Whose democracy? Which rights?: A confucian critique of modern western liberalism

Confucian Ethics: A Comparative Study of Self, Autonomy, and Community

Volumn , Issue , 2004, Pages 49-71

  Rosemont, Henry ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84928927706     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511606960.004     Document Type: Chapter

References (53)

1. I appreciate that “essence” is a buzzword in most postmodern discourse today. For details, see my “Against Relativism” in G. Larson and E. Deutsch eds., Interpreting Across Boundaries (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987).
2. The basic concern of John Rawls in his A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970), most of the writings of Richard Rorty since 1980
3. Ronald Dworkin’s Taking Rights Seriously (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1977), plus all the commentaries on these and related works over the years. My loose definition parallels
4. Michael Sandel’s in “America’s Search for a New Public Philosophy,” The Atlantic Monthly (March 1996)
5. which is a lengthy excerpt from his book Democracy’s Discontent (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996).
6. especially his After Virtue, Whose Justice? Which Rationality? and Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981, 1988, and 1990, respectively). [Editor’s note: When he wrote this essay, Rosemont did not know that MacIntyre was to write the commentary essay.]
7. “Incommensurability, Truth, and the Conversation Between Confucians and Aristotelians about the Virtues” in Eliot Deutsch ed., Culture and Modernity, (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991).
8. Others would trace the concept of rights to even earlier periods. See, for example, Brian Tierney, “Origins of Natural Rights Language: Texts and Contexts, 1150-1250,” History of Political Thought, vol. 10, no. 4 (Winter 1989), pp. 615-46
9. Fred D. Miller., Nature, Justice, and Rights in Aristotle’s Politics (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995).
10. I have argued this point in “Is There a Primordial Tradition in Ethics?” in Arvind Sharma ed., Fragments of Infinity (Dorset, UK: Prism Press, 1991).
11. For properly contextualizing the cultural and historical milieu in which Descartes philosophized-or, more acurately, conducted his scientific work-I am indebted to Stephen Toulmin’s Cosmopolis (New York: Free Press, 1990).
12. And the importance of current moral issues occupying an intellectual is not confined to the Confucians. Perhaps the greatest intellectual the United States has contributed to the world in the second half of this closing century of the millenium has said: “The responsibility of the writer as a moral agent is to try to bring the truth about matters of human significance to an audience that can do something about them.” [Italics in the original.]
13. Noam Chomsky, Powers and Prospects (Boston: South End Press, 1996), p. 59.
14. Noam Chomsky, “Introduction” to Leibniz: Writings on China, Daniel J. Cook and Henry Rosemont, Jr., trans. (Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company, 1994).
15. An exception is Julia Ching’s Chinese Religions (New York: Orbis Books, 1993).
16. William T. deBary and Tu Weiming eds., Confucianism&Human Rights (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).
17. “Rights-Bearing Individuals and Role-Bearing Persons” in Mary I. Bockover ed., Rules, Rituals, and Responsibility, (Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company, 1991)
18. “Why Take Rights Seriously? A Confucian Critique” in Leroy Rouner ed., Human Rights and the World’s Religions, (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1988), pp. 167-82.
19. For an analysis of the role of individualism in modern Western philosophy, see C. B. McPherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962).
20. Following Sandel, “America’s Search for a New Public Philosophy,” Atlantic Monthly, vol. 277 (1996), pp. 45-58.
21. Noam Chomsky, “The Responsibility of Intellectuals” in his American Power and the New Mandarins (New York: Vintage Press, 1969). A bumper sticker put out by the Charles F. Kerr Publishing Company.
22. Some sources for these claims: P. Buhle and A. Dawley eds., Working for Democracy (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1985)
23. Mari J. Buhle et al. eds., Encyclopaedia of the American Left (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1992)
24. Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, 1492-1992, rev. ed. (New York: Harper Collins, 1995).
25. Edward Friedman, “What Asia Will or Won’t Stand For: Globalizing Human Rights and Democracy,” Osaka Journal of Foreign Studies (1996).
26. Kelantan has been in opposition hands for some time now, and in the recent (November 1999) elections, its eastern neighbor Teregganu also voted the Pas into power. It is equally important to note that despite his treatment of Awar, Mahathir’s National Front government won 56 percent of the popular vote. See the Far Eastern Economic Review, vol. 163 (12/9/99) for details.
27. Although the ideal may have originally had economic more than moral and political roots. See my “Why the Chinese Economic Miracle Isn’t One,” Z Magazine (October 1995).
28. Although the ideal may have originally had economic more than moral and political roots. See my “Why the Chinese Economic Miracle Isn’t One,” Z Magazine (October 1995n. 19.)
29. For an excellent survey, see Sumner B. Twiss, “Comparative Ethics and Intercultural Human Rights Dialogue: A Programmatic Inquiry” in William T. deBary and Tu Wei-Ming eds., Confucianism & Human Rights (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).
30. For an excellent survey, see Sumner B. Twiss, especially pp. 17-19, for discussion and additional citations.
31. For discussion, see my “Who Chooses?” in Henry Rosemont, Jr., ed., Chinese Texts and Philosophical Contexts (Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company, 1991).
32. A point now fairly well agreed upon in Confucian scholarship. See, for example, Tu Weiming’s Humanity and Self-Cultivation: Essays in Confucian Thought (Berkeley, CA: Asian Humanities Press, 1979)
33. David L. Hall and Roger T. Ames, Thinking Through Confucius (Albany: SUNY Press, 1987), especially chapters IV and V.
34. James Legge, trans., The Chinese Classics (Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong, reprint of the 1894 edition), volume 3, The Shoo King, pp. 74, 292.
35. Some examples from the Lun Yu on these themes: 1:14, 1:15, 12:5, 12:7, 13:9. All citations are taken from The Analects of Confucius, Roger T. Ames and Henry Rosemont, Jr., trans. (New York: Ballantine Books, 1998).
36. See The Analects of Confucius., pp. 48-65, for discussion. 30.
37. Mencius, D. C. Lau, trans. (Penguin Books, 1970). On regicide, see 1B8; on the moral hierarchy, 7A14.
38. As employed in her contribution, “Mencius and Human Rights,” to deBary and Tu Wei-Ming eds., Confucianism & Human Rights, pp. 94-116.
39. Mencius, 2A6.
40. As employed in her contribution, “Mencius and Human Rights,” to deBary and Tu Wei-Ming eds., 6B2.
41. Hsün Tzu: Basic Writings, BurtonWatson trans. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963), pp. 34-37.
42. Legge, Hsün Tzu: Basic Writings, BurtonWatson trans. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963), vol. 1, pp. 357 ff.
43. Lun Yu, Hsün Tzu: Basic Writings, 18:6.
44. This paragraph is taken from my contribution to deBary and Wei-Ming eds., Confucianism & Human Rights, pp. 54-67.
45. The distinction between the meaning of life and meaning in life was first drawn by Kurt Baier in “The Meaning of Life” in Morris Weitz ed., 20th Century Philosophy: The Analytic Tradition (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1966).
46. “The Music of Humanity in the Conversations of Confucius,” Journal of Chinese Philosophy, vol. 10 (1983), pp. 331-56.
47. “Does America Still Work?” Harper’s Magazine (May 1996), p. 38.
48. Cited in the Nation (Aug. 26/Sept. 2, 1996), p. 5.
49. Mancur Olson makes clear the relation between the political and the economic with respect to first-generation rights: “A thriving market economy requires, among other things, institutions that provide secure individual rights. The incentives to save, to invest, to produce, and to engage in mutually advantageous trade depend particularly upon individual rights to marketable assets-on property rights. /Similarly,… [i]f there is no right to create legally secure corporations, the private economy cannot properly exploit… productive opportunities.” “Development Depends on Institutions,” College Park International (April 1996), p. 2.
50. Lun Yu, College Park International 5:26.
51. The Doors of Perception (New York: Penguin, 1963), p. 12.
52. In my original manuscript I slightly misquoted these lines, having forgotten the source in which I first read them long ago. I am thus grateful to Mr. Andrew Terjesen for the correct wording, and for locating the source, which is Poem XII from Last Poems (H. Holt & Company, 1922).
53. Some of the arguments advanced in this essay were first presented at the Second Conference on Confucian and Human Rights at the East-West Center, May 22-24, 1996.