Customer Reviews

Confucianism and Human Rights

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This is an anthology by leading comparative philosophers on Confucianism and its relationship to human rights. The media in the west and even some academics have often assumed in the discourse on human rights and China that Chinese institutions and traditions (especially Confucian institutions and traditions) are some how antithetical to "western liberal" conceptions of human rights. But these superficial judgments are almost always by those who are not familiar with the historical literature on both Confucian and western conceptions of human rights. Many have not read a single word of any Confucian text or related commentary or any modern treatment specifically dealing with the relationship between human rights and Confucianism (and there have been plenty). Thus, there is an unfounded, naive prejudice that clouds the contemporary discourse at least in the west outside of comparative philosophy, which ignores the reality both past and present, East and West. In fact, as argued by several authors in the book, certain strains in Confucian thought may actually be quite conducive and natural to the development of a human rights framework.

Notions that underly much of our own western conceptions of human rights including reciprocity, dignity, respect for human sanctity, and respect for moral development and the development of our natural abilities have a very long history and independent analogues within Chinese philosophical discourse. Some of the articles contained are not only a positive treatment of how a Confucian human rights framework may look like but takes on polemical stances against certain preconceived notions against the possibility of such frameworks. It gives a nuanced and diverse look at the different kinds of Confucianism and does justice to this important contemporary topic.

Great material, but MY GOD, this book needed to be gone over by a copy editor! What are publishing houses spending all their money on?