Confucianism and Human Rights
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Overview
Is the Confucian tradition compatible with the Western understanding of human rights? Are there fundamental human values, regardless of cultural differences, common to all peoples of all nations? At this critical point in Communist China's history, eighteen distinguished scholars address the role of Confucianism in dealing with questions of universal human rights.
Columbia University Press
Synopsis
In essays exploring the relationship of contemporary human rights doctrine to the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, this volume investigates concepts such as the individual in relation to the state; the notion of "rights" in ritual and law; and justice, constitutionalism, and intellectual freedom in Chinese and Western traditions.
Choice
The essays explore such vital subjects as the normative foundation of human rights claims, the relationship of the individual to the nation-state, rites as rights, due process, harmony versus freedom of thought, constitutionalism, and the rule of law. . . . each one does stand on its own as a solid piece of scholarship.
Editorials
International Studies in Philosophy -
This engaging book is propaedeutic to a study of how Confucianism might contribute to decisions respecting rights.
International Studies in Philosophy
This engaging book is propaedeutic to a study of how Confucianism might contribute to decisions respecting rights.— Dale Maurice Riepe
Asian Affairs
An ambitious book, dealing with human nature, according to classical Confucian philosophers, analogies between rights and rites, and Confucian influences in 20th-century China.
Asian Thought and Society
This rich volume, a feast for the mind, a joy to the soul, is so wise in seeing that the human rights discourse is not the singular fruit of a peculiar liberal individualistic Western tradition, not the unique genetic child of Jews or Christians or Greeks.
China Quarterly
It reduces the lack of clarity that has characterized discussions of this subject to date.
Asian Affairs
An ambitious book, dealing with human nature, according to classical Confucian philosophers, analogies between rights and rites, and Confucian influences in 20th-century China.— Stefan B. Polter
Asian Thought and Society
This rich volume, a feast for the mind, a joy to the soul, is so wise in seeing that the human rights discourse is not the singular fruit of a peculiar liberal individualistic Western tradition, not the unique genetic child of Jews or Christians or Greeks.— Edward Friedman
China Quarterly
It reduces the lack of clarity that has characterized discussions of this subject to date.— Lynn Struve
Choice
The essays explore such vital subjects as the normative foundation of human rights claims, the relationship of the individual to the nation-state, rites as rights, due process, harmony versus freedom of thought, constitutionalism, and the rule of law.... each one does stand on its own as a solid piece of scholarship.