Confucius: The Secular As Sacred (Harper Torchbooks, TB 1682) [Paperback]

Herbert Fingarette (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

". . . Confucius has revitalized all our thinking about the sage. . . . [it] opens up new prospects of understanding and learning from Confucius." -- A. C. Graham, Times Literary Supplement

". . . this wonderful little . . . book has become a modern classic of Confucian interpretation." -- John M. Koller, Oriental Philosophies

"Confucius is one of the most significant philosophical books on the subject to be published in a long time." -- Henry J. Rosemont, Jr., Philosophy East and West

"In the fifty years in which I have been studying Confucius, I cannot recall that I have found the work of another scholar more stimulating than that of Professor Fingarette." -- Herrlee G. Creel, Journal of the American Academy of Religion

"With superb faithfulness to the text, Fingarette discerns the deepest meaning of the thought of Confucius and, paradoxically, its application to our own time. This is another beautiful book from one of our most perceptive thinkers." -- Robert N. Bellah --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

Title of related interest from Waveland Press: Overmyer, Religions of China: The World as a Living System (ISBN 9781577660002). --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 84 pages
• Publisher: Harper and Row (June 1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061316822
• ISBN-13: 978-0061316821
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,929,017 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Problematic but still essential reading., November 26, 2000

By 

bryan12603 (Poughkeepsie, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Confucius: The Secular As Sacred (Paperback)

This book is essential reading for anyone seriously interested in Confucius, Confucianism, or early Chinese thought in general. It is quite convincing on some points, but also very problematic on others.

Fingarette was a mainstream Western philosopher, who said that when he first read Confucius, he found him to be a "prosaic and parochial moralizer." However, he eventually became convinced that Confucius had "an imaginative vision of man equal in its grandeur" to any that he knew.

Fingarette is at his best explaining the importance of ritual in Confucianism. Most of us nowadays think of rituals as useless affectations. However, Fingarette shows that Confucius regarded rituals (from handshaking to funerals) as an important part of being human. It is when we participate in such ritual activities that we are most distinctively human. In addition, ritual has the power to enable humans to work together without the need for coercion. Perhaps if we in the West can recover the feeling for the importance of shared, sacred rituals, we can help give more unity to our chaotic society.

Fingarette was also deeply influenced by Western behaviorism, and this leads to some of the less plausible aspects of his book. He wishes to deny that there is any "internal" dimension to Confucius' thought. If what Fingarette wishes to claim is that Confucius did not think of human psychology the way that, say, Augustine or Descartes did, then he is quite correct. (But then who is Fingarette arguing with? No serious interpreter I know of has read Confucius as a Cartesian.) However, Fingarette sometimes seems to want to claim that emotions and attitudes are, for Confucius, perfectly public states. I think that this is to project Western behaviorism onto Confucius (and behaviorism itself derives what limited plausibility it has from being a reaction to more extreme forms of Cartesianism).

Warts and all, this is still a classic book on Confucius after almost twenty years. If you want to learn more about Confucius, H.G. Creel's _Confucius and the Chinese Way_ is worth reading. For broader surveys of Confucianism, you might read Philip J. Ivanhoe's _Confucian Moral Self Cultivation_, or the anthology he and I co-edited, _Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy_.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thoughtful book worth reading, October 1, 2002

By 

From_Plano_TX "a_customer_from_plano" (Plano, TX USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Confucius: The Secular As Sacred (Paperback)

I very much enjoyed the originality of this book. I don't agree with the author's major premise regarding the interpretation of one of the analects, but I found the originality refreshing. This should not be your first book on Confucius. But once you are comfortable in having some understanding of his teachings, at least enough understanding to recognize when Fingarette departs from orthodox interpretations, then you will greatly enjoy this book. I think it is a "must read" for serious students! If you are interested in a practical view of Confucianism, I recommend the book by Robert Canright: "Achieve Lasting Happiness, Timeless Secrets to Transform Your Life."

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the best sources for understanding Confucius, April 1, 2000

By 

Read Taylor - See all my reviews

This review is from: Confucius: The Secular As Sacred (Paperback)

As an undergraduate and graduate student I have read this book a total of at least five times. Each time, I am impressed by how clearly Fingarette clarifies the important fundamentals of Confucianism that we often forget in our attempt to exoticize this central Chinese philosopher. A short, easy to read book, it ranks with Waley's "Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China" as one of the first important texts to read to understand Chinese philosophy.