Human Rights in Chinese Thought: A Cross-Cultural Inquiry

by Stephen C. Angle

• ISBN13: 9780521809719
• ISBN10: 0521809711
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-07-15
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

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 with philosophical consideration of how various communities should respond to contemporary Chinese claims about the uniqueness of their human rights concepts. The book elaborates a plausible kind of moral pluralism and demonstrates that Chinese ideas of human rights do indeed have distinctive characteristics, but it nonetheless argues for the importance and promise of cross-cultural moral engagement.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	xiii
Chronology	xvii
Introduction	1	(25)
Recent History	3	(2)
Current Approaches: Insights and Limitations	5	(17)
Pluralism	6	(2)
Universalism	8	(3)
Thick and Thin	11	(4)
Dialogue and Transformation	15	(4)
History and Confucianisms	19	(3)
This Book	22	(4)
Languages, Concepts, and Pluralism	26	(23)
Concepts	27	(12)
Language and Concept	27	(3)
Pushes toward Holism	30	(3)
Shared Practice	33	(3)
Objectivity	36	(3)
Conceptual Distances	39	(6)
Breakdowns in Communication	39	(2)
Words Matter	41	(4)
Pluralism	45	(4)
The Consequences of Pluralism	49	(25)
Our Own Values	51	(6)
Static Attitudes	57	(8)
Ignoring	57	(2)
Repressing	59	(2)
Accommodating	61	(4)
Dynamic Engagement	65	(5)
Pragmatic Disagreement	65	(2)
Substantive Engagement	67	(3)
Multiple Strategies and Divided Communities	70	(4)
The Shift toward Legitimate Desires in Neo-Confucianism	74	(27)
Neo-Confucianism against Desire?	75	(8)
Embracing Desires	83	(15)
Huang Zongxi	84	(2)
Chen Que	86	(3)
Gu Yanwu	89	(4)
Dai Zhen	93	(5)
Conclusion	98	(3)
Nineteenth-Century Origins	101	(39)
Translation of International Law	104	(7)
The Illustrated Compendium	104	(3)
Martin's General Laws of the Myriad Nations	107	(4)
The Self-Strengthening Movement	111	(4)
Japan	115	(8)
Translations	115	(2)
Confucians, Liberals, Radicals, and Bureaucrats	117	(6)
Reformers in the 1890s	123	(15)
Traditions of Reform	124	(4)
Minquan to 1898	128	(2)
Individual Rights?	130	(3)
Zhang Zhidong	133	(3)
Voices from Hong Kong	136	(2)
Conclusion	138	(2)
Dynamism in the Early Twentieth Century	140	(38)
Liang and Jhering	141	(21)
An Appeal to ``History''?	141	(2)
Jhering's Struggle for Rights and Law	143	(7)
Liang and Quanli	150	(8)
Quanli and Law	158	(4)
Liu Shipei's Concept of Quanli	162	(13)
Personal Interests	164	(3)
Legitimate Abilities	167	(2)
Extension	169	(3)
Quanli and Responsibility	172	(3)
Conclusion	175	(3)
Change, Continuity, and Convergence prior to 1949	178	(27)
Chen Duxiu	181	(7)
Gao Yihan	188	(6)
Convergence: John Dewey	194	(6)
Marxism and Leninism	200	(5)
Engagement despite Distinctiveness	205	(45)
Rights and Interests	208	(17)
Western Theory on Rights as Protected Interests	208	(6)
Chinese Interests	214	(7)
Engagement	221	(4)
Rights and Harmony	225	(14)
Conflict versus Harmony in Western Theorizing	226	(3)
Chinese Harmony	229	(5)
Engaging Harmony	234	(5)
Political versus Economic Rights	239	(11)
Complex Reality	240	(3)
Analysis and Engagement	243	(7)
Conclusions	250	(9)
Bibliography	259	(16)
Glossary and Index	275