Yutang Jin’s article “Self-Restriction, Political Myth, and the Politics of the Ordinary: Mou Zongsan’s Confucian Democracy” has been published in Political Theory; read on for the abstract.
Category Archives: Articles of Interest
Xiang on Sinophobia
Shuchen Xiang (assistant professor of philosophy at Peking University) has just published “Sinophobia, American Imperialism, Disorder Without Responsibility” in Sartre Studies International. In light of the recent anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States, this paper asks the philosophical community to reflect on the relationship between racism and (American) imperialism as well as how this Sinophobia is symptomatic of an agent/community acting under “bad faith” who evades the more difficult problem of personal growth. The paper can be found here and can be downloaded here.
Article of Interest: Confucian Political Moralism
Wenqing Zhao’s article “Huang Zongxi’s Confucian political moralism” has recently been published in the British Journal for the History of Philosophy. In this paper, Zhao argues that the similarities that Huang Zongxi shares with liberalism and republicanism are superficial. Rather, Zhao illustrates how Huang’s political philosophy is best read as a decisive Confucian political moralism.
Angle on Confucian Leadership & Confucian Democracy
My article “Confucian Leadership Meets Confucian Democracy” has just been published in the Journal of Social and Political Philosophy (1:2). The abstract is below; full text is available here (through the end of October).
2021 Dao Annual Best Essay Award
Dao has established “The Annual Best Essay Award” since 2007. The editorial board has just finished its deliberation on the best essay published in 2021, and the award is given to:
Benoit Vermander, “Edit by Number: Looking at the Composition of the Huainanzi, and Beyond.” Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 20 (2021): 459-498
Via a hermeneutics focused on numerology and concentric arrangements, the essay, which demonstrates familiarity with the germane historiography, literature, and theoretical apparatuses, offers an original construal of a textual universe in early China writings. Instead of taking for granted the organization and configuration, or the absence thereof, of these texts, it argues that there is a structural rhetoric. With particular reference to the Huainanzi, it lays bare the discernible and distinguishable patterns of textual composition while relating them to corresponding patterns of thinking. In so doing, it suggests the possibility and importance of looking beyond the writings’ intertextuality and toward their inter-structure.
The two runners-up are:
Yutang Jin, “Classic Confucian Thought and Political Meritocracy: A Text-based Critique.” Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 20 (2021): 433-458, and
Ian Sullivan, “The Need for More than Role Relations: Queer Lives, Social Group Identities, and Confucian Self-cultivation.” Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 20 (2021): 269-287
Springer has set the above three essays for free access.
Article of Interest: The Idea of Liberty
Sha Li’s article “Yan Fu, John Seeley, and the Idea of Liberty” has recently been published in Modern China. “This article advances a more precise appreciation of Yan Fu’s idea of liberty based on a close and contextualized reading of his Lectures on Politics.” This interpretation “exposes [Yan’s] own persistent views and tendencies. Specifically, Yan’s text adopts Seeley’s literal, neutral concept of liberty while extending its use as security against political tyranny.”
Two new essays by Bin Song
Bin Song has recently published two essays that readers may find interesting:
“Donald Trump, Mao Zedong and Religious Anti-Intellectualism,” in Donald Trump in Historical Perspective: Dead Precedents, Edited by Michael Harvey (Routledge, 2022)
and
“The Utopian Seed of Modern Chinese Politics in Ruism (Confucianism) and its Tillichian Remedy,” in Why Tillich? Why Now?, Edited by Thomas G. Bandy (Mercer University Press, 2021)
Isay on Non-forgetfulness and forgetfulness
Gad C Isay’s article “Non-forgetfulness and forgetfulness 忘 (wang) in ancient Chinese philosophical texts” has been published in Memory Studies (October 2021). doi:10.1177/17506980211044704. The abstract follows, and see the above link for the full text.
Lacertosa on Sense Perception in the Zhuangzi 莊子
Massimiliano Lacertosa’s article “Sense Perception in the Zhuangzi 莊子” has been published in Philosophy Compass; see here. The abstract is below.
Lai on Freedom and agency in the Zhuangzi
Karyn Lai’s article “Freedom and agency in the Zhuangzi: navigating life’s constraints” has been published in the British Journal for the History of Philosophy and is available Open Access here. The abstract follows.
