Stephen C. Angle

Decent Democratic Centralism

Are there any coherent and defensible alternatives to liberal democracy? The author examines the possibility that a reformed democratic centralism—the principle around which China’s current polity is officially organized—might be legitimate, according to both an inside and an outside perspective. The inside perspective builds on contemporary Chinese political theory; the outside perspective critically deploys Rawls’s notion of a “decent society” as its standard. Along the way, the author pays particular attention to the kinds and degree of pluralism a decent society can countenance, and to the specific institutions in China that might enable the realization of a genuine and/or decent democratic centralism. The author argues that by considering both inside and outside perspectives, and the degrees to which they inter-penetrate and critically inform one another, we can engage in a global philosophy that neither pre-judges alternative political traditions nor falls prey to false conceptual barriers.

The Chinese human rights reader : documents and commentary, 1900-2000

In contrast to the many military, diplomatic, and historical works on the Korean War, this book takes a cultural approach that emphasizes the human dimension of the war and especially features Korean voices. It includes chapters on Korean art on the war, translations into English of poetry by Korean soldiers, and American soldier poetry on the war. There is a photographic essay by combat journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Max Desfor. Other chapters analyze songs on the Korean War -- Korean, American, and Chinese Korean films on the war and Korean War POWs and their contested memories.

Must we choose our leaders? human rights and political participation in China

The essay begins from Alan Gewirths influential account of human rights, and specifically with his argument that the human right to political participation can only be fulfilled by competitive, liberal democracy. I show that his argument rests on empirical, rather than conceptual grounds, which opens the possibility that in China, alternative forms of participation may be legitimate or even superior. An examination of the theory and contemporary practice of ‘democratic centralism’ shows that while it does not now adequately support the right to political participation, a reformed version could. I focus in particular on the roles that could be played by consultative institutions, looking both to recent Chinese proposals and to analogues currently existing in Japan. I conclude that a reformed democratic centralism may well be the objective toward which Chinese people should strive.

Human Rights and Harmony

There are a number of reasons for thinking that human rights and harmony, two values much discussed with regard to contemporary China, make poor bedfellows. They emerge from different traditions and may apply in different ways: human rights setting a minimal standard and harmony articulating an elusive ideal. In addition, might not harmony demand the sacrifice of one person’s rights in order to achieve some larger objective? Does not individual striving to protect one’s human rights smack of disharmony? Drawing on both Confucian and contemporary Western philosophy, however, this essay argues that a simultaneous commitment to human rights and to harmony is both coherent and desirable.

The Analects and Moral Theory

This chapter explores the advantages and disadvantages of viewing the Analects through the lens of contemporary moral theory. It begins with methodological questions that center around whether the ways that philosophers—both East and West—have sought to use Western categories to interpret the Analects result in a troubling privileging of Western perspectives. In answering this question, it is helpful to distinguish between two scholarly modes: the interpretive and the dialogical. Categories not derived from the Analects itself are relevant to the philosophical interpretation of the text only insofar as a case can be made that they contribute to a better understanding of the text than is available without them (or via alternative categories). Philosophical dialogue, on the other hand, may have primary aims that are different from the best understanding of a given source text. The chapter then turns to detailed considerations of Kantian deontology, which Sinophone scholarship on the text has tended to stress; virtue ethics, which is more prominent in Anglophone secondary literature; and role ethics, which has emerged as a potential alternative to both deontology and virtue ethics. These discussions reveal that Sinophone and Anglophone philosophers are starting to engage one another, which is helping to spur the related (though not identical) process of dialogue between Western and Chinese philosophical traditions. Concern about an unhealthy hegemony of Western categories is by no means a thing of the past, but we are beginning to see glimpses of a future that is pluralistic, open, and global.

'Dao' as a Nickname

‘Way’ – the ubiquitous and appropriate translation for ‘dao’ – seems to be used in two very different fashions in these two passages. In [41], ‘way’ looks to be used in much the same way that other earlier texts had used it: as a way to act, which with diligence certain people are able follow. For example, Analects 4.9 reads, ‘The Master said, If an officer is dedicated to the Way, but is ashamed of having bad clothes or bad food, he is not worth taking counsel with’. In [42], on the other hand, ‘way’ seems to be an entity capable of giving birth. So which is it: a way to act or an entity? Most interpreters respond that it is both. In some contexts, dao means way to act; in others, it means a kind of supreme entity. In the introduction to his recent translation, Moss Roberts writes that ‘Whether dao is common or transcendent, something to walk upon or something higher than heaven itself – or both – is an ambiguity that informs the Dao De Jing’. Chen Guying sees understanding the multiple meanings of dao as a key to understanding the text, writing that ‘There are instances in which the Dao refers to a metaphysical entity; there are instances in which the Dao refers to a kind of natural law, and there are instances in which the Dao refers to a kind of principle or pattern for human life. Although the individual and specific meanings of the word in its various contexts are not the same, they are still all interrelated’. Chen believes, in other words, that the meaning of dao changes in two ways: (1) It has a new meaning in this text, and (2) It has more than one meaning within the text. Chad Hansen has argued that such ‘meaning-change hypotheses’ are unlikely to be correct, at least in this text.

Guest Editors' Introduction: Rights and Chinese Thought

The past decade has seen a vigorous discussion of human rights both within China and between China and other nations. It is easy to think of China as a latecomer to human rights discourse, in part because during most of the post-1949 period, rights and human rights were taboo subjects in the Peoples Republic. In fact, however, there was a rich and contested debate on rights throughout the first half of this century. By translating the most important pre-1949 essays on rights and human rights, we aim to reintroduce themes from this forgotten discourse into contemporary debates. These essays show that the discussion of rights in China has long been motivated by indigenous concerns, rather than imposed from without, and it has been interpretive and critical, rather than passive and imitative.

Confucian Justification of Limited Government: Comments on Joseph Chan's Confucian Perfectionism

Abstract: It is argued here that (1) distinguishing an independent political authority from traditional Confucianism’s monistic (ethical) authority is more difficult than Joseph Chan currently allows; (2) the contribution of sociopolitical participation toward individual ethical development is more critical than Chan has so far acknowledged; and (3) this tie between participation and development, in turn, leads to the need for “self-restriction,” which then provides a satisfactory basis for the independence of political from ethical authority.

Western, Chinese, and Universal Values

The complex interaction between existing Chinese values and values arriving from “the west” has a long history. It is not limited to just the century of interest in Marxism, nor even to the more than four hundred years since Jesuit missionaries arrived in China. In fact the 1400 years of Islamic presence in China still pales before the close to two millennia that Buddhism has thrived in China, both challenging then-indigenous values as well as adapting and growing in its new context. Zen Buddhism is one of the products of this process of adaptation; so is Neo-Confucianism, the dominant state-sponsored…

The Discovery of Chinese Logic

have no common element. (Hence, the axiom aa1 = 0 is justified.) This way out is not taken into account by Bondoni. Further remarks are devoted to the symbol ‘∨’ (‘1’ in Schröder’s symbolism) and the notion of domain (Gebiet). One might raise a few questions with regard to less interesting or superfluous (and sometimes confusing) notes, like the discussion of the idempotence laws in p. 91. Bondoni’s organization of the material has some drawbacks. The existence of personal notes in the original text as well as in the translation introduces an unnecessary complication for the reader. The Bibliography is not updated, omitting valuable and standard papers on Schröder. For instance, Volker Peckhaus’s 2004 papers, above all the survey ‘Schröder’s Logic’. A few minor misprints should be mentioned in the German original. In p. 25, line 12 ‘lass’ should be read as ‘lässt’; in p. 28, line 12 ‘hinen’ should be read as ‘ihnen’. In p. 38, figure 3 (‘Abbildung 3’) is wrongly placed (one line below the corresponding one). In p. 58, line 10 ‘Auflösungs’ should be read as ‘Auflösung’. The very idea of a ‘Paraphrasis’ warns the reader that the book is not a typical annotated translation. Thus, the book is somewhat idiosyncratic. It is in the reviewer’s opinion a very unusual contribution to the history of modern logic. Apart from a French translation of sections from the Vorlesungen due to Gerhard Heinzmann (Rivenc and de Rouilhan 1992), I do not know of any other translation into Romance languages of Schröder’s writings. In this sense, the present book contributes to the studies of Schröder’s work and to its wider availability.