Confucian Democracy: A Deweyan Reconstruction

Contents

Contents Acknowledgments vii Chapter 1 Confucian Democracy? 1 Divining the Future 1 Whose Confucianism? 6 Which Democracy? 9 Liberals and Communitarians 11 Dewey and Confucius 14 Chapter 2 Social Individuals 17 Liberal Self and Autonomy 17 Unique Rather Than Autonomous Individuals 22 Dewey’s Social Self-in-the-Making 25 Constructing a Confucian Conception of Self 29 Tension between Distinctness and Connectedness 32 Choice in the Liberal-Communitarian Debate 39 Dewey On Willing and Choosing 41 Confucian Choice: Learning and Thinking 45 Confucian Personal Commitment 50 Individuality and Organic Sociality 53 Chapter 3 Harmonious Communities 63 Society and Community 63 Nonexclusionary Community 65 The Art of Community: Achieving Harmony 75 Achieving Harmony through Confucian Ritual Practice 79 The Science of Community: Cooperative Inquiry 88 v Equality and Differentiated Orders 98 Equality in Human Relations 108 Chapter 4 Ethico-Political Orders 113 The Political Domains of Procedural Republics 113 Ethico-Political Ends 118 Dewey on Politics in Ancient China 122 The Sage-King: An Ideal in Question 125 Exemplary Persons: Ethico-Political Ends-in-View 127 People As Basis (minben )) 132 The Role of the People in Tianming 136 Are People Good Enough for Self-Government? 145 Faith in People 152 Chapter 5 Authoritative Freedom 157 Negative and Positive Freedoms 158 Freedom As Growth 162 Confucian Positive Freedom 167 Right to Speak and Right Speech 175 Rights or Rites? 183 Authoritative versus Authoritarian 187 Coercion and Authority in Imperfect Situations 194 Chapter 6 Cultivating Democracy 201 Reconstructing Confucianism and Democracy 201 Democracy and the Realpolitik of Stability 203 Notes 211 References 233 Index 253 vi Contents ...