Fan Reconstructionist Confucianism

Rethinking Morality after the West
1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-90-481-3156-3
Verlag: Springer Netherlands
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Band 17, 296 Seiten

Reihe: Philosophical Studies in Contemporary Culture

Contrasting with conventional Neo-Confucian attempts to recast the Confucian heritage in light of modern Western values, this book offers a Reconstructionist Confucian project to reclaim Confucian resources to meet contemporary moral and public policy challenges. Ruiping Fan argues that popular accounts of human goods and social justice within the dominant individualist culture of the West are too insubstantial to direct a life of virtue and a proper structure of society. Instead, he demonstrates that the moral insights of Confucian thought are precisely those needed to fill the moral vacuum developing in post-communist China and to address similar problems in the West. The book has a depth of reflection on the Confucian tradition through a comparative philosophical strategy and a breadth of contemporary issues addressed unrivaled by any other work on these topics. It is the first in English to explore not only the endeavor to revive Confucianism in contemporary China, but also brings such an endeavor to bear upon the important ethical, social, and political difficulties being faced in 21st century China. The book should be of interest to any philosopher working in application of traditional Chinese philosophy to contemporary issues as well as any reader interested in comparative cultural and ethical studies.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fan, Ruiping

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Acknowledgements;6
1.1;A Note on Chinese Sources and Characters;7
2;Contents;8
3;Introduction;12
4;Part I Beyond Individualism: Familism as the Key to Virtuous Social Structure;22
4.1;1 Confucian Morality: Why It Is in Tension with Contemporary Western Moral Commitments;23
4.2;2 Virtue, Ren, and Familial Roles: Deflating Concerns with Individual Rights and Equality;31
4.2.1;2.1 Introduction;31
4.2.2;2.2 Are Rights Persuasive?;31
4.2.3;2.3 The Confucian Virtue-Based Personhood;34
4.2.4;2.4 Reflections on Equal Rights Vs. Unequal Virtues;38
4.2.5;2.5 Towards a Reconstructionist Confucian Bioethics;41
4.3;3 A Family-Oriented Civil Society: Treating People as Unequals;42
4.3.1;3.1 Introduction: Civil Society, Rule of Law and Conflicting World Views;42
4.3.2;3.2 Liberal Democratic Civil Society: Treating People as Equals;45
4.3.3;3.3 Confucian Anti-Egalitarian Civil Society: Treating People as Relatives;47
4.3.4;3.4 The Family: Stumbling Block for Justice or Keystone of Virtue?;51
4.3.5;3.5 Is a Confucian Family-Oriented Civil Society Possible?;53
4.3.6;3.6 Concluding Reflections: Towards a Familist Civil Society;58
5;Part II Virtue as a Way of Life: Social Justice Reconsidered;61
5.1;4 Virtue as the True Character of Social Obligations: Why Rawlsian Social Justice is Vicious;62
5.1.1;4.1 Introduction;62
5.1.2;4.2 The Distribution of Instrumental Goods Vs. The Pursuit of Intrinsic Virtues;64
5.1.3;4.3 Equality Vs. Harmony;68
5.1.4;4.4 Liberal Democracy Vs. Confucian Aristocracy;72
5.1.5;4.5 Liberal Rights Vs. Confucian Rights;73
5.1.6;4.6 Neutral Vs. Non-Neutral;78
5.1.7;4.7 Election Vs. Examination;79
5.1.8;4.8 Contractarian Neutrality Vs. Private-Property Economy;80
5.1.9;4.9 Conclusion;84
5.2;5 Giving Priority to Virtue Over Justice and Rebuilding Chinese Health Care Principles;86
5.2.1;5.1 The Challenges of Health Care in Todays China;86
5.2.2;5.2 Two Misleading Ethical Views;89
5.2.3;5.3 Reconstructionist Confucian Ethical Principles for Health Care;91
5.2.3.1;5.3.1 The Principle of Ren-Yi (Humanity-Righteousness) 3;93
5.2.3.2;5.3.2 The Principle of Cheng-Xin (Sincerity-Fidelity);94
5.2.4;5.4 Health Care Policy Reforms;95
5.2.5;5.5 Concluding Remarks;99
5.3;6 Which Care? Whose Responsibility? And Why family? Filial Piety and Long Term Care for the Elderly;100
5.3.1;6.1 A Shocking Fact: Contemporary Elderly Persons in East Asia Tend to Commit Suicide;100
5.3.2;6.2 Family Care: Reminiscence or Renaissance?;102
5.3.3;6.3 Why has Family Care Become Difficult in Contemporary Society?;106
5.3.4;6.4 Childrens Responsibility: The Manifestation of De (Virtue) and Xiao (Filial Piety);112
5.3.5;6.5 Why Family? A Confucian Account of the Family for Elderly Care;116
5.3.6;6.6 Concluding Remarks;118
6;Part III The Market, the Goodness of Profit, and the Proper Character of Chinese Public Policy;120
6.1;7 Towards a Directed, Benevolent Market Polity: Looking Beyond Social Democratic Approaches to Health Care;121
6.1.1;7.1 An Introduction to Confucian Health Care Policy and Bioethics;121
6.1.2;7.2 Beyond Social Democracy and Limited Democracy: A Directed Benevolent Market Polity in the Pacific Rim;122
6.1.3;7.3 The Confucian Perspective: Why It Is So Different;124
6.1.4;7.4 Chinese Health Care Reforms: Towards a Confucian Health Care Policy;126
6.1.5;7.5 A View from Asia: Not Bioethics as Usual;132
6.2;8 How Egalitarianism Corrupted Chinese Medicine: Recovering the Synergy of the Pursuit of Virtue and Profit;134
6.2.1;8.1 Three Varieties of Medical Corruption in Contemporary China;134
6.2.2;8.2 Distortions of the Medical Market;138
6.2.3;8.3 Proposals for Policy Reform;140
6.2.4;8.4 Restructuring Chinese Medical Ethics: Some Reflections on Confucian Moral Resources;143
6.2.5;8.5 Looking to the Future: Taking Both the Market and Traditional Morality Seriously;148
6.3;9 Honor, Shame, and the Pursuit of Excellence: Towards a Confucian Business Ethics;150
6.3.1;9.1 Understanding Confucian Management Concerns;150
6.3.2;9.2 Rights Alone Are Not Enough;151
6.3.3;9.3 Honor, Shame, and Motivation;154
6.3.4;9.4 An Honor-Based Vs. a Rights-Based Corporate Ethos;156
6.3.5;9.5 Why Rights Language is Blind to the Particularity of Culturally-Embedded Management Styles;158
6.3.6;9.6 Conclusion: Beyond Rights and Towards Excellence;159
6.4;10 Human Dominion Over Nature: Following the Sages;162
6.4.1;10.1 Introduction;162
6.4.2;10.2 A Weak Anthropocentric and Cosmic-Principle-Oriented Account of Man and Nature;165
6.4.3;10.3 Nature as a Garden;169
6.4.4;10.4 Placing the Natural Order Within a Human Order that Reflects Cosmic Principles;171
6.4.5;10.5 Home, Ritual, and Eternity;174
6.4.6;10.6 Conclusion;175
7;Part IV Rites, Not Rights: Towards a Richer Vision of the Human Condition;177
7.1;11 Rites as the Foundations of Human Civilization: Rethinking the Role of the Confucian Li ;178
7.1.1;11.1 Introduction;178
7.1.2;11.2 Li as the Universal Social Practices of the Confucian Tradition;180
7.1.3;11.3 Two Types of the Confucian Rituals;184
7.1.4;11.4 The Function of Ritual and the Feeling of Shame;189
7.1.5;11.5 Concluding Remarks;193
7.1.6;11.6 Postscript: A Thesis on Confucian Ritual Reform;194
7.2;12 How Should We Solve Moral Dissensus? Liberals and Libertarians Have It All Wrong;202
7.2.1;12.1 Introduction: How Should We Deal with Moral Dissensus?;202
7.2.2;12.2 Bioethical Globalization: The Liberal View;203
7.2.3;12.3 Bioethical Communitization: The Libertarian View;209
7.2.4;12.4 Bioethical Localization: The Confucian Insight;213
7.2.5;12.5 Conclusion;224
7.3;13 Appeal to Rites and Personhood;227
7.3.1;13.1 Introduction;227
7.3.2;13.2 The Appeal to Creation Conception of Personhood: The Judeo-Christian Conception;228
7.3.3;13.3 The Appeal to Rights Conceptions of Personhood: Modern Western Conceptions;229
7.3.4;13.4 The Transcendental Conception of Personshood: A General Conception;233
7.3.5;13.5 The Appeal to Rites Conception of Personhood: A Confucian Conception;236
7.3.6;13.6 Concluding Remarks;241
7.4;14 Restoring the Confucian Personality and Filling the Moral Vaccum in Contemporary China;242
7.4.1;14.1 The Confucian Personality;242
7.4.2;14.2 The Communist Personality Disorder;245
7.4.3;14.3 The Post-Communist Personality Disorder;249
7.4.4;14.4 Can Confucianism Fill the Moral Vacuum in Contemporary China?;254
7.4.5;14.5 Concluding Remarks;259
7.5;Appendix Liberalism and Confucianism: A Disputatious Dialogue between Andrew Brennan and Ruiping Fan;261
7.5.1;Introduction;261
7.5.2;The Scene;7
7.5.3;The Dialogue;262
8;References;6
9;Index;298