So You Want to Teach Some Chinese Philosophy?

Jonardon Ganeri has written a piece on this blog, with helpful suggestions on how non-experts may introduce materials from Indian philosophy into their thematically-organised courses.  I follow up here with some suggestions for resources from Chinese philosophy.

First, however, I’d also like to address a reason against, and one for, incorporating Chinese philosophical material.  In addition to the reasons articulated by Jonardon, I believe some instructors hesitate to incorporate material they are not fully familiar with because there is some worry about being put on the spot if they are unable to handle questions posed by students.  Perhaps one way to pre-empt and avoid this is to say to students at the outset that you’re taking this exploratory step with them and that you’re looking forward to this inquiry, this engagement, to throw up more questions about the subject matter.  For philosophy, after all, is much more about asking meaningful and relevant questions than having the right answers (to everything).  And I suspect that, by doing this, one will earn students’ respect for publicly acknowledging the limits of their knowledge.  The inquiry could be taken further if the instructor, where possible and appropriate, contacts authors of particular resources and publications to seek more background information or clarification of ideas.  For which of us would not be flattered to receive an email saying that their work is being used in a class in which students are keen to engage with their ideas?

A reason for casting our gaze on a different tradition may be found in one of Chinese philosophy’s themes: understanding the other is crucial for understanding the self.  Comparing ideas or perspectives is an important method for understanding one’s own views.  Not only does it help us articulate our ideas in sharp(er) relief, it can also compel us to reflect on the fundamental questions we ask, their conceptual frameworks and underlying assumptions, and how we expect to go about investigating them. 

Useful resources for incorporating Chinese comparative philosophy in the classroom include Oxford Bibliographies, Oxford Handbook of World Philosophy, Philosophy Compass, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.  There is a vibrant website that covers interests and activities in Chinese and comparative philosophy, “Warp, Weft and Way”.  In particular, check out this page. Visitors to the site may contact its contributors to open up discussions, including on teaching.

Additionally, here are some resources on why it is important to engage in cross-tradition philosophy and some reflections on how to do that:

Joel Kupperman (2010) “Why Ethical Philosophy Needs to Be Comparative”, Philosophy 85.332: 185-200.

Amy Olberding (2015) “It’s Not Them, It’s You: A Case Study Concerning the Exclusion of Non-Western Philosophy”, in Comparative Philosophy 6.2: 14-34. Available at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/comparativephilosophy/vol6/iss2/5 (accessed 12 October 2018).

Paul J. D’Ambrosio & Tim Connolly (2017) “Using Familiar Themes to Introduce Chinese Philosophy in Tradition Courses (for the Non-Specialist)”, in Teaching Philosophy, 40.3: 323-40.

Brian Bruya (2017) “Ethnocentrism and Multiculturalism in Contemporary Philosophy”, Philosophy East and West 67.4: 991-1018.

Bryan Van Norden (2017) Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto, NY: Columbia University Press.

Scholarly literature in Chinese comparative philosophy affords a wide range of insights, informed by detailed and rigorous analyses that often engage with Chinese intellectual history, textual exegesis and philological investigations. Unfortunately, there are many rich and substantial investigations that I cannot include in this list because they assume a level of technical knowledge of these cognate areas. The readings I have included here have been selected for both their quality and accessibility to non-experts.

The nature of philosophy

What is philosophy?  Is there such a thing as Chinese philosophy?  Given that philosophia arose in a specific cultural and historical context, how can we be sure that Chinese ideas, arising and evolving in a distinct cultural, social and political milieu, are really engaging in philosophical inquiry?  Moreover, the Chinese phrase zhexue (philosophy) was coined by a Japanese scholar only in the nineteenth century, with the phrase Zhongguo zhexue (Chinese philosophy) first used in the early twentieth century. Thinking about some key features of Chinese philosophy can help enhance our reflections on what it means to ‘do’ philosophy?

Primary: Carine Defoort (2001) “Is There Such a Thing as Chinese Philosophy? Arguments of an implicit debate,” Philosophy East and West 51.3: 393-413.

Sor-hoon Tan (2016) “Introduction: Why Methodology Matters”, in Sor-hoon Tan, ed., The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Chinese Philosophy Methodologies, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, pp. 1-33.

Secondary: Karsten Struhl (2010) “No (More) Philosophy Without Cross‐Cultural Philosophy” Philosophy Compass 5.4: 287-95.

Sor-hoon Tan, ed. (2016) The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Chinese Philosophy Methodologies, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, esp. Chapters 1, 2, and 7.

Geoffrey Lloyd (2017) The Ambivalences of Rationality: Ancient and Modern Cross-Cultural Explorations, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Argument and Philosophy of Language

Did the early Chinese thinkers use methods of persuasion different from those used by the ancient Greek thinkers, or from the modes of reasoning in contemporary European or anglo-Analytic philosophy? Are there argument strategies that are distinctively Chinese? What are the critical connections between the structure of language and thought? How are semantics and syntax carried in Chinese characters, phrases and strings of characters? Questions raised by contemporary scholars reveal insightful analyses of the connection between language, thought and world, and how the Chinese language cuts up the world, so to speak. They also highlight important features of argumentation and reasoning in Chinese philosophy.

Primary: Chris Fraser (2013) “Distinctions, Judgment, and Reasoning in Classical Chinese Thought”, History and Philosophy of Logic 34.1: 1-24.

Jana Rošker (2015) “Classical Chinese Logic” Philosophy Compass 10.5: 301-09.

Secondary: Chad Hansen (1985) “Chinese Language, Chinese Philosophy, and “Truth””, Journal of Asian Studies, 44.3: 491-519.

G.E.R. Lloyd (1996) Adversaries and Authorities: Investigations into Ancient Greek and Chinese Science, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Perry Link (2013) An Anatomy of Chinese: Rhythm, Metaphor, Politics, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press

Daoist views on Language

Quite a few thinkers in the ancient Chinese world focused on language as an instrument for establishing normative standards of human behaviour. However, the texts associated with the Daoist tradition tend to be wary of attempts to use words, with standardised meanings, to bring order to human behaviour. For why should we assume that words reliably capture the diverse and complex world? As a tool of communication, language had to be efficient (and not too wordy!). However, in fulfilling this requirement, how could it ever express human ingenuity and potential?

Primary: Philip Ivanhoe (1994) “Zhuangzi on Skepticism, Skill, and the Ineffable Dao”, Journal of the American Academy of Religion 61.4: 639-54.

Secondary: Chad Hansen (1983) Language and Logic in Ancient China, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Lee Yearley (2005) “Daoist Presentation and Persuasion: Wandering among Zhuangzi’s Kinds of Language” Journal of Religious Ethics 33.3: 503-35.

Mohist Philosophy of Language

Mohist philosophy is unique among the Chinese philosophical traditions in its deliberations on language. Mohists shared with other thinkers the conviction that language was a powerful tool in bringing about socio-political order.  Unlike the other thinkers, they dwelt on the communicative elements of language and investigated how these elements were related to language’s structure.

Primary: Owen Flanagan (2008) “Moral Contagion and Logical Persuasion in the Mozi????” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 35.5: 473-91.

Hui‐Chieh Loy (2010) “The Word and the Way in Mozi”, Philosophy Compass 6.10: 652-62.

Secondary: Dan Robins (2010) “The Later Mohists and Logic”, History and Philosophy of Logic, 31.3: 247-85.

Marshall Willman (2010) “Logical Analysis and Later Mohist Logic: Some Comparative Reflections”, Comparative Philosophy, 1.1: 53-77.

Fenrong Liu, Jeremy Seligman & Johan van Benthem (2011) “Models of Reasoning in Ancient China”, Studies in Logic, Special Issue on the History of Logic in China, 4.3: 57-81, available here: https://staff.science.uva.nl/j.vanbenthem/moriac.pdf (accessed 12 October 2018).

Lisa Indraccolo (2017) “The “white horse is not horse” debate”, Philosophy Compass 12.10. Available: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/phc3.12434 (accessed 9 October 2018).

Ethics

Buddhist ethics

Discussions of ethics in the literature on Chinese Buddhist philosophy tend to be fairly technical, often covering intricate differences between the different Chinese Buddhist schools, or situating Buddhist moral philosophy within Chinese intellectual history. In the readings below, there is an accessible introduction to Chan Buddhism, and a couple to Buddhist ethics more broadly.

Primary: Peter Hershock (2005) Chan Buddhism, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

Damien Keown (2005) Buddhist Ethics: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Owen Flanagan (2015) “It Takes a Metaphysics, Raising Virtuous Buddhists”, in Nancy Snow, ed., Cultivating Virtue: Perspectives from Philosophy, Theology, and Psychology, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, pp. 171-96.

Confucian (relational) ethics

The significant interest in Confucian ethics is reflected in scholarly literature.  A Confucian approach to ethics tends to focus on the development of a moral sensibility, that begins with affect.  Some discussions on this topic also challenge assumptions in western moral philosophy, especially on its prioritisation of moral principles or moral theory over the practicalities of moral life. Confucian philosophy’s emphasis on affect in relationships is grounded in a distinctively Confucian picture of personhood as fundamentally relational.

Primary: David Wong (2015) “Early Confucian Philosophy and the Development of Compassion,” Dao 14.2: 157-94.

Donald Munro (2016) “Unequal Human Worth” in Brian Bruya, ed., The Philosophical Challenge from China, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 121-58.

Secondary: Antonio Cua (1971) “Reflections on the Structure of Confucian Ethics,” Philosophy East and West 21.2: 125-40.

Henry Rosemont Jr. & Roger Ames (2008) “Family Reverence (xiao 孝) as the Source of Consummatory Conduct (ren 仁)”, in Dao, 7.1: 9-19.

Roger Ames (2011) Confucian Role Ethics: A Vocabulary. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2011.

Curie Virág (2014) “Early Confucian Perspectives on Emotions”, in Vincent Shen, ed., Dao Companion to Classical Confucian Philosophy, Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer Publishing, pp. 203-25.

Confucian metaethics

Comparative philosophical debates on metaethical matters in Confucian ethics have generated interesting questions about how we understand and approach ethics. For example, moral exemplarism, proposed by Linda Zagzebski, challenges how we think about the place of moral theory in our moral lives. These debates have important parallels in Confucian philosophy, where we learn to be moral first and foremost from observing exemplars.

Primary: Amy Olberding (2011) Moral Exemplars in the Analects: The Good Person is That, New York and London: Routledge publishing, especially Chapters 2-4.

Stephen Angle (2013) “The Analects and Moral Theory”, in Amy Olberding, ed., Dao Companion to the Analects, Dordrecht: Springer Publishing, pp. 225-57.

Secondary: Linda Zagzebski (2017) Exemplarist Moral Theory, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Confucian virtue ethics

The view that Confucian ethics offers a version of virtue ethics is a prominent theme in the literature. To be sure, there are important parallels between Aristotelian virtue ethics and Confucian ethics including, not least, the ideas of habituation, on the one hand, and cultivation, on the other. There are, moreover, emphases on models of human excellence in Confucian ethics that seem to align closely with aretaic concepts and themes, including virtue epistemology. Are these parallels sufficient to support a Confucian virtue ethics?

Primary: Edward Slingerland (2011) “The Situationist Critique and Early Confucian Virtue Ethics”, Ethics 121.2: 390-419.

Philip Ivanhoe (2013) “Virtue ethics and the Chinese Confucian tradition”, in Stephen Angle & Michael Slote, eds., Virtue Ethics and Confucianism, New York: Routledge Publishing, pp. 28-46.

Eric L. Hutton (2015) “On the “Virtue Turn” and the Problem of Categorizing Chinese Thought”, Dao, 14.3: 331-53.

Secondary: Stephen Angle & Michael Slote (eds.) (2013) Virtue Ethics and Confucianism, New York: Routledge Publishing.

David Elstein (2015) “Contemporary Confucianism” in Lorraine Besser-Jones & Michael Slote, eds., The Routledge Companion to Virtue Ethics, New York and London: Routledge Publishing, pp. 237-52.

Chienkuo Mi (2017) “Reflective Knowledge: Confucius and Virtue Epistemology”, Comparative Philosophy 8.2: 30-45.

Confucian care and feminist ethics

Confucian ethics is grounded in developing caring relationships. On this basis, some scholars suggest that it has relevantly similar features with the feminist ethics of care. However, if Confucian relationships are often structured in hierarchical terms, does this pose difficulties for the comparisons? Might problems with uneven power relationships in Confucian philosophy help us understand feminist care ethics better?

Primary: Chenyang Li (1994) “The Confucian Concept of Jen and the Feminist Ethics of Care: A Comparative Study,” Hypatia 9.1: 70-89.

Daniel Star (2002) “Do Confucians Really Care? A Defense of the Distinctiveness of Care Ethics: A Reply to Chenyang Li,” Hypatia 17.1: 77-106.

Chenyang Li (2011) “Confucian Harmony: A Philosophical Analysis”, in Vincent Shen, ed., Dao Companion to Classical Confucian Philosophy, Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer Publishing, pp. 379-94.

Secondary: Ann Pang-White, ed. (2016) The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Chinese Philosophy and Gender, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Sor-hoon Tan and Mathew Foust, eds. (2016) Feminist Encounters with Confucius, Leiden: Brill Publishing.

Daoist Ethics

Discussions in Daoist ethics tend to be grounded in Daoist conceptions of self. Broadly speaking, a Daoist self is defined in negative terms, as being not inhibited by conventional expectations and practices, or as manifesting ‘emptiness’. In more positive terms, it has been characterised as a liberated self, whose actions are spontaneous.

Primary: Hans-George Moeller (2006) “Indifference and Negative Ethics” in The Philosophy of the Daodejing, Columbia, NY: Columbia University Press, pp. 99-110.

Eske Møllgaard (2007) An Introduction to Daoist Thought: Action, Language, and Ethics in Zhuangzi, London: Routledge Publishing.

Yong Huang (2010) “Respecting Different Ways of Life: A Daoist Ethics of Virtue in the Zhuangzi”, in Journal of Asian Studies 69.4: 1049-69.

Edward Slingerland (2014) Trying Not to Try: Ancient China, Modern Science and the Power of Spontaneity, New York: Random House.

Daoist Environmental Ethics

Because of its attentiveness to the wider context and the natural world, Daoist philosophy lends itself to reflections on environmental ethics. The literature is wary of associations that are too quick, however, proposing that Daoism’s attention to nature is nuanced. It does not merely reflect a concern for the natural world, and the interpretation of Daoist philosophy as advocating ‘going with the flow’ should be resisted.

Primary: David Cooper (2014) “Daoism, Nature and Humanity”, Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, 74: 95-108.

Secondary: Randall Peerenboom (1991) “Beyond Naturalism: A Reconstruction of Daoist Environmental Ethics” Environmental Ethics 13.1: 3-22.

Karyn Lai (2003) “Conceptual Foundations for Environmental Ethics: A Daoist Perspective”, Environmental Ethics, 25.3: 247-66.

Paul D’Ambrosio (2013) “Rethinking Environmental Issues in a Daoist Context: Why Daoism Is and Is Not Environmentalism”, Environmental Ethics 35.4: 407-17.

J. Baird Callicott & James McRae, eds. (2014) Environmental Philosophy in Asian Traditions of Thought, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, Chapters 7-12.

Epistemology and Philosophy of Mind

Investigations of knowledge and mind in the Chinese tradition highlight not only the objects of knowledge and the processes associated with the acquisition of knowledge, including observation and perception. How a subject sees the world and responds to it is often understood in normative, moral, terms. Correspondingly, there is close attention to the learning processes necessary for a person’s engagement with the world. Here, we note that this discussion on knowledge has moved to engagement, which in fact reflects Chinese epistemology’s focus on practice.

Primary: Jana Rošker (2008) “Epistemology in Traditional Chinese thought: General Characteristics”, in Searching for the Way—Theories of Knowledge in pre-Modern and Modern China, Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, pp. 2-8.

Secondary: Lisa Raphals (1992) Knowing Words: Wisdom and Cunning in the Classical Traditions of China and Greece, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Kuang-ming Wu (1992) On Chinese Body Thinking: A Cultural Hermeneutic, Leiden, Brill Publishers.

Christoph Harbsmeier (1993) “Conceptions of Knowledge in Ancient China”, in Hans Lenk & Gregor Paul eds., Epistemological Issues in Classical Chinese Philosophy, New York: State University of New York Press, pp. 11-30.

Jane Geaney (2002) On the Epistemology of the Senses in Early Chinese Thought, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

Chris Fraser (2011) “Knowledge and Error in Early Chinese Thought”, in Dao 10.2: 127-48.

Buddhist epistemology and philosophy of mind

Scholarly discussions in these areas dwell on particular themes and detailed strands of argument in different Chinese Buddhist doctrines. These include investigations of knowledge of the phenomenal world, nature of mind and consciousness, and human experience. The readings below provide excellent introductions to elements of the Chinese Buddhist tradition, covering and interweaving discussions about agency, self, knowledge, mind and ethics.

Primary: Owen Flanagan (2011) The Bodhisattva’s Brain: Buddhism Naturalized, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Barry Allen (2015) “Chan Buddhism”, in Vanishing Into Things: Knowledge in Chinese Tradition, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 140-65.

Confucian epistemology

Confucian philosophy’s focus on affect as a central part of moral life is closely linked to its attention to cultivating the right kinds of sensitivity and sensibilities, so as to respond appropriately to others. Questions about knowledge in this tradition are therefore irretrievably tied to practice, particularly, in being appropriately responsive to others. This picture of knowledge provides interesting contrasts with conceptions of knowledge that place greater weight on propositional knowledge, or knowledge that is defined by its content, rather than the knowing subject.

Primary: Stephen Hetherington & Karyn Lai (2012) “Practising to Know: Practicalism and Confucian Philosophy”, Philosophy 87.3: 375-93.

Karyn Lai (2012) “’Knowing to Act in the Moment: Examples from Confucius Analects”, Asian Philosophy, 22.4: 347-64.

Barry Allen (2015) “The Investigation of Things” in Vanishing Into Things: Knowledge in Chinese Tradition, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 166-209.

Stephen Angle and Justin Tiwald (2017) “Knowing”, in Neo-Confucianism: A Philosophical Introduction, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, Chapter 6.

Confucian moral psychology

Naturally, we do not expect the early thinkers to have had a sophisticated understanding of how human cognitive-affect processes can be effectively nurtured. Contemporary scholarship has, however, found a niche in Chinese-western engagement here. Scholars in this area draw on recent research findings from cross-disciplinary philosophical and psychological studies on cognition. They use the latter as a conceptual and explanatory framework for understanding Confucian discussions on developing the moral mind-heart (xin).

Primary: Edward Slingerland (2010) “Toward an Empirically Responsible Ethics: Cognitive Science, Virtue Ethics, and Effortless Attention in Early Chinese Thought”, in Brian Bruya, ed., Effortless Attention: A New Perspective in the Cognitive Science of Attention and Action, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 247-86.

Ryan Nichols (2011) “A Genealogy of Early Confucian Moral Psychology”, Philosophy East and West. 61.4: 609-29.

Kwong-loi Shun (2014) “Early Confucian Moral Psychology”, in Vincent Shen, ed., Dao Companion to Classical Confucian Philosophy, Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer Publishing, pp. 263-89.

Secondary: Bongrae Seok (2013) Embodied Moral Psychology and Confucian Philosophy, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Owen Flanagan (2014) Moral Sprouts and Natural Teleology: 21^st century Moral Psychology Meets Classical Chinese Philosophy, Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press.

Daoist epistemology

Daoist texts including the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi have a sceptical tone. As these are cryptic texts, it is often difficult to work out the reason for the authors’ scepticism. Are they sceptical about knowledge or about the assumptions that underlie the use of knowledge? Does their scepticism result in the suspension of belief? And what types of knowledge are possible, in the Daoist conceptual framework? The Zhuangzi, in particular, is a wonderful resource as it raises many sceptical questions through imagery and stories. These will provide accessible points of comparison for cross-tradition comparisons.

Primary: Paul Kjellberg & Philip J. Ivanhoe, eds., (1996) Essays on Skepticism, Relativism, and Ethics in the Zhuangzi, Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press.

Tim Connolly (2011) “Perspectivism as a Way of Knowing in the Zhuangzi”, Dao 10.4: 487-505.

Barry Allen (2015) “Daoism”, in Vanishing Into Things: Knowledge in Chinese Tradition, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 66-120.

Karyn Lai (2017) “Zhuangzi’s suggestiveness: Skeptical questions”, in Stephen Hetherington, ed., What makes a Philosopher Great?: Thirteen Arguments for Twelve Philosophers, London & New York: Routledge Publishing, pp. 30-47.

Political philosophy

Confucian political philosophy

Confucian views on government offer interesting points of comparison with contemporary views on democracy, communitarianism and liberal values, as well as questions about political legitimacy. Confucian philosophy’s emphases on meritocracy and the characteristics of the ruler provide important considerations for modern times. In this area, there is already a significant body of work in Chinese-western comparative philosophy.

Primary: Kwong-loi Shun and David Wong, eds. (2004) Confucian Ethics: A Comparative Study of Self, Autonomy, and Community, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Stephen Angle (2009) Sagehood: The Contemporary Significance of Neo-Confucian Philosophy, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Secondary: Michael Sandel and Paul D’Ambrosio, eds. (2018) Encountering China: Michael Sandel and Chinese Philosophy, Boston: Harvard University Press.

Some discussions in Comparative Chinese-western political philosophy focus on practical ways in which Confucian political ideas can be successfully combined with liberal democratic values. Can there be a liberal democracy with Confucian features that is more suited to populations shaped by Confucian thought?

Primary: Eske Møllgaard (2018) The Confucian Political Imagination, Springer International.

Stephen Angle (2012) Contemporary Confucian Political Philosophy, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

Joseph Chan (2014) Confucian Perfectionism: A Political Philosophy for Modern Times, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Roger Ames (2017) “On How to Construct a Confucian Democracy for Modern Times (or Why Democratic Practices Must Not Lose Sight of the Ideal)”, in Philosophy East and West, 67.1: 61-81.

Daoist political philosophy

It seems strange to speak of politics in relation to Daoist philosophy as the latter is widely known as advocating a wuwei (non-oppressive and non-conditioning) mode of government. When applied to government, wuwei broadly means it should draw back from imposing restrictive conditions on the lives of the people. At least some laws and practices could be viewed that way. But how far does wuwei go? Could it be that wuwei recommends anarchism?

Primary: Alex Feldt (2010) “Governing Through the Dao: A Non-Anarchistic Interpretation of the Laozi” 9.3:323-37.

Hans-George Moeller (2006) “Paradox Politics” in The Philosophy of the Daodejing, Columbia, NY: Columbia University Press, pp. 55-74.

Secondary: Roger Ames (1994) The Art of Rulership: A Study of Ancient Chinese Political Thought, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, Chapters 1 & 2.

Tongdong Bai (2009) “How to Rule without Taking Unnatural Actions (无为而治): A Comparative Study of the Political Philosophy of the “Laozi“”, in Philosophy East and West, 59.4: 481-502.

Legalist Political Strategy

Some thinkers in ancient China (from the fifth to the third centuries BCE) placed political strategy at the centre of their concerns. Subsequently (and incorrectly) grouped as the ‘Legalists’, these thinkers contemplated the basis on which the ruler’s power could be established and maintained. Their dubious title ‘Legalist’ reflects the fact that some thinkers in this group proposed penal law as an instrument to enforce control. Insights from this group of thinkers include their views on human nature and motivation, the authority of the ruler over the bureaucracy in spite of his dependence on it, the relation between institutional power and the ruler’s acumen and wisdom, and the concept of politics as strategy. The most prominent of the Legalists was Han Fei, who proposed a complex combination of different strategies. In the collection of essays recommended for primary readings, a range of topics is discussed, including the predicament of the ruler, the nature of penal law, and the foundations of sovereign power.

Primary: Paul Goldin, ed. (2013) Dao Companion to the Philosophy of Han Fei, Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer Publishing.

Secondary: Roger Ames (1994) The Art of Rulership: A Study of Ancient Chinese Political Thought, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, Chapters 3 & 4.

Metaphysics and Philosophy of Religion

Discussions of metaphysical issues in Chinese philosophy have traditionally been compartmentalised within different areas of inquiry, including the following: Chinese Buddhist conceptions of mind, world and causality, including reflections on the nature of emptiness as a condition of existence; the relation between Heaven, humanity and cosmos in Confucian thought, with particular emphasis on ritual and patterns; Daoist discourses involving mysticism and naturalism; and Daoist religious practices and spiritual ideals. Within these various pockets, and others, investigations are rich, varied and complex. Many of these discussions are rigorous and sophisticated, requiring a level of familiarity with classical Chinese and Chinese intellectual history, which makes them not suitable for this purpose.

It was only fairly recently that scholarly efforts have turned to the question of metaphysics as an area of study, resulting in the production of the first Anglophone anthology: Chenyang Li & Franklin Perkins, eds., Chinese Metaphysics and its Problems, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. I cannot recommend its chapters highly enough, especially for the purposes of introducing Chinese sources into thematically-based philosophy classes. Although the discussions in its chapters are focused on particular topics, many of them also capture the dynamic and process-oriented character of Chinese metaphysics across its different traditions. Just as important is the concept of interdependent self, for which the issue of orientation within the socio-political, natural and cosmic worlds is a fundamental concern.

Apart from Chinese Metaphysics and its Problems, I recommend the following resources from across the different Chinese traditions. Their topics are apparent from their titles.

Buddhism

Brook Ziporyn (2016) Emptiness and Omnipresence: An Essential Introduction to Tiantai Buddhism, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Confucianism

Robert Eno (1990) The Confucian Creation of Heaven: Philosophy and the Defense of Ritual Mastery, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Stephen C. Angle & Justin Tiwald (2017) Neo-Confucianism: A Philosophical Introduction, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

Religious beliefs in the Chinese traditions

Franklin Perkins (2014) Heaven and Earth are not Humane: The Problem of Evil in Classical Chinese Philosophy

Philip Ivanhoe (2016) “Senses and Values of Oneness”, Brian Bruya, ed., The Philosophical Challenge from China, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 231-52.

Daoism

Edward Slingerland (2000) “Effortless Action: The Chinese Spiritual Ideal of Wu-wei”, Journal of the American Academy of Religion 68.2: 293-327

Karyn Lai

Karyn Lai is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Her primary research interest is in pre-Qin Chinese philosophy.  Her research centres on comparative Chinese-western ethics, epistemology, and reasoning and argumentation. She is author of Introduction to Chinese Philosophy (2^nd ed., 2017, Cambridge University Press) and co-editor (with Rick Benitez and Hyun Jin Kim) of Cultivating a Good Life in Early Chinese and Ancient Greek Philosophy (forthcoming, 2018, Bloomsbury Publishing).  She is Section Editor of Philosophy Compass (Chinese Comparative Philosophy), Associate Editor of the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, and section co-editor of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Chinese Philosophy).