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902Human Rights in Chinese Thought: A Cross-Cultural InquiryCambridge University Press. 2002.What should we make of claims by members of other groups to have moralities different from our own? Human Rights in Chinese Thought gives an extended answer to this question in the first study of its kind. It integrates a full account of the development of Chinese rights discourse - reaching back to important, though neglected, origins of that discourse in 17th and 18th century Confucianism - with philosophical consideration of how various communities should respond to contemporary Chinese claim…Read more
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477Ritual and Reverence in Ancient China and Today (review)Philosophy East and West 55 (3): 471-479. 2005.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Ritual and Reverence in Ancient China and TodayStephen C. AngleReverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue. By Paul Woodruff. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Pp. 248.It is a sad commonplace that works in moral philosophy rarely do much to make their readers more moral. Unusually gifted classroom teachers can sometimes make a difference in students' lives, though, and now and again there appears a piece of philosophical…Read more
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297Neo-Confucianism: A Philosophical IntroductionPolity. 2017.Neo-Confucianism is a philosophically sophisticated tradition weaving classical Confucianism together with themes from Buddhism and Daoism. It began in China around the eleventh century CE, played a leading role in East Asian cultures over the last millennium, and has had a profound influence on modern Chinese society. Based on the latest scholarship but presented in accessible language, Neo-Confucianism: A Philosophical Introduction is organized around themes that are central in Neo-Confucian p…Read more
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297Concepts, communication, and the relevance of philosophy to human rights: A response to Randall PeerenboomPhilosophy East and West 55 (2): 320-324. 2005.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Concepts, Communication, and the Relevance of Philosophy to Human Rights:A Response to Randall PeerenboomStephen C. AngleRandy Peerenboom has paid me the enormous compliment of thinking it worthwhile to engage in sustained, critical dialogue with my book. In this response to his review essay, I attempt to return the compliment. I focus on issues surrounding concepts and communication, since that is where Peerenboom puts his emphasis.…Read more
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252Should We All Be More English? Liang Qichao, Rudolf von Jhering, and RightsJournal of the History of Ideas 61 (2): 241-261. 2000.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Journal of the History of Ideas 61.2 (2000) 241-261 [Access article in PDF] Should We All Be More English? Liang Qichao, Rudolf von Jhering, and Rights Stephen C. Angle [T]he Celestial Empire, with its bamboo, the rod for its adult children, and its hundreds of millions of inhabitants, will never attain, in the eyes of foreign nations, the respected position of little Switzerland. The natural disposition of the Swiss in the matter of…Read more
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175Contemporary confucian and islamic approaches to democracy and human rightsComparative Philosophy 4 (1): 7-41. 2013.Both Confucian and Islamic traditions stand in fraught and internally contested relationships with democracy and human rights. It can easily appear that the two traditions are in analogous positions with respect to the values associated with modernity, but a central contention of this essay is that Islam and Confucianism are not analogous in this way. Positions taken by advocates of the traditions are often similar, but the reasoning used to justify these positions differs in crucial ways. Wheth…Read more
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121Confucian political philosophy has recently emerged as a vibrant area of thought both in China and around the globe. This book provides an accessible introduction to the main perspectives and topics being debated today, and shows why Progressive Confucianism is a particularly promising approach. Students of political theory or contemporary politics will learn that far from being confined to a museum, contemporary Confucianism is both responding to current challenges and offering insights from wh…Read more
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115The minimal definition and methodology of comparative philosophy: A report from a conference [abstract]Comparative Philosophy 1 (1): 106. 2010.In June of 2008, the International Society for Comparative Studies of Chinese and Western Philosophy (ISCWP) convened its third Constructive Engagement conference, on the theme of “Comparative Philosophy Methodology.” During the opening speeches, Prof. Dunhua ZHAO, Chair of the Philosophy Department at Peking University, challenged the conference’s participants to put forward a minimal definition of “comparative philosophy” and a statement of its methods. Based on the papers from the conference …Read more
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106Sagehood: the contemporary significance of neo-Confucian philosophyOxford University Press. 2009.The book's significance is two-fold: it argues for a new stage in the development of contemporary Confucian philosophy, and it demonstrates the value to Western ...
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94A fresh look at knowledge and action: Wang yangming in comparative perspectiveJournal of Chinese Philosophy 33 (2). 2006.
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92Must we choose our leaders? Human rights and political participation in chinaJournal of Global Ethics 1 (2). 2005.The essay begins from Alan Gewirth's influential account of human rights, and specifically with his argument that the human right to political participation can only be fulfilled by competitive, liberal democracy. I show that his argument rests on empirical, rather than conceptual grounds, which opens the possibility that in China, alternative forms of participation may be legitimate or even superior. An examination of the theory and contemporary practice of 'democratic centralism' shows that wh…Read more
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88Defining “virtue ethics” and exploring virtues in a comparative contextDao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 8 (3): 297-304. 2009.
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88Decent Democratic CentralismPolitical Theory 33 (4): 518-546. 2005.Are there any coherent and defensible alternatives to liberal democracy? The author examines the possibility that a reformed democratic centralism-the principle around which China's current polity is officially organized-might be legitimate, according to both an inside and an outside perspective. The inside perspective builds on contemporary Chinese political theory; the outside perspective critically deploys Rawls's notion ofa "decent society " as its standard. Along the way, the author pays pa…Read more
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88New confucianism: A critical examination, Edited by John Makeham (review)Journal of Chinese Philosophy 31 (4). 2004.This collection of essays explores the development of the New Confucianism movement during the 20th century and questions whether it is, in fact, a distinctly new intellectual movement or one that has been mostly retrospectively created. The questions that contributors to this book seek to answer about this neo-conservative philosophical movement include: “What has been the cross-fertilization between Chinese scholars in China and overseas made possible by the shared discourse of Confucianism?” …Read more
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76Translating (and Interpreting) the Mengzi: Virtue, Obligation, and DiscretionJournal of Chinese Philosophy 37 (4): 676-683. 2010.
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69Review of kWong-loi Shun, David B. Wong (eds.), Confucian Ethics: A Comparative Study of Self, Autonomy, and Community (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2005 (12). 2005.
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69No Supreme Principle: Confucianism’s Harmonization of Multiple ValuesDao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 7 (1): 35-40. 2008.
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68A Confucian Constitutional Order: How China's Ancient Past Can Shape Its Political Future by Jiang Qing, translated by Edmund Ryden, edited by Daniel A. Bell and Ruiping Fan (review)Philosophy East and West 64 (2): 502-506. 2014.How important is Jiang Qing, whose extraordinary proposals for political change make up the core of the new book A Confucian Constitutional Order: How China’s Ancient Past Can Shape Its Political Future? In his Introduction to the volume, co-editor Daniel Bell maintains that Jiang’s views are “intensely controversial” and that conversations about political reform in China rarely fail to turn to Jiang’s proposals. At least in my experience, this is something of an exaggeration. Chinese political …Read more
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65Virtue Ethics and Confucianism (edited book)Routledge. 2013.This volume presents the fruits of an extended dialogue among American and Chinese philosophers concerning the relations between virtue ethics and the Confucian tradition. Based on recent advances in English-language scholarship on and translation of Confucian philosophy, the book demonstrates that cross-tradition stimulus, challenge, and learning are now eminently possible. Anyone interested in the role of virtue in contemporary moral philosophy, in Chinese thought, or in the future possibiliti…Read more
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65Fan, Ruiping, Reconstructionist Confucianism: Rethinking Morality After the West: Dordrecht: Springer, 2010, xx + 296 pages (review)Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 9 (3): 353-357. 2010.
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64Fred Dallmayr and Zhao Tingyang, eds. Contemporary Chinese Political Thought: Debates and Perspectives: Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2012. viii + 295 (review)Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 12 (1): 111-115. 2013.
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63Review of kam-Por yu, Julia Tao, Philip J. Ivanhoe (eds.), Taking Confucian Ethics Seriously: ContemPorary Theories and Applications (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2011 (2). 2011.
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53Tian as Cosmos in Z hu Xi’s Neo-ConfucianismDao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 17 (2): 169-185. 2018.Tian 天 is central to the metaphysics, cosmology, and ethics of the 800-year-long Chinese philosophical tradition we call “Neo-Confucianism,” but there is considerable confusion over what tian means—confusion which is exacerbated by its standard translation into English as “Heaven.” This essay analyzes the meaning of tian in the works of the most influential Neo-Confucian, Zhu Xi 朱熹, presents a coherent interpretation that unifies the disparate aspects of the term’s meaning, and argues that “cosm…Read more
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53A productive dialogue: Contemporary moral education and Zhu XI's neo‐confucian ethicsJournal of Chinese Philosophy 38 (s1): 183-203. 2011.
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52The Discovery of Chinese Logic (review)History and Philosophy of Logic 33 (3): 293-296. 2012.History and Philosophy of Logic, Volume 33, Issue 3, Page 293-296, August 2012
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51Manufacturing Confucianism: Chinese Traditions and Universal Civilization (review) (review)Philosophy East and West 51 (1): 120-122. 2001.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Manufacturing Confucianism: Chinese Traditions and Universal CivilizationStephen C. AngleManufacturing Confucianism: Chinese Traditions and Universal Civilization. By Lionel M. Jensen. Durham: Duke University Press, 1997. Pp. xx + 444. Hardcover $59.95. Paper $19.95.Confucianisms, according to Lionel Jensen, in his Manufacturing Confucianism: Chinese Traditions and Universal Civilization, are the results of a four-century…Read more
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50Moral Virtue, Civic Virtue, and PluralismDao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 15 (3): 447-452. 2016.
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50The Future of Confucian Political PhilosophyComparative Philosophy 9 (1). 2018.On February 14, 2017, Joseph Chan and Stephen Angle convened a Roundtable on the Future of Confucian Political Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong. Eight invited speakers each offered thoughts on the main topic, followed by discussion among the panelists and responses to questions from the audience. This transcript has been reviewed and edited by the main participants. Much of the discussion revolves around the relations and tensions between Confucian political philosophy as academic theor…Read more
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Chinese Philosophy |
Chinese Neo-Confucianism |
New Confucianism |
Virtue Ethics |
Human Rights |
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Contemporary Chinese Philosophy |
New Confucianism |
Contemporary Daoism |
Contemporary Chinese Philosophy, Misc |