Against Political Equality: The Confucian Case

政治平等的儒學案例

基本信息

Author：Tongdong Bai

Format：Hardback | 344 pages

Dimensions：156 x 235 x 38.1mm | 680.39g

Publication date：24 Dec 2019

Publisher：Princeton University Press

Language：English

ISBN10：0691195994

ISBN13：9780691195995

頁面參數僅供參考，具體以實物為準

書籍簡介

儒家產生的混合治理形式如何解決當今的政治問題

自由民主制度的可行政治替代方案會是什麼樣子?在反對政治平等的問題上，白彤東提出了一種受儒家思想啟發的可能性。

白認為，受儒家思想影響的國內治理可以包含民主的自由方面，以及機會平等和政府對人民負責的民主理念。但儒家思想將賦予那些在道德、實踐和智力上有能力關心人民的人更多的政治決策權。當大多數民主思想家仍然專注於加強平等以治癒民主的弊病時，被提議的混合型政權——由受儒家思想影響的精英統治特徵與民主元素以及準自由的法律和權利體系相結合——認識到平等主義的品質有時與良好的治理和對自由的保護相沖突，並通過限制民主來保護自由的方面。白將他的觀點應用到國際領域，他支持基於每個國家對自己和他人的人道程度的等級秩序，以及基於人道責任凌駕於主權之上的國際干預原則。

這本書對許多反對政治平等的自由民主國家的不足之處進行探索，為解決當今的政治問題提供了一種新穎的儒家產生的替代方案。

How a hybrid Confucian-engendered form of governance might solve today's political problems

What might a viable political alternative to liberal democracy look like? In Against Political Equality, Tongdong Bai offers a possibility inspired by Confucian ideas.

Bai argues that domestic governance influenced by Confucianism can embrace the liberal aspects of democracy along with the democratic ideas of equal opportunities and governmental accountability to the people. But Confucianism would give more political decision-making power to those with the moral, practical, and intellectual capabilities of caring for the people. While most democratic thinkers still focus on strengthening equality to cure the ills of democracy, the proposed hybrid regime-made up of Confucian-inspired meritocratic characteristics combined with democratic elements and a quasi-liberal system of laws and rights-recognizes that egalitarian qualities sometimes conflict with good governance and the protection of liberties, and defends liberal aspects by restricting democratic ones. Bai applies his views to the international realm by supporting a hierarchical order based on how humane each state is toward its own and other peoples, and on the principle of international interventions whereby humane responsibilities override sovereignty.

Exploring the deficiencies posed by many liberal democracies, Against Political Equality presents a novel Confucian-engendered alternative for solving today's political problems.

作者簡介

白彤東，上海復旦大學東方哲學教授，紐約大學法學院國際法學教授。他的著作包括《中國:中央王國的政治哲學》。

Tongdong Bai is the Dongfang Professor of Philosophy at Fudan University in Shanghai and a Global Professor of Law at New York University School of Law. His books include China: The Political Philosophy of the Middle Kingdom.

目錄

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xvii

Notes on Abbreviations, Key Terms, and Translations xxiii

1.Why Confucianism? Which Confucianism? 1

Has History Ended? Message from a Rising China 1

Which Confucianism? 3

The Philosophical Approach to Early Confucianism 5

Can Early Confucian Texts Be Read Philosophically? 9

How to Read Early Confucian Texts Philosophically 13

Early Confucianism as a Modern Political Philosophy 19

2.Confucianism on Political Legitimacy: For the People, of the People, but Not by the People 32

Confucian Equality 32

Confucian View of Political Legitimacy: Of the People, for the People… 34

… But Not by the People 43

The Confucian Middle Way: Between Equality and Hierarchy, and between Mobility and Stability 47

3.A Confucian Hybrid Regime as an Answer to Democratic Problems 52

Four Problems with Democracy 52

Nonmeritocratic Solutions and Their Fundamental Limit 58

The Confucian Hybrid Regime 67

4.The Superiority of the Confucian Hybrid Regime Defended 83

Internal Challenges to the Superiority of the Confucian Hybrid Regime 83

Incompatible with Liberal Democracy? 97

5.Compassion as the New Social Glue in the Society of Strangers 110

Introducing Humaneness and Compassion 110

Compassion as a Modern Virtue 114

The Cultivation of Compassion: From What Is Near to the "Transcendent" and the "Eternal" 125

The Hierarchy of Universal Care 133

Effectiveness of Compassion 135

6.Conflict in the Expansion of Care: The Private versus the Public 138

The Issue of the Private versus the Public 138

Early Confucians' Solutions 140

Han Fei Zi's Challenges 149

An Alternative Model in the Republic 154

Comparisons between the Two Models 159

A Confucian Criticism of the Contemporary Evasion of Virtue 165

A Confucian Argument for Gender Equality 171

7.Tian Xia: A Confucian Model of National Identity and International Relations 175

Patriotism Justified and Restrained 175

The Civilized and Barbaric Distinction and a Confucian World Order 180

Is Nation-State the Only Path to Modernity? 187

Confucian Model versus Nation-State Model 191

Confucian Model versus Cosmopolitan Model 198

Treatments of Some Practical Problems in China 207

8.Humane Responsibility Overrides Sovereignty: A Confucian Theory of Just War 214

A City on a Hill: "Isolationism" as International Intervention 214

The Strength of the State and the Justice of War 217

The Self-Preservation of a Humane but Small State 220

The Duty to Protect by a Humane and Powerful State 223

A Mencian Theory of Just War 226

Compared with "Human Rights Override Sovereignty" and the Responsibility to Protect 230

Problems with Mencius's Theory 234

9.A Confucian Theory of Rights 240

Four Camps on the Compatibility between Confucianism and Liberal Democracy 240

Problems with Democratic Ideas as the Metaphysical Foundation of Liberal Democracy 245

A Revised Rawlsian Answer 249

Confucian Rights 257

An Example: Confucian Animal Rights 268

Compatibility between a State's Promotion of Virtue and Liberalism 278

Post* 285

Environmental and Technological Challenges: A Synthetic Answer 285

Realizing the Confucian Alternatives? 288

References 291

Index 305