Topics in Chinese Political Philosophy
Spring 2012
Instructor: Kang Chan (詹康)
Classroom: 百年330213
Time: 13:10-16:00 Thursdays
This course surveys the literature that makes Chinese political philosophy relevant to modern Western philosophy and to contemporary (esp. post-Tiananmen) China and Taiwan. It is not about pre-modern Chinese political philosophy in itself, nor is it contextualized in the discourses and practices found in contemporary China and Taiwan.
Starting from Week #3we will be reading the topics that, originally western, have constituted modern philosophical discourse of which Chinese political philosophy strives to remain a part. How much the Chinese differs from the West and how much they are similar, to what degree the Chinese adopted Western ideas and to what degree the Chinese contributes as an alternative to the West, varies in each topic and according to each interpreter. Therefore, it is all the more interesting to explore this intellectual heritage no less for the twentieth-first century China than for the world.
Prerequisite
Knowledge of Confucius and Mencius.
Introduction to this course
Feb. 23
Cultural Orientations
Mar. 1
Keightley, David N. (吉德煒). “Early Civilization in China: Reflections on How It Became Chinese.” In Heritage of China: Contemporary Perspectives on Chinese Civilization. Ed. Paul S. Ropp. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. 15-54.[PDF]
Liberalism / Human Rights (5 Weeks)
Mar. 8
Cheng, Chung-ying (成中英). “Human Rights in Chinese History and Chinese Philosophy.”Comparative Civilizations Review no. 1 (1979): 1-20. [PDF]梁燕誠譯，〈中國歷史與哲學中的人權意識〉，《中國論壇》15 no. 10 (Feb 1983): 24-31。
Ding, Zijiang (丁子江). ““Rights” in Traditional Chinese Anthropocentrism.” In The Examined Life – Chinese Perspective: Essays on Chinese Ethical Traditions. Ed. by Xinyan Jiang. Binghamton, NY: Global Academic Publishing, BinghamtonUniversity, 2002. 61-99. [PDF]在牟博編《留美哲學博士文選——中西哲學比較研究卷》(2002)有中譯〈中國傳統人本主義中的“權利”意識：一個東西方比較意義上的哲學思考〉。
Mar. 15
Han, Sangjin (韓相震). “Confucianism and Human Rights.” In Confucianism in Context: Classic Philosophy and Contemporary Issues, East Asia and Beyond. Ed. by Wonsuk Chang and Leah Kalmanson. Albany: StateUniversity of New York Press, 2010. 121-144.[PDF]
Yu, Anthony C. (余國藩). “China and the Problem of Human Rights: Ancient Verities and Modern Realities.” In hisComparative Journeys: Essays on Literature and Religion East and West. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009. Ch. 16.[PDF]
Mar. 22
Rosemont, Henry, Jr. (羅思文). “Rights-Bearing Individuals and Role-Bearing Persons.” In Rules, Rituals, and Responsibility: Essays Dedicated to Herbert Fingarette. Ed. Mary I. Bockover. La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1991. 71-101.[PDF]
Cline, Erin M. “Rawls, Rosemont, and the Debate over Rights and Roles.” In Polishing the Chinese Mirror: Essays in Honor of Henry Rosemont, Jr. Ed. by Marthe Chandler and Ronnie Littlejohn. New York: Global Scholarly Publications, 2008. 77-89.[PDF]
Mar. 29
Ihara, Craig K., “Are Individual Rights Necessary? A Confucian Perspective,” inKwong-Loi Shun and David B. Wong eds.,Confucian Ethics: A Comparative Study of Self, Autonomy, and Community(Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 2004), pp. 11-30.[PDF]
Chan, Joseph (陳祖為), “A Confucian Perspective on Human Rights for Contemporary China,” in Joanne R. Bauer and Daniel A. Bell eds., The East Asian Challenge for Human Rights (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 212-237.[PDF]
Apr. 5 (Tomb Sweeping Festival)
Apr. 12
Hansen, Chad (陳漢生). “Do Human Rights Apply to China? A Normative Analysis of Cultural Difference.” InConstructing China:The Interaction of Culture and Economics. Eds. by Kenneth G. Lieberthal, Shuen-fu Lin, and Ernest P. Young. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1997. 83-96.[PDF]
Hansen, Chad (陳漢生). “The Normative Impact of Comparative Ethics: Human Rights.” InConfucian Ethics: A Comparative Study of Self, Autonomy, and Community. Eds. by Kwong-Loi Shun and David B. Wong. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 2004. 72-100.[PDF]
Democracy (4 Weeks)
Apr. 19
Angle, Stephen C. (安靖如). “Decent Democratic Centralism,”Political Theory 33 (2005): 518-546.[PDF]
Ackerly, Brooke A. “Is Liberalism the Only Way toward Democracy? Confucianism and Democracy,” Political Theory 33 (2005): 547-576. [PDF]
Apr. 26
Ware, Robert X., “What Good is Democracy? The Alternatives in China and the West,” inAnthony J. Parel and Ronald C. Keith eds.,Comparative Political Philosophy: Studies under the Upas Tree, 2nd ed. (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2003), 115-140. [PDF]
Chan, Joseph (陳祖為), “Democracy and Meritocracy: Toward a Confucian Perspective,”Journal of Chinese Philosophy 34:2 (2007), 179-193. [PDF]
May 3
Students submit term paper titles and brief descriptions (in paper)
O'Dwyer, Shaun. “Democracy and Confucian Values.” Philosophy East and West 53.1 (2003): 39-63. [PDF]
Tan, Sor-Hoon (陳素芬). “Confucianism and Democracy.” In Confucianism in Context: Classic Philosophy and Contemporary Issues, East Asia and Beyond. Ed. by Wonsuk Chang and Leah Kalmanson. Albany: StateUniversity of New York Press, 2010. 103-120. [PDF]
May 10
Bell, Daniel A.(貝淡寧).Beyond Liberal Democracy: Political Thinking for an East Asian Context. Princeton: PrincetonUniversity Press, 2006.Ch.and 6, pp. 152-179. [Book PDF]
Elstein, David (杜楷廷). “Why Early Confucianism Cannot Generate Democracy.”Dao(2010). [PDF]
May 17 (University anniversary & athletic contests)
Civil Society / Public Sphere (2 Weeks)
May 24
Kim, Sungmoon. “Self-Transformation and Civil Society: Lockean vs. Confucian.”Dao(2009). [PDF]〔得到2009 Dao Annual Best Essay Award Winner〕
Tan, Sor-hoon (陳素芬). “Can There Be a Confucian Civil Society?” In The Moral Circle and the Self: Chinese and Western Approaches. Eds. Kim-chong Chong, Sor-hoon Tan, C.L. Ten. Chicago: Open Court, 2003. 193-218. [PDF]
May 31
Shils, Edward, “Reflections on Civil Society and Civility in the Chinese Intellectual Tradition,” inTu Wei-ming ed.,Confucian Traditions in East Asian Modernity: Moral Education and Economic Culture in Japan and the Four Mini-Dragons(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996), pp. 38-71. [PDF]
Justice
Student paper presentation part 1
June 7
Fan, Ruiping (范瑞平). “Social Justice: Rawlsian or Confucian?” In Comparative Approaches to Chinese Philosophy. Ed. Bo Mou. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate, 2003. 144-168. [PDF]
Fan, Ruiping (范瑞平). “Virtue as the True Character of Social Obligations: WhyRawlsian Social Justice is Vicious.” InReconstructionist Confucianism: Rethinking Morality after the West. New York: Springer, 2010. Ch. 4, pp. 45-68. [Book PDF]
June 14
Student paper presentation part 2
Cline, Erin M. “Two Senses of Justice: Confucianism, Rawls, and the Comparative Political Philosophy.” Dao 6 (2007): 361-381.[PDF]
Term Paper
A research paper of double-spaced 15-25 pages (no more than 25 pages) on one political philosophical concept. The paper topic and a short description (in writing) are due on May 7. Presentation of the complete or nearly complete term papers are in the last two weeks.
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