This highly original work introduces the ideas and arguments of the ancient Chinese philosophies of Confucianism and Daoism to some of the most intractable social issues of modern American life, including abortion, gay marriage, and assisted suicide. Introduces the precepts of ancient Chinese philosophers to issues they could not have anticipated Relates Daoist and Confucian ideas to problems across the arc of modern human life, from birth to death Provides general readers with a fascinating introduction to Chinese philosophy, and its (...) continued relevance Offers a fresh perspective on highly controversial American debates, including abortion, stem cell research, and assisted suicide. (shrink)

When obligations to work conflict with obligations to family, Confucians would generally counsel us to fulfill our family duties first. Professional careers are less important than our social duties, and profit‐seeking behavior, or materialist desires beyond a modest minimum can undermine our humanity. Daoists, while also profit averse, see work as potentially more important than social relationships. It is a realm in which we can discover our place in Way. Confucianism offers lucid and direct responses to the various questions raised (...) by the work imperative. Daoists concur with the Confucian disdain for profit and wealth. Daoists find more promise in work in and of itself, not for what it might provide for our families or social relationships, but what it might offer each individual. Giving more time to work than to family might actually be good for some. (shrink)

Insights from Confucianism and Daoism disrupt the usual conversation in productive ways. While they ultimately come down for or against abortion and other related issues, they do so for reasons other than those usually put forward in conventional American debates. There is much about birth in Daoism, but nothing about a definitive determination of the beginning of life. Confucianism and Daoism maintain a certain consistency between their attitudes on abortion and in vitro fertilization (IVF). Ethical questions regarding stem cell research (...) are related to those involved with abortion and IVF. Daoism is a fluid enough philosophy to allow for an alternative interpretation. Stem cell research might be seen as a simpler process of working at things before they've begun, and that could open the way for Daoist acceptance. (shrink)

Every society has its own ways of marking the transition from childhood to adulthood. Education is central to childhood experience. Early on, parents play a key role in this regard, explicitly instructing children in principles of right and wrong and implicitly modeling good and, perhaps unwittingly, bad behavior. For Confucius, from birth to fifteen can be taken as a pre‐moral period. Morality is a function of learning, and before fifteen this kind of self‐conscious and engaged instruction had yet to take (...) place. This is Confucian childhood: the period of life before moral understanding has taken hold and, therefore, also before personal responsibility can be assigned. Daoists have a very different notion of childhood. In a sense, they reverse the relationship asserted by Confucians: children are not morally imperfect adults‐in‐training but, rather, adults, if they want to get closer to Way, need to learn from the simple purity of children. (shrink)

The prospect of death, for Confucians, creates particular social and familial duties. Short of end‐of‐life issues, children, as a matter of general filial duty, certainly have a duty to provide care and comfort for parents as they experience the limitations of old age. Death is a major theme of Zhuangzi. At various points in the text, we are counseled to embrace the inevitable, to detach ourselves from the desire to preserve life beyond its natural bounds. When a loved one dies, (...) however he or she has died, feelings of loss and grief naturally arise in those closest to the deceased. Confucianism believes that these emotions are the deepest wellsprings of humanity, the most fundamental sentiments of human love. Instead of denying grief, Confucius and Mencius tell us to cultivate it, to bring it into the center of our daily lives through conscientious mourning. (shrink)

Ancient Confucianism and Daoism are distinct streams of thought, their differences stark at times. But they emerge from and flow through a shared cultural context and historical time. Certain common assumptions are to be found in each, and distinguish both from Western ways of thinking. This chapter considers the particulars of these two ancient Chinese perspectives, and the ways in which they differ from one another. The three key concepts of Confucianism include: humanity, duty, ritual. The Confucian worldview includes many (...) ideas and principles but these offer a starting point. The chapter recognizes Daoism's playful ambiguity and discusses the three concepts: Way (Dao), integrity (de), and non‐action (wuwei). (shrink)

Marriage and family are obviously central to Confucian ethics. Perhaps the most oft‐repeated exhortation in the Analects is the duty of children to care for parents. There is little in the Daodejing or Zhuangzi on marriage and family. Relative silence suggests that Daoism does not place much importance on the formal institutionalization of interpersonal commitments. Male and female instinctually complement one another, and their pairing opens the way to reproduction, a major theme of the Daodejing. The Daodejing certainly suggests that (...) heterosexual unions are commonplace and potent. A modern Confucian perspective could be affirmative. If we take the most basic Confucian principles—humanity, ritual, and duty—shorn of any gender implications, it is by no means necessary that they would deny same‐sex marriage. Contemporary Confucians would have an initial presumption against divorce. Marriage, of any sort, is a solemnly declared commitment and, as such, it should be respected and preserved. (shrink)

For Confucians, public life — holding political office or assuming some sort of community leadership role — is a natural expression of moral accomplishment. Daoists would care little for either Bill Clinton or John Roberts. The personal faults of the former president would not surprise the writers of the Daodejing or Zhuangzi. Daoism and Confucianism provide very different views on who should lead and how leaders should perform. The more activist Confucian ideal of an exemplary leader, living a morally good (...) life and acting to make it possible for others to do the same, stands in stark contrast to the Daoist anti‐leader, situated below and behind followers, doing as little as possible to facilitate what would have happened anyway. Daoist anti‐leadership creates an anti‐politics of sorts, focusing more on civil society than state power. (shrink)

What factors shape the movement of systems of thought from one historical-cultural context to another? This paper provides a preliminary answer to this question by constructing an analytic framework drawn from the sociology of philosophy, and it uses this framework to consider the prospects for the contemporary transposition of Confucianism from China to America. The central, though still provisional, conclusion is that while global power dynamics matter, the particular conditions of the “philosophical fields” of both the original and the recipient (...) locations are of primary importance in determining the extent and significance of any particular case of philosophical transposition. Therefore, due to the dynamics of the philosophical fields in both countries, it is unlikely that Confucianism will gain greater intellectual and political influence in the United States. (shrink)