reconstruction: Returning to the "Way of Heaven"?In Ian M. Sullivan & Joshua Mason (eds.), One corner of the square: essays on the philosophy of Roger T. Ames, University of Hawaiʻi Press. 2021.
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2Review Of David Ray Griffin's Cognitive Infiltration: An Obama Appointee's Plan To Undermine The 9/11 Conspiracy Theory (review)Florida Philosophical Review 11 (1): 66-68. 2011.
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103Is Conspiracy Theorizing Really Epistemically Problematic?Episteme 19 (2): 197-219. 2022.In an article based on a recent address to the Royal Institute of Philosophy, Keith Harris has argued that there is something epistemically wrong with conspiracy theorizing. Although he finds “standard criticisms” of conspiracy theories wanting, he argues that there are three subtle but significant problems with conspiracy theorizing: It relies on an invalid probabilistic version of modus tollens. It involves a problematic combination of both epistemic virtues and vices. And it lacks an adequate…Read more
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117Should Academics Debunk Conspiracy Theories?Social Epistemology 34 (5): 423-439. 2020.This article addresses the question, ‘Should scholars debunk conspiracy theories or stay neutral?’ It describes ‘conspiracy theories’ and two senses of ‘neutrality,’ arguing that scholars should be...
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60Is Infiltration of “Extremist Groups” Justified?International Journal of Applied Philosophy 24 (2): 153-168. 2010.Many intellectuals scoff at what they call “conspiracy theories.” But two Harvard law professors, Cass Sunstein (now working for the Obama administration) and Adrian Vermeule, go further. They argue in the Journal of Political Philosophy that groups that espouse such theories ought to be infiltrated and undermined by government agents and allies. While some may find this proposal appalling (as indeed we all should), others may find the argument plausible, especially if they have been swayed by t…Read more
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38A Response to Eric Hutton’s ReviewDao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 6 (4): 441-443. 2007.
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24Mencius and Xunzi on the legitimate use of offensive force: A pacifistic critique of recent just war interpretationsPhilosophy Compass 17 (6). 2022.This essay offers a critical evaluation of competing interpretations of the early Confucian thinkers Xunzi and Mencius regarding their view of the legitimacy of war. First, I briefly describe and critique Daniel Bell's “just war” interpretation of Mencius, which is relatively permissive regarding the legitimation of war. I then consider and critique the position of Sumner Twiss and Jonathan Chan regarding Mencius' and Xunzi's ostensible support for what we call “humanitarian intervention,” which…Read more
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49The Concepts of Li and Lei in the Xunzi: Constructive Patterning of CategoriesInternational Philosophical Quarterly 41 (2): 183-197. 2001.
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Conspiracy Theorists and Social ScientistsIn Matthew R. X. Dentith (ed.), Taking Conspiracy Theories Seriously, Rowman & Littlefield International. pp. 125-140. 2018.Presumably authoritative sources, such as social scientists who study conspiracy theorists, are generally expected to be logically rigorous, intellectually honest, and unbiased. This chapter suggests that this expectation may not always be justified. Specifically, it exposes a number of significant problems in an attempt by a group of social scientists to defend the (ostensibly) scientific study of conspiracy theorists. First, they misrepresent their own previously stated intentions. Second, the…Read more
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89The propriety of confucius: A sense-of-ritualAsian Philosophy 20 (1). 2010.In the philosophy of Confucius, the concept _li_ is both central and elusive. While it is often translated 'ritual' or 'the rites,' I argue that there are numerous significant ways in which _li_ is as much an internal property of individuals as it is an external set of rules or norms. I discuss _li_ as deference, as developed dispositions, as embodied intelligence, and as personalized exemplary conduct. Finally, reflecting on the work of Fingarette, and Hall and Ames, as well as Wilson's analysi…Read more
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12Lead Them with Virtue: A Confucian Alternative to WarLexington Books. 2021.Kurtis Hagen argues that early Confucians seek to discourage war by prescribing conditions for just war that are exceedingly difficult to meet. They encourage, instead, a long-term strategy of ameliorating unjust circumstances by leveraging the credibility and influence that stems from consistently practicing genuinely benevolent governance.