New Dimensions of Confucian and Neo-Confucian Philosophy

By Chung-ying Cheng

Subjects: Philosophy, Confucianism, History
Series: SUNY series in Philosophy
Paperback : 9780791402849, 632 pages, March 1991
Hardcover : 9780791402832, 632 pages, April 1991

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Table of contents

Preface
Foreword by Robert Cummings Neville

Introduction: Chinese Philosophy and Confucian/Neo-Confucian Thinking: Origination, Orientation, and Originality

Part I. Chinese Philosophical Orientations

1. Chinese Philosophy: A Characterization
2. A Model of Causality in Chinese Philosophy: A Comparative Study
3. The Nature and Function of Skepticism in Chinese Philosophy
4. Conscience, Mind and the Individual in Chinese Philosophy
5. Chinese Philosophy and Symbolic Reference
6. Toward Constructing a Dialectics of Harmonization: Harmony and Conflict in Chinese Philosophy

Part II. Confucian Dimensions

7. Rectifying Names (Cheng-Ming) in Classical Confucianism
8. On yi as a Universal Principle of Specific Application in Confucian Morality
9. Some Aspects of the Confucian Notion of Mind
10. Theory and Practice in Confucianism
11. Dialectic of Confucian Morality and Metaphysics of Man: A Philosophical Analysis
12. Confucian Methodology and Understanding the Human Person
13. Legalism versus Confucianism: A Philosophical Appraisal
14. Confucius: Heidegger and the Philosophy of the I Ching: On Mutual Interpretations of Ontologies

Part II. Neo-Confucian Dimensions

15. Method, Knowledge and Truth in Chu Hsi
16. Unity and Creativity in Wang Yang-ming's Philosophy of Mind
17. Practical Learning in Yen Yuan, Chu Hsi, and Wang Yang-ming
18. Religious Reality and Religious Understanding in Confucianism and Neo-Confuciansim
19. The Consistency and Meaning of the Four-Sentence Teaching in Ming Ju Hsueh An
20. Li-Ch'i and Li-Yu Relationaships in Seventeenth-Century Neo-Confucian Philosophy
21. Categories of Creativity in Whitehead and Neo-Confucianism

Glossary

Index

Description

This is the first book to thoroughly explore Confucian and Neo-Confucian metaphysics and ethics, building upon the creativity and temporality of human existence and human nature as well as their extension into human culture. Fundamental essays deal cogently with the relationship between Chinese language and Chinese philosophy, offering general categories which shape the matrix of ideas woven in Chinese philosophy from its very beginnings. Along with more general characterizations, there are themes placing Confucian thinkers in touch with modern communication theories, perceptions of individuals, religious themes, and scientific worldviews. Conceptual and comparative essays probe the frontiers of Chinese philosophy in its contemporary Confucian revival.

Chung-ying Cheng is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He is also the founder of the International Society of Chinese Philosophy and the Journal of Chinese Philosophy.

Reviews

"This is a broad and thoughtful survey of many of the leading aspects of Neo-Confucian thought, written by one of the outstanding representatives of this tradition today. It is central to any modern study of Chinese philosophy." — Edmund Leites, Queens College of City University of New York

"Cheng is one of two major Chinese-American philosophers who are attempting to build a world philosophy in the Western context by using and reconstructing the Chinese philosophic tradition. Cheng is brilliant at it — erudite, cultured, original, and highly imaginative. This collection shows him at his best." — Robert Cummings Neville, Boston University

"What I like most about this book is the thoroughness and philosophical acumen with which the author attacks each topic. Cheng certainly has a profound understanding of his subject matter. Each chapter, which forms a self-contained study of one important phase or aspect of Chinese or Confucian/Neo-Confucian philosophy, is itself a solid piece of scholarship." — Lik Kuen Tong, Fairfield University