Moral Vision and Tradition: Essays in Chinese Ethics (review)

Reviews 399© 1998 by University ofHawai'i Press ever so deftly managed to present us with a sophisticated and nuanced presentation of these issues. To say that Cohen has left some questions about the Boxers, such as a thorough study ofthe role of the Empress Dowager and her top Manchu and Chinese officials or the character ofBoxer antiforeignism in Manchuria , does not detract from a marvelous study that should long be praised for the historian's skill and craftsmanship that Cohen displays in its pages. David D. Buck University ofWisconsin-Milwaukee David Buck is a specialist in modern Chinese history who hasfollowed Chinese studies ofthe Boxers. m Antonio S. Cua. Moral Vision and Tradition: Essays in Chinese Ethics. Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy, vol. 31. Washington: Catholic University ofAmerica Press, 1998. xiii, 357 pp. Hardcover $66.95, isbn 0-8132-0890-4. Moral Vision and Tradition is a collection of fourteen papers on Chinese philosophy by the highly respected philosopher and sinologist Antonio Cua. Most ofthe papers had been published before, the earliest in 1973. Topics range from Confucianism and Daoism to Neo-Confucianism. One of Cua's distinctive achievements as a philosopher has been his insistence that one not focus merely on particular moral decisions but instead raise one's gaze to the way oflife and vision exemplified by paradigmatic individuals. Moral vision, and also the role of tradition in moral thought, are recurrent themes in this book. As one might expect, some ofthe later papers are the strongest in the collection . The very best, in my view, is a long essay (number 12) on the Confucian tradition . It is built around the claim that tradition presupposes a community, which has some affective sense of a common good, rather than a mere collection ofindividuals. The community has a shared telos; it is "a community ofhope or expectation" (p. 244). Despite this forward-looking element, there is a "conservative " character to the community's vision of an ideal way oflife. This essay exhibits very clearly a number ofCua's strengths. It draws effectively on both Chinese and Western philosophers: among the latter, Alasdair Maclntyre, Lord Shaftesbury, and Josiah Royce especially play major roles. Cua is an impressively learned scholar, and his learning is not limited to the most recent 400 China Review International: Vol. 5, No. 2, Fall 1998 scholarly literature. He also is ultra-sophisticated within the framework ofcurrent Western philosophy. A good example is his sure-footed discussion of "moral discretion " late in the essay (pp. 256 ff.), with its related exploration of the difference between "hard" and other types of cases. Only someone very conversant with the contemporary philosophy of law and ethical philosophy could write like this. Some of the early essays are less successful, and some of the reasons for this are instructive. Essay 2, "Confucian Vision and Experience of the World," for example , which dates from 1975, is keyed to the ideas of good Western philosophers of the second rank, whose names (and ideas) would no longer be recognized by the great majority ofAmerican philosophy teachers. The thoroughness and extensiveness of Cua's references, in some ways a definite strength, here becomes a liability . Detailed references to work that is not by major figures shorten a paper's shelf life. Cua is probably safe with Maclntyre, as he was with Gilbert RyIe (who plays an important role in essay 3); the moral might be to orient detailed references to such major figures. The collection includes some impressive papers on Neo-Confucianism (number 7, "Harmony and the Neo-Confucian Sage," and number 9 on Wang Yang-ming's vision of the universe as a moral community), and Cua's work (passim) on the earlier Confucian tradition (especially, of course, Hsün-tzu) also is exemplary. There might be more room for debate on the three papers on Daoism (essays 3 to 5). Partly this is due to the general problem that conscientious , hardworking academics (among whom I would like to include myself) have in capturing the spirit of Daoism. There is also the general truth that Daoism and Confucianism are not so neatly opposed as students might at first believe, and anyone...