China Change And Confucian Benevolence Human Values Truth And Policy

Henry Kissinger observed, 'Everybody wants to be a China hawk.' China is a bully. China is Nazi Germany. China commits genocide. China disrupts the 'international rules-based order.' Responding to such uninformed generalization on the nature of China's regime and its lack of human values, the Western Liberal Democracies have created their own 'China Problem' by clinging to Cold War anachronism. The clash of values is not nearly as deep and extensive as is often claimed. Furthermore, the contemporary public discourse on China needs a complete assessment of the values that have emerged in Xi Jinping's China. Xi is regarded as 'red' like Mao. Xi, however, has abandoned Mao's view of class struggle and his notion of a 'rejuvenated China' embraces traditional core principles that Mao bitterly condemned. 'Ren', or 'benevolence', for example, now informs entwined domestic and foreign policy as 'moderate prosperity in all respects'. 'Ren', or 'benevolence' is aligned with 'common security' and 'common development'. The question is whether this is a positive restoration of traditional values that will contribute to domestic development and international peace, or restorationist Middle-Kingdom-ism designed to assert Chinese values worldwide. This book's analysis of Chinese values argues that the current interpretation of the 'China Threat' is predicated in a serious misunderstanding of Chinese values.It is often commented that China is 'the defining geopolitical issues of our time'. This book is an especially timely contribution to the currently limited public policy debate on China as a threat to Western values and the 'international rules-based system'. Correction is long overdue with reference to speculative assumptions that Xi Jinping's regime represents a return to Mao's regime. 'Socialism with Chinese characteristics' has significantly moved on under Xi's leadership. Hyperbole about China has presumed the continuation of Chinese Cold War ideology and has either lightly commented on, or ignored altogether the resurgence of core traditional ideas in Chinese policy formation. This book provides detailed research of 'Xi Jinping Thought' and 'Xi Jinping Diplomatic Thought'. It adopts a widely construed, but serious interdisciplinary, approach towards the 'China Problem', drawing on both the social sciences and humanities. This wide-angled approach includes 'new sinology' in its recent review of 'translated China', synthesizing tradition and culture with the development of modern Chinese ideology, politics and policy formation. The book's significant topicality is presented within an unconventional approach and formatted contents designed to reach out to the biggest circle of general and advanced, China-interested readers in the time of great debate.

Henry Kissinger observed, "Everybody wants to be a China hawk." China is a bully. China is Nazi Germany. China commits genocide. China disrupts the "international rules-based order." Responding to such uninformed generalization on the nature of China's regime and its lack of human values, the Western Liberal Democracies have created their own "China Problem" by clinging to Cold War anachronism. The clash of values is not nearly as deep and extensive as is often claimed. Furthermore, the contemporary public discourse on China needs a complete assessment of the values that have emerged in Xi Jinping's China. Xi is regarded as "red" like Mao. Xi, however, has abandoned Mao's view of class struggle and his notion of a "rejuvenated China" embraces traditional core principles that Mao bitterly condemned. "Ren", or "benevolence", for example, now informs entwined domestic and foreign policy as "moderate prosperity in all respects". "Ren", or "benevolence" is aligned with "common security" and "common development". The question is whether this is a positive restoration of traditional values that will contribute to domestic development and international peace, or restorationist Middle-Kingdom-ism designed to assert Chinese values worldwide. This book's analysis of Chinese values argues that the current interpretation of the "China Threat" is predicated in a serious misunderstanding of Chinese values. It is often commented that China is "the defining geopolitical issues of our time". This book is an especially timely contribution to the currently limited public policy debate on China as a threat to Western values and the "international rules-based system". Correction is long overdue with reference to speculative assumptions that Xi Jinping's regime represents a return to Mao's regime. "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" has significantly moved on under Xi's leadership. Hyperbole about China has presumed the continuation of Chinese Cold War ideology and has either lightly commented on, or ignored altogether the resurgence of core traditional ideas in Chinese policy formation. This book provides detailed research of "Xi Jinping Thought" and "Xi Jinping Diplomatic Thought". It adopts a widely construed, but serious interdisciplinary, approach towards the "China Problem", drawing on both the social sciences and humanities. This wide-angled approach includes "new sinology" in its recent review of "translated China", synthesizing tradition and culture with the development of modern Chinese ideology, politics and policy formation. The book's significant topicality is presented within an unconventional approach and formatted contents designed to reach out to the biggest circle of general and advanced, China-interested readers in the time of great debate.

This book reinterprets classical Chinese philosophical tradition along the conceptual line of human dignity. Through extensive textual evidence, it illustrates that classical Confucianism, Mohism and Daoism contained rich notions of dignity, which laid the foundation for human rights and political liberty in China, even though, historically, liberal democracy failed to grow out of the authoritarian soil in China. The book critically examines the causes that might have prevented the classical schools from developing a liberal tradition, while affirming their positive contributions to the human dignity concept. Analysing the inadequacies of the western concept of human dignity, the text covers relevant teachings of Kongzi, Mengzi, Xunzi, Mozi, Laozi and Zhuangzi (in comparison with Rousseau). While the Confucian notions of humanity (Ren), righteousness (Yi), and gentleman (Junzi) bear most directly on the conception of dignity, Mohism and Daoism provide salutary corrections to the ossification of the orthodox Confucian practice (Li).

This book centers on rethinking foundational values in the era of frontier technologies by tapping into the wisdom of Chinese philosophical traditions. It tries to answer the following questions: How is the essence underpinning humans, nature, and machines changing in this age of frontier technologies? What is the appropriate ethical framework for regulating human–machine relationships? What human values should be embedded in or learnt by AI? Some interesting points emerged from the discussions. For example, the three dominant schools of Chinese thinking–Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism– invariably reflect non-anthropocentric perspectives and none of them places humanity in a supreme position in the universe. While many Chinese philosophers are not convinced by the prospect of machine intelligence exceeding that of humans, the strong influence of non-anthropocentrism in the Chinese thinking contributed to much less panic in China than in the West about the existential risks of AI. The thinking is that as human beings have always lived with other forms of existence, living with programs or other forms of “beings,” which may become more capable than humans, will not inevitably lead to a dystopia. Second, all three schools emphasize self-restraint, constant introspection, and the pursuit of sage-hood or enlightenment. These views therefore see the potential risks posed by frontier technologies as an opportunity for the humanity to engage in introspection on the lessons learned from our social and political history. It is long overdue that humanity shall rethink its foundational values to take into account a multi-being planetary outlook. This book consists of nine leading Chinese philosophers’ reflections on AI’s impact on human nature and the human society. This is a groundbreaking work, which has pioneered the in-depth intellectual exploration involving traditional Chinese philosophy and frontier technologies and has inspired multidisciplinary and across area studies on AI, philosophy, and ethical implications. Chapters “1, 3, 5, 7 and 10” are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

How have traditional Chinese ways of thinking affected problem solving in this century? The traditional, imperial style of inquiry is associated with the belief that the universe is a coherent, internally structured unity understandable through the similarly structured human mind. It involves a reliance on antecedent and authoritarian models, coupled with an introspective focus in investigations, at some cost to objective fact gathering. In contrast, emergent forms of inquiry are guided by the values of individual autonomy and new perspectives on objectivity. In the 1930s and 1940s, some liberal educators held the model of Western science in great esteem, and some scientists practicing objective inquiry helped to create an awareness in the urban areas of inquiry not directed by political values. Drawing on philosophical, social science, and popular culture materials, Donald Munro shows that the two strains coexisted in twentieth century China as mixed motives. Many important figures were motivated by a desire to act consistently with the social values associated with the premodern or received view of knowledge and inquiry. At the same time, these people often had other motives, such as utilitarian values, efficiency, and entrepreneurship. Munro argues that while many competing positions can coexist in the same person, the seeds of the positive, instrumental value of individual autonomy in Chinese inquiry are beginning to compete in both scholarly and popular culture with other, older approaches.

The Routledge Handbook of Pan-Africanism provides an international, intersectional, and interdisciplinary overview of, and approach to, Pan-Africanism, making an invaluable contribution to the ongoing evolution of Pan-Africanism and demonstrating its continued significance in the 21st century. The handbook features expert introductions to, and critical explorations of, the most important historic and current subjects, theories, and controversies of Pan-Africanism and the evolution of black internationalism. Pan-Africanism is explored and critically engaged from different disciplinary points of view, emphasizing the multiplicity of perspectives and foregrounding an intersectional approach. The contributors provide erudite discussions of black internationalism, black feminism, African feminism, and queer Pan-Africanism alongside surveys of black nationalism, black consciousness, and Caribbean Pan-Africanism. Chapters on neo-colonialism, decolonization, and Africanization give way to chapters on African social movements, the African Union, and the African Renaissance. Pan-African aesthetics are probed via literature and music, illustrating the black internationalist impulse in myriad continental and diasporan artists’ work. Including 36 chapters by acclaimed established and emerging scholars, the handbook is organized into seven parts, each centered around a comprehensive theme: Intellectual origins, historical evolution, and radical politics of Pan-Africanism Pan-Africanist theories Pan-Africanism in the African diaspora Pan-Africanism in Africa Literary Pan-Africanism Musical Pan-Africanism The contemporary and continued relevance of Pan-Africanism in the 21st century The Routledge Handbook of Pan-Africanism is an indispensable source for scholars and students with research interests in continental and diasporan African history, sociology, politics, economics, and aesthetics. It will also be a very valuable resource for those working in interdisciplinary fields, such as African studies, African American studies, Caribbean studies, decolonial studies, postcolonial studies, women and gender studies, and queer studies.

A concise and accessible introduction to the evolution of the concept of moral self-cultivation in the Chinese Confucian tradition, this volume begins with an explanation of the pre-philosophical development of ideas central to this concept, followed by an examination of the specific treatment of self cultivation in the philosophy of Kongzi (Confucius), Mengzi (Mencius), Xunzi, Zhu Xi, Wang Yangming, Yan Yuan and Dai Zhen. In addition to providing a survey of the views of some of the most influential Confucian thinkers on an issue of fundamental importance to the tradition, Ivanhoe also relates their concern with moral self-cultivation to a number of topics in the Western ethical tradition. Bibliography and index are included.