I am happy to announce the publication of a new book, Stephen C. Angle and Yutang Jin, eds., Progressive Confucianism and Its Critics: Dialogues from the Confucian Heartland (Routledge, 2025). More information on the book can be found here. This book is a translation into English of a series of dialogues that I held with Chinese Confucians in Beijing in the spring of 2017. The Introduction and part of the first dialogue are available at Amazon here, in case you’d like to learn more. Enjoy!
So, inasmuch as I have not read this book, I can only infer a bit from the title. The initial tip-off lies in the first two words, the rest emerges quickly. There seems little cohesiveness between *progressive*, and, *Confucianism*. I would not see a point to, say, progressive Buddhism or, progressive Christianity, either. Fact of the matter, for intractable Muslims, progressive Islam would be heresy, worthy of having a price placed on one’s head. Someone found that out, the hard way. Founders of these philosophies; faiths, beliefs or imaginings operated on what they we taught—not what they knew. *Brainwashing* is second-oldest trick in the book, after intimidation/torture. Imtimidators can do it hard—or, they can do it easier…they don’t much care.
Foucault was fixated on discussion and dissection of power. Neoroses can bring out the better angels of our nature. Pinker tried to illustrate this. No one got that memo, either. Be well. Do good work. James Earl Carter did.
Errata:
* …What they WERE taught…
*…neUroses…
Congratulations, Steve and Yutang! I’ve heard much about this from various sources (not just the two of you) and have been looking forward to reading it.