PAPER ABSTRACTS
Antonio CUA
Keynote speech: "Virtues of Junzi"
Yuet-keung LO
Paper: "Teachers-Disciples, or Friends? An Historico-Exegetical
Approach to the Analects"
This essay seeks to examine a deceptively self-evident term in the Analects.
It is the term peng 朋
(usually translated as "friend"), which appears in the first chapter of
the first book in the Analects. While peng does not
have any intrinsic philosophical import and its meaning
appears to be immediately clear at least to the modern reader, it had
attracted the
attention of many a commentator in the long history of exegesis of the
Analects. According to prevalent interpretations of the
first chapter in the book, part of the topic seems to be simply a banal
sentiment about friendship. However, our discussion
will reveal that peng originally means "disciple" and the meaning of
"friend" developed only under the changing circumstances and
ideological demands
of later history. This essay thus argues that the precise meaning of peng
has to be situated in the specific cultural and historical
circumstances which the commentator has to confront as a living
reality. Only in this way can the reader of the Analects and
its commentaries grasp the centrality of
the teacher-disciples
relation in what Confucianism was all about and how this central
relation would come to inform Tang (618-906) and post-Tang commentaries
and inspire
Confucians of later times to unravel some of the invigorating meanings
hidden in
the simple term peng. (Return to
schedule)
Johanna LIU
Paper: "Music [Yue] in Classical Confucianism: On the Recent
Discovered Xing
Zi Ming Chu"
Anh Tuan NUYEN
Paper: "Is Mencius a Moral Internalist?"
Some commentators have claimed that Mencius is a moral internalist,
i.e. one who believes that the agent's having a justifying reason to
act is sufficient to motivate the agent to act. There appears to be
support for this view in the concept of xin (heart-mind)
insofar as it is understood as combining justification and motivation
in a single faculty. However, I will argue that Mencius does
acknowledge the role of external circumstances in moral motivation.
This is not to say that Mencius is an externalist. I will argue instead
that Mencius's position lies somewhere between internalism and
externalism. (Return to schedule)
Kim-chong CHONG
Paper: "Xunzi and the Essentialist Mode of Thinking about
Human Nature"
In the essay "Philosophy of Human Nature" in his book Human Nature,
Ritual, and History (Catholic University of America Press, 2005),
Antonio Cua argues that the term "bad" in Xunzi's statement that "Human
nature is bad" is to be taken in a consequential sense. This goes
against a common tendency to read the Xunzi in what I refer to as the
essentialist mode of thinking. In this paper, I show how it is that the
consequential reading of "bad" and other features that Cua describes
offer a significant understanding of Xunzi's position as a
non-essentialist one. (Return to schedule)
Alan K. L. CHAN
Paper: Do Sages Have Emotions?"
What characterizes the nature (xing) of the ideal sage? The
question proves important in the history of Chinese philosophy
especially because it bears directly on the attainability of sagehood.
In this discussion, I propose to reexamine the famous debate between He
Yan (circa 207-249) and Wang Bi (226-249) on whether sages have
emotions (qing). The relationship between qing and xing figures
prominently also in some of the Guodian bamboo texts. This may offer
new avenues to understanding the later debate. Whether the sage should
be seen as empty of affective interest continues to challenge Confucian
scholars well into the Song-Ming period. The role of the emotions
deserves careful reflection in the ongoing process of Confucian
renewal. (Return to schedule)
Yong HUANG
Paper: "A Neo-Confucian Political Philosophy: The Cheng
Brothers on Li (Propriety) as Political, Psychological, and
Metaphysical"
Chan-liang WU
Paper: "朱子之歷史思想 T(he Historical Thought of Zhu Xi)"
Jinfen YAN
Paper: "Between the Good and the Right: The Middle
Way in Neo-Confucian and Mahayana Moral Philosophy"
Curie VIRAG
Paper: "Locating the moral self: emotions and human agency
in Song Neo-Confucian thought"
This paper will examine Zhu Xi’s (1130-1200) views of emotion in the
context of his broader vision of the moral self. Tracing some earlier
philosophical discussions of the subject, it will show how Zhu
attempted to find a viable middle ground for the emotions, an aspect of
the human self that always has been, and remains, morally ambivalent –
the emotions being among those qualities that define us as humans and
give us the capacity for moral thought and action, and yet, tempt us
into wrongdoing and distort our faculties of perception and judgment. I
will analyze Zhu’s formulation of the moral status of emotions and
reflect on the ways in which it redefined the boundaries of self and
world, feelings and reality, thought and action. On a larger plane, I
will argue that Zhu’s conception of the emotions represented an
important shift in thinking about the sources of value and of the
normative patterns of human existence – a shift that is of central
importance in the historical evolution of ethical thought in China. (Return to schedule)
Kwong-loi SHUN
Paper: "'Wholeness' and 'Purity' in Confucian Thought"
The paper begins with a discussion of methodological issues related to
the study of Confucian ethics in relation to the Anglo-American
philosophical tradition. It illustrates a certain methodological
approach with a discussion of key terms in Confucian thought, with
emphasis on the thinking of Zhu Xi (1130-1200). It considers the
phenomenon of 'wholeness', which has to do with the complete ethical
orientation of the mind, without discord or discrepancy of any kind.
'Wholeness' entails 'purity' in the sense of absence of any deviant
element of the mind that can detract from this complete ethical
orientation. In addition to these two phenomena, the paper also
discusses the nature of these deviant elements of the mind, and the
mental attention and focus that pre-empt their influence. (Return to schedule)
Chen-feng TSAI
Paper: "丁茶山的四書學 (Ding Cha
Shan's Study of the Four Books)"
Chi-hsiung CHENG
Paper: "試論中國經典詮釋的三個核心問題 (On
Three Core Problems to the Explanation
of the Chinese Classics)"
Chao-ying Chen
Paper: "徐復觀與自由主義
(Xu Fuguan's Liberalism)"
Wing-cheuk CHAN
Paper: "On Mou Tsung-san's Idealist Confucianism"
In contemporary Neo-Confucianism Mou Tsung-san (1909-1995) has been identified as a leading figure. His idealism becomes a paradigm in modern development of Confucianism. Historically, such an idealist trend claims to succeed Mencius, Lu Hsiang-shan and Wang Yang-ming. What is innovative with Mou Tsung-san's contribution is the employment of a Kantian theoretical framework. In terms of the Kantian distinction of things-in-themselves and intellectual intuition, he develops a Confucian moral metaphysics. In reality, Mou Tsung-san's adherence to the Buddhist doctrine of the pure of mind of the tathagata-garbha enables him to transform Kant’s transcendental philosophy.
Our paper will start with showing how Mou Tsung-san’s idealist Confucianism results from his hermeneutical application of the Awakening of Faith in transforming Kant’s transcendental philosophy. After highlighting Mou Tsung-san’s critique of the Buddhist distinctive teachings, we will point out that there is a conflict between his idealist Confucianism and his praise for the Buddhist perfect teachings. For the doctrine of the pure mind of the tahagata-garbha is classified by him as distinctive teachings. As a result, it gives rise to a dilemma in Mou Tsung-san idealist Confucianism. (Return to schedule)
Cecilia WEE
Paper: "Confucius on Li and Montaigne on Coustume — A
Reflection on Customary Practices and Personal Autonomy"
Confucius is often characterized as maintaining that there is one true path ('the Way') which all humans should try to follow and attain. There would thus be, for him, broadly speaking, a single kind of good life for all humans, which everyone should seek to live. Montaigne, on the other hand, is sometimes seen as the moral relativist par excellence, who holds that what counts as the 'good' must be relative to specific cultures and societies, and there are no independent standards by which one may compare the 'good life' of one culture with that of another. Despite this (alleged) fundamental difference between them, however, both seem to have in common that their views threaten (in one way or another) to exclude the possibility of personal autonomy.
This paper examines Confucius’s views on li, and places them in relation to Montaigne’s views on coustume. It uses this as a springboard to argue that, contrary to initial appearances, there is considerable affinity between Confucius and Montaigne in respect of their views of the human good, and of how one should live. It also argues that both of them regard the exercise of (a reasonably robust version of) personal autonomy as an indispensable condition of the good life. (Return to schedule)
Chun-chieh HUANG
Paper: "Itô Jinsai on Confucius' Analects: A
Type of Confucian Hermeneutics in East Asia"
Vincent Shen
Paper: "Globalization and Confucianism: Confucian Virtues of
Shu and Generosity to the Other"
This paper is an attempt to critically identify and creatively interpret the
resources of strangification and generosity to the Other in Confucianism in
the process of globalization. Globalization, understood as a process of
deterritorialization happening now on the global level in every domain of
human activities, such as health, environment, economics, politics, education,
culture, religious...etc., is to be seen as a process of going beyond oneself to
the other, understood in terms of "strangification". Strangification,
developed on linguistic, pragmatic and ontological levels, is taken here as
the basic strategy of meeting with differences and solving the problem of
possible conflict in view of an optimal harmony, applicable to all kinds of
differences. Confucianism, one of the most influential traditions of
philosophy, as wisdom guiding Chinese people to face differences, solve
conflicts and sustain the claim for optimal harmony, might still be valuable
for today’s human experience in time of globalization. Strangification
presupposes appropriation of language, the Other and generosity or hospitality
to the Other. This paper will focus on a critical discussion of the idea of
shu in Confucianism, the virtue of generosity and the idea of the Other
implied in both classical and Neo-Confucianism, in order to explore their
relevance in depth for today’s world in process of globalization. Some
considerations will be done especially on their pragmatic implications for
interdisciplinary study, intercultural interaction and inter-religious
dialogues. Key Words: Confucianism, Globalization, Strangification, Shu, Generosity to
the Other (Return to schedule)