Sagehood: the contemporary significance of neo-Confucian philosophy

Abstract

Dedication Preface Chronology and Dramatis Personae PART I: KEYWORDS 1 - Sheng/Sage 1.1 in the Confucian Tradition 1.1.1 Historical Survey 1.1.2 Neo-Confucianism 1.1.3 Shengren versus Junzi 1.2 Western Ideals 1.2.1 Greece 1.2.2 Contemporary Saints and Heroes 1.3 Concerns About Sagehood 1.3.1 Is Sagehood Realistic? 1.3.2 Is Sagehood Desirable? 2 - Li/Coherence 2.1 First Steps 2.2 Subjective and Objective 2.2.1 Nature and Subjectivity 2.2.2 Settled Coherence and Objectivity 2.3 Li and Qi 2.4 One and Many 2.5 Normativity and Creativity 3 - De/Virtue 3.1 Virtue as a Bridge Concept 3.2 Early De 3.3 Neo-Confucian De 3.4 Final Thoughts 4 - He/Harmony 4.1 Early Classical Sources 4.1.1 Complementary Differences 4.1.2 Natural Patterns and Creativity 4.2 The Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean) 4.3 Song Neo-Confucianism 4.4 Wang Yangming: Summary and Initial Engagement 4.4.1 Harmony, Coherence and One Body 4.4.2 A Contemporary Example 4.4.3 Politics PART II: ETHICS AND PSYCHOLOGY 5 - The Scope of Ethics: Dialogue with Slote and Murdoch 5.1 Balance and in Slote's Agent-Based Ethics 5.1.1 Caring, Humaneness (Ren), and Empathy 5.1.2 Two Kinds of Balance 5.1.3 The Motivation for Overall Balance 5.1.4 Agent-Basing 5.1.5 Reverence 5.2 Murdoch on the Importance of a Transcendent Good 5.2.1 Unity, Mystery, and Faith 5.2.2 Selflessness 5.3 Conclusion: The Scope of Ethics 6 - Challenging Harmony: Consistency, Conflicts, and the Status Quo 6.1 Nussbaum and Stohr Against Harmony 6.2 Imagination 6.3 Maximization 6.4 Residue 6.4.1 Complicating the Picture 6.4.2 Grief versus Regret 6.5 Dimensions of Dilemmas 6.6 Emotional Vanilla? 6.6.1 Myers's Challenge 6.6.2 Neo-Confucians on Anger 6.6.3 Conclusions 7 - Sagely Ease and Ethical Perception 7.1 Wang Yangming on Analects 2:4 the Centrality of 7.1.1 Commitment in Classical Texts 7.1.2 Commitment in Wang Yangming 7.1.3 Deepening Our Commitment 7.2 Connecting to Unity of Knowledge and Action 7.3 Cua on commitment to realizing a harmonious world 7.3.1 Active Moral Perception 7.3.2 Creativity Revisited 7.4 A Fuller Picture 7.4.1 Murdoch on M and D 7.4.2 Intrusions of the Self 7.4.3 True Vision Occasions Right Conduct PART III: EDUCATION AND POLITICS 8 - Learning to Look for 8.1 Stages of Ethical Education 8.1.1 Lesser Learning 8.1.2 Establishing a Commitment 8.1.3 Matur(ing) Commitment 8.2. Practices of self-improvement 8.2.1 Spiritual Exercises 8.2.2 Ritual 8.2.3 Reading 8.2.4 Attention - First Steps 8.2.5 Reverence 8.2.6 Further Implications 8.2.7 Reverence and Coherence 8.2.8 Self-Restraint and Quiet Sitting 8.2.9 Conclusion 9 - Engaging Practices 9.1 The Nature of Commitments 9.2 Stages and the Accessibility of Sagely Ideals 9.3 Attention Revisited 9.4 Imagination and Fantasy 9.5 Dialogue 9.6 Faith and Belief 10 - The Political Problem 10.1 Introduction: The Trouble with Sagehood 10.2 Sage and Politics in Song-Qing Neo-Confucianism 10.2.1 Sage-King ideal 10.2.2 Limits and Guidance 10.2.3 Ritual 10.2.4 Institutions 10.2.5 Vaulting Ambition: Rulers Who Think They are Sages 10.3 Confucian Soft Authoritarianism 10.4 Separating the Moral from the Political? 10.4.1 Yu Yingshi and Xu Fuguan 10.4.2 Mou Zongsan 11 - Sages and Politics: A Way Forward 11.1 Perfection and Fallibility 11.2 Reverence and Ritual 11.3 Perfectionism and Institutions 11.3.1 Moderate Perfectionism 11.3.2 Confucian State Perfectionism 11.3.3 Specificity and Particularism 11.4 Participation 11.4.1 Three Arguments 11.4.2 Implications and Objections 11.5 Laws and Rights as a System of Second Resort 11.5.1 Rule by Law 11.5.2 Law and Morality 11.5.3 A Confucian Approach Conclusion: The Future of Contemporary Confucianisms Bibliography Index Locorum General Index

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