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10The Ancients Did Not Fix Their Graves: Failure in Early Confucian RitualPhilosophy East and West 62 (2): 223-245. 2012.The "Tangong Shang" chapter of the Liji provides a brief account of Confucius performing certain burial rites for his deceased parents. After finishing one portion of the rites, something awful occurs—heavy rains fall, causing the grave to collapse. Confucius' demonstration of reverence through the performance of these burial rites is thwarted; but whose fault is it that the grave collapsed? Could Confucius have prevented this failure? In this essay it is argued that contrary to most contemporar…Read more
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32Two Virtuous Actions Cannot both be CompletedJournal of Religious Ethics 44 (4): 659-684. 2016.This essay highlights an alternative tradition of understanding value conflicts in early Confucian thought. In contrast to a prominent position among interpreters that argues for the resolvability or harmonization of conflicting values, I argue that some early Confucians conceptualized value conflicts as irresolvable. In other words, when meaningful aspects of a situation come into tension with each other and values are threatened to be either left unfulfilled or harmed, early Confucians put for…Read more
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55Born of Resentment: Yuan 怨 in Early Confucian ThoughtDao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 15 (1): 19-33. 2016.This essay explores the positive aspects of resentment in early Confucian thought. Specifically, it argues that from an early Confucian perspective, resentment is a frustration or anger that occurs when those close to us withhold their care or when they otherwise injure us. Stated succinctly, resentment is a result of frustrated desire for affection. It is a sign that we require the care of significant others, and that we are vulnerable to their concern or neglect. When understood appropriately,…Read more
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13Sages, Integrity, and the Paradox of Vulnerability: Reply to Chung, McLeod, and SeokRes Philosophica 96 (3): 401-408. 2019.
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12Ka Hulikanaka a me Ka Hoʻokūʻonoʻono: Davida Malo and Richard Armstrong on Being Human and Living WellJournal of World Philosophies 7 (1): 81-100. 2022.pThis article thinks through the work of Kanaka (Native Hawaiian) philosopher Davida Malo (1795–1853) and puts it in dialogue with the work of Richard Armstrong (1805–1860). It argues that Malo offers an account of being human that entails the proper management of impulses (makemake) and intentions (manaʻo) in ways that lead to flourishing (hoʻokūʻonoʻono) in complex communities (kauhale) overseen by leaders (aliʻi) that are informed by the examples of leaders from the past. Standards for proper…Read more
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16The Dysfunction of Ritual in Early ConfucianismOup Usa. 2012.Michael Ing's The Dysfunction of Ritual in Early Confucianism is the first monograph in English about the Liji--a text that purports to be the writings of Confucius' immediate disciples, and part of the earliest canon of Confucian texts called ''The Five Classics,'' included in the canon several centuries before the Analects. Ing uses his analysis of the Liji to show how early Confucians coped with situations where their rituals failed to achieve their intended aims. In contrast to most contempo…Read more
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12The Vulnerability of Integrity in Early Confucian ThoughtOup Usa. 2017.This book is about the necessity, and even value, of vulnerability in human experience. In it, Michael Ing brings early Chinese texts into dialogue with questions about the ways in which meaningful things are vulnerable to powers beyond our control; and more specifically, how relationships with meaningful others might compel tragic actions.
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33Philosophy in Western Han Dynasty ChinaPhilosophy Compass 11 (6): 289-304. 2016.The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that there are ample resources in the English-speaking academic community to enable philosophers who cannot read Chinese to work with material from the Western Han dynasty in their research or teaching. It discusses three kinds of resources, with the aim of developing a community of philosophers engaged in a sustained conversation about Western Han thought. These resources are histories that describe various aspects of the Han dynasty, translations o…Read more
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10Things Endure While We Fade Away: Tao Yuanming on Being HimselfPhilosophy East and West 69 (2): 395-418. 2019.This article will argue that Tao Yuanming 陶淵明 recognized a tension between being himself and the natural transformations of the world. While he advocated a kind of ziran zhuyi 自然 主義, he did not believe that he, or human beings in general, were predisposed to accept the inevitable changes of the world. Hence, his "naturalism" is not necessarily about fitting into his natural surroundings, despite the fact that he relies on these surroundings in his poetry, and that contemporary scholars sometimes…Read more
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8Précis to The Vulnerability of Integrity in Early Confucian ThoughRes Philosophica 96 (3): 369-372. 2019.
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8Hanau Kanaka o Mehelau: The Advent of Humanity in the KumulipoPhilosophy East and West 73 (3): 634-652. 2023.Abstract:The Kumulipo has become one of the best-known compositions in Kanaka (Hawaiian) culture. This article focuses on sections 8–11 of the chant, which describe the coming forth of humanity in the context of the shift from Pō (darkness) to Ao (light). This shift is a pivotal moment in the chant, and it signals something distinctive about being human, namely the ability to organize complex societies on the basis of moʻokūʻauhau (genealogies). This ability is rooted in an awareness of oneself …Read more
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67Moral Exemplars in the Analects: The Good Person is That by Amy Olberding (review)Philosophy East and West 63 (3): 439-442. 2013.In Moral Exemplars in the Analects, Amy Olberding offers a self-reflexive and thought-provoking interpretation of the Analects. Scholars of China will find her book valuable in that it provides a holistic reading of the Analects that preserves the tensions in the text. Ethicists will find it valuable in that it furthers discussion on the role of emulating paradigmatic figures in moral development.Olberding characterizes her project as an attempt to "discern a governing logic that renders the Ana…Read more
Bloomington, Indiana, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Classical Chinese Philosophy |
Indigenous Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
Chinese Philosophy |
Classical Chinese Philosophy |
Indigenous Philosophy |