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Over the past generation, the rise of East Asia and especially
China, has brought about a sea change in the economic and political
world order. At the same time, global warming, environmental
degradation, food and water shortages, population explosion, and
income inequities have created a perfect storm that threatens the
very survival of humanity. It is clear now that the Westphalian
model of individual sovereign states seeking their own
self-interest will not be able to respond effectively to this
win-win or lose-lose crisis. In this volume, a cadre of
distinguished scholars comes together to reflect on Confucianism
and Deweyan pragmatism as possible resources for a new geopolitics
that begins from an ontology of interdependence and recognizes the
irreducibly ecological nature of the human experience at every
level. Both Confucian and Deweyan traditions emphasize the primacy
of experience, the importance of vital relationality, and the moral
roots of good governance. The potential benefits of conceptually
blending the two are many. Indeed, the contemporary Chinese
philosopher Tang Junyi provides us with a cosmological
understanding of the "idea" of Confucianism that, in parallel to
Dewey's "idea" of democracy, can enable us to anticipate the core
values, if not the specific contours, of a "Confucian democracy."
Just as Dewey's "idea" of democracy is his vision of the
flourishing communal life made possible by the contributions of the
uniquely distinguished persons that constitute it, Tang Junyi's
Confucianism is a pragmatic naturalism directed at achieving the
most highly integrated cultural, moral, and spiritual growth for
the individual-in-community. In both, we find an affirmation of
communal harmony as a process "starting here and going there"
through which those involved learn together to do ordinary things
in extraordinary ways. Just such a cosmological understanding of
democracy is one way of describing what will be needed to address
the many predicaments characterizing the environmental, cultural,
socioeconomic, and political dynamics of the twenty-first century.
In a historical moment when cross-cultural communication proves
both necessary and difficult, the work of comparative philosophy is
timely. Philosophical resources for building a shared future marked
by vitality and collaborative meaning-making are in high demand.
Taking note of the present global philosophical situation, this
collection of essays critically engages the scholarship of Roger T.
Ames, who for decades has had a central role in the evolution of
comparative and nonwestern philosophy. With a reflective
methodology that has produced creative translations of key Chinese
philosophical texts, Ames-in conjunction with notable collaborators
such as D.C. Lau, David Hall, and Henry Rosemont Jr.-has brought
China's philosophical traditions into constructive cross-cultural
dialogue on numerous ethical and social issues that we face today.
The volume opens with two parts that share overlapping concerns
about interpretation and translation of nonwestern texts and
traditions. Parts III and IV - "Process Cosmology" and
"Epistemological Considerations" - mark the shift in comparative
projects from the metaphilosophical and translational stage to the
more traditionally philosophical stage. Parts V and VI - "Confucian
Role Ethics" and "Classical Daoism" - might best be read as Chinese
contributions to philosophical inquiry into living well or "ethics"
broadly construed. Lastly, Part VII takes Amesian comparative
philosophy in "Critical Social and Political Directions,"
explicitly drawing out the broader dimensions of social
constitution and the ideal of harmony. The contributors-scholars
working in philosophy, religious studies, and Asian studies-pursue
lines of inquiry opened up by the work of Roger Ames, and their
chapters both clarify his ideas and push them in new directions.
They survey the field of Chinese philosophy as it is taking shape
in the wake of Ames's contributions and as it carries forward a
global conversation on the future of humanity.
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