Ethics in Early China [electronic resource] : An Anthology /
O'Leary, Timothy.
Robins, Dan.
Fraser, Chris.
Hong Kong [China] : Hong Kong University Press,
c2011
Early Chinese ethics has attracted increasing scholarly and social attention in recent years, as the virtue ethics movement in Western philosophy sparked renewed interest in Confucianism and Daoism. Meanwhile, 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 uncritical attention toward Confucianism, while neglecting Daoism, Mohism, and shared features of Chinese moral psychology. This book aims to rectify this imbalance with provocative interpretations of classical ethical theories 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 addresses 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.
Description based upon print version of record.
Contents; Foreword; Preface; Contributors; Introduction; Part One: New Readings; 01:Were the Early Confucians Virtuous?; 02: Mencius as Consequentialist; 03: No Need for Hemlock; 04: Mohism and Motivation; 05: "It Goes beyond Skill"; 06: The Sounds of Zhèngmíng; 07: Embodied Wirtue, Self-Dultivation, and Ethics; Part Two: New Departures; 08: Moral Tradition Respect; 09: Piecemeal Progress; 10: Agon and Hé; 11: Confucianism and Moral Intuition; 12: Chapter 38 of the Dàodéhing as an Imaginary Genealogy of Moreals; 13: Poetic Language; 14: Dào as Naturalistic Focus; Afterword; Index
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Early Chinese ethics has attracted increasing scholarly and social attention in recent years, as the virtue ethics movement in Western philosophy sparked renewed interest in Confucianism and Daoism. Meanwhile, 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 uncritical attention toward Confucianism, while neglecting Daoism, Mohism, and shared features of Chinese moral psychology. This book aims to rectify this imbalance with provocative interpretations of classical ethical theories 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 addresses 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.
Description based on print version record.
Philosophy, Chinese
Ethics