Difference and Tolerance: A South-South Conversation
The conference will be held on March 13-14, 2014 in London. Funding is available to support travel and accommodation for a limited number of participants. Please send a paper title and brief abstract to conference organizers by November 30, 2013 at cpt2014@yahoo.com
A new book titled The East Asian Challenge for Democracy: Political Meritocracy in Comparative Perspective, coedited by Daniel Bell and Chenyang Li, has just been published by Cambridge University Press. It is an interdisciplinary work with contributions by leading historians, social scientists, and philosophers. It is the first book in decades to examine the rise (or revival) of political meritocracy and what it will mean for political developments in China and the rest of the world. It also reminds us that there are political alternatives to electoral democracy and military dictatorship. Here is the link on amazon, where you’ll see a brief endorsement from me (among other people).
Meritocratic Ruists make two basic claims: first, that meritocracy is more historically faithful to Ruist tradition, and second, that it makes for a more effective government. In particular, it can avoid the problems of democracy, among which the ignorance and short-sightedness of voters are prominent. The claim goes that since voters generally understand the issues poorly and are unwilling to sacrifice their immediate interests for future gains, democracies make bad decisions. Without getting into whether these criticisms are accurate for the moment, I’m curious what people think of this line of argument against democracy. If it were true that democracy inevitably has such problems and there were good reason to think meritocracy would do better, would you support meritocracy?
‘Tis the season for reviews of works in Chinese philosophy to be published, apparently! The latest issue of The China Journal has reviews of three recent works in our field, along with much else of interest:
Tze-ki Hon’s review of my latest book, Contemporary Confucian Political Philosophy: Toward Progressive Confucianism (Polity, 2012) has been published “on-line first” in Dao. (If your library subscribes to Dao, you should be able to get to the article, though quite possibly not through the link I just gave.) The review’s final paragraph reads:
While Angle may not be completely faithful to MOU Zongsan, he succeeds in drastically changing the image of New Confucianism. Instead of an abstract philosophy in the ivory tower, he transforms New Confucianism into a political theory for promoting tolerance, diversity, and equality. While it is still early to tell whether New Confucianism will have a strong impact on twenty-first century Chinese politics, it is clear that the three parts of a healthy society that Angle describes—the ethic subjectivity, the rights of the public, and the communicative acts based on rituals—are essential to building a fair and open political system in China. They directly address the new political condition of contemporary China where individuals aggressively demand recognition of their unique personality, inalienable rights, and full participation in the communicative lifeworld.
Many thanks to Tze-ki for his generous and probing review!
Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
2013.07.38 View this Review Online View Other NDPR Reviews
Erin M. Cline, Confucius, Rawls, and the Sense of Justice, Fordham University Press, 2013, 354pp., $65.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780823245086.
Reviewed by Bryan W. Van Norden, Vassar College
A couple of years ago, we had some discussion on this blog of the idea of Confucian “fundamentalism,” sparked by comments of Peng Guoxiang, in response to criticism from some Confucians of plans for a large church in Qufu, near the ancestral home of the Kong family (Confucius’s family). (See also the discussion of Ralph Weber’s later post, as well.) At that time, some commentators on the blog said that they felt “fundamentalism” was inapt. Prompted by having to write a review of Jiang Qing’s A Confucian Constitutional Order: How China’s Ancient Past Can Shape Its Political Future (Princeton, 2013), I would like to revisit this general question, being more specific both about what “fundamentalism” means and about the target of my analysis: not the broad group of signers of earlier petitions, but specifically Jiang Qing as he represents himself in this new book.
Two events at SOAS this week, both celebrating the launch of a new MSc program in Comparative Political Thought:
There will be a friendly debate on some of the ideas in my Contemporary Confucian Political Philosophy: Toward Progressive Confucianism book, held next week at Hong Kong University. Please come and join in the fun — though note that registration is required, just to keep track of numbers. The “critics” with whom I will be conversing are Joseph Chan, Fan Ruiping, and Sungmoon Kim. It will be held 16 April 2013 (Tuesday), 14:30 – 17:30. More information on the location and schedule, as well as on-line registration, is available here.
SOAS MSc in Comparative Political Thought
In September 2013, the Department of Politics and International Studies at SOAS, University of London will start a new MSc in Comparative Political Thought, the first programme in the UK devoted to this field of study.
