ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is concerned with Confucian ethics. Confucianism is a holistic philosophy that prioritizes relationality and constitutes a challenge to a foundational liberal individualism that has defined persons as discrete, autonomous, rational, free, and often self-interested agents. The book covers a diverse range of topics, including hermeneutics and Confucian exegesis, Buddhism, and the concept of freedom, Daoism and somaesthetics, and the philosophy of language and Chinese art. It explores how Chinese and Western thought can interpenetrate, illuminate, complement, and empower each other. The book deals with a criticism of parochialism in East-West philosophical studies. It also addresses one of the longstanding debates in philosophical inquiry that is concerned with the relations of thought and action.