Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-fnpn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-01T17:47:55.015Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Cultural Traditions of China and the Quest for a Global Ethic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Torbjörn Lodén
Torbjörn Lodén*
Affiliation:
Institute for Security and Development Policy, Sweden
*
Torbjörn Lodén, Stockholm China Center, Institute for Security and Development Policy, Stockholm, Sweden. Email: luoduobi@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper challenges the idea that there are essential and unbridgeable differences that separate the cultural traditions of China and Europe. The focus is on the belief that there is no transcendence in Chinese thought and the cluster of notions around this thesis, which have often been used in support of the thesis of essential differences. The conclusion is that this thesis is mistaken and that the multifarious traditions of China and Europe share many central features and can also mutually enrich one another. Together, they offer rich resources to a global ethic suited for the needs of our time.

Keywords

Global ethicChinaEuropecultural traditionsConfucianismtranscendenceessential differences
Type
Articles
Information
Diogenes , Volume 64 , Issue 1-2: Global Ethics , February 2017 , pp. 5 - 10
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Benedict, R (2005) The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture. With a foreword by Ian Buruma. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Chin, A, Freeman, M (1990) Tai Chen on Mencius: Explorations in Words and Meanings. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Copleston, F (1964) A History of Philosophy, vol. 6. Modern Philosophy, part II: Kant. New York: Image Books.Google Scholar
Graham, AC (1989) Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China. La Salle, IL: Open Court.Google Scholar
Huang, C-C (2019) Mencian Hermeneutics: A History of Interpretations in China. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jullien, F (1998) Un sage est sans idée. Ou, l’autre de la philosophie. Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
[Jin Yaoji], King AY, Myers, JT (1977) Shame as an Incomplete Conception of Chinese Culture: A Study of Face. Working paper. Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Social Research Centre.Google Scholar
Küng, H (1991) Global Responsibility: In Search of a New World Ethic. London: SCM Press.Google Scholar
Lodén, T (2016) On the social dynamics of philosophical ideas: Dai Zhen's Critique of Neo-Confucianism. Rendez-Vous, Festschrift in Honour of Marja Kaikkonen, special issue of Orientaliska studier 146: 113–145.Google Scholar
Metzger, T (1977) Escape from Predicament: Neo-Confucianism and China's Evolving Political Culture. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mill, JS (1998) On Liberty and other essays [1859]. Edited with an introduction and notes by John Gray. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schluchter, W (ed) (1983) Max Webers Studie über Konfuziamismus und Taoismus: Interpretation und Kritik. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp-Taschebuch Wissenschaft.Google Scholar
Schwartz, BI (1975) Transcendence in Ancient China. Daedalus 104 (2): 57–68.Google Scholar
Svensson Ekström, M (2002) Illusion, Lie and Metaphor: the Paradox of divergence in early Chinese poetics. Poetics Today 23(2): 251–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wei-ming, Tu (1976), Centrality and Commonality: An Essay on Chung-yung. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii.Google Scholar
Watson, B (2007) The Analects of Confucius. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Watson, B (1968) The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Weber, M (1922) Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Religionssoziologie, vol. I, Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr.Google Scholar
Weber, M (1968) The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism. Translated and edited by H.H. Gerth with an introduction by C.K. Yang, New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar