Ethics in Early China

by Fraser, Chris; Robins, Dan; O'Leary, Timothy

• ISBN13: 9789888028931
• ISBN10: 9888028936
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-05-01
• Publisher: Hong Kong Univ Pr

Summary

Early Chinese ethics has attracted increasing scholarly and social attention in recent years as the virtue ethics movement in Western philosophy has sparked renewed interest in Confucianism and Daoism. At the same time, intellectuals and social commentators throughout greater China have looked to the Chinese ethical tradition for resources to evaluate the role of traditional cultural values in the contemporary world. Publications on early Chinese ethics have tended to focus inordinate and uncritical attention toward Confucianism, while relatively neglecting Daoism, Mohism, and shared features of Chinese moral psychology. This book aims to rectify this imbalance by including essays on Daoism and Confucianism, early Chinese moral psychology including widely neglected views of the Mohists and newly reconstructed accounts of the "embodied virtue" tradition, which ties ethics to physical cultivation. The volume also includes essays addressing the broader question of the value of comparative philosophy generally and of studying early Chinese ethics in particular. The book should have a wide readership among professional scholars and graduate students in Chinese philosophy, specifically Confucian ethics, Daoist ethics, and comparative ethics.Chris Fraseris associate professor of philosophy at the University of Hong Kong. Dan Robins is assistant professor of Chinese philosophy at Stockton College of New Jersey.Timothy O'Learyis associate professor of philosophy at the University of Hong Kong. Contributors include Roger Ames, Stephen Angle, Sin yee Chan, Jiwei Ci, Chris Fraser, Jane Geaney, William Haines, Chad Hansen, Manyul Im, P.J. Ivanhoe, Franklin Perkins, Lisa Raphals, Dan Robins, Henry Rosemont, Jr., David Wong, and Lee Yearley.

Author Biography

Chris Fraser and Timothy O'Leary are associate professors of philosophy at the University of Hong Kong.

Dan Robins is associate professor of philosophy at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.

Table of Contents

Foreword: The Professor's Dé, or the Many-Sided Chad Hansen	p. vii
Preface	p. xi
Contributors	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
New Readings
Were the Early Confucians Virtuous?	p. 17
Mencius as Consequentialist	p. 41
No Need for Hemlock: Mencius's Defense of Tradition	p. 65
Mohism and Motivation	p. 83
"It Goes beyond Skill"	p. 105
The Sounds of Zhèngmíng: Setting Names Straight in Early Chinese Texts	p. 125
Embodied Virtue, Self-Cultivation, and Ethics	p. 143
New Departures
Moral Tradition Respect	p. 161
Piecemeal Progress: Moral Traditions, Modern Confucianism, and Comparative Philosophy	p. 175
Agon and Hé: Contest and Harmony	p. 197
Confucianism and Moral Intuition	p. 217
Chapter 38 of the Dàodéjing as an Imaginary Genealogy of Morals	p. 233
Poetic Language: Zhuangzi and Dù Fu's Confucian Ideals	p. 245
Dào as a Naturalistic Focus	p. 267
Afterword	p. 297
Index	p. 303
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