Growing Moral - A Confucian Guide to Life

Ancient and enduring, rich and wide-ranging, the tradition of Confucianism offers profound insights into how we can lead good lives-lives built on understanding that we are deeply connected to one another. For thousands of years, Confucian thinkers have carefully honed a philosophy for living fully, passing that knowledge along to their students over generations. Kongzi, also known as Confucius (551-479 BCE), is the most famous of the 2500-year-long tradition's philosophers. Though Kongzi lived more than two millennia ago and on the other side of the earth from many picking up this book, his teachings about how to live reverberate everywhere there are parents, children, and families; everywherepeople feel stirrings of compassion for others, but sometimes selfishly ignore them; everywhere people wonder how they should interact with their environment.In Growing Moral, philosopher Stephen C. Angle engages readers to reflect on and to practice the teachings of Confucianism in the contemporary world. Angle draws on the whole history of Confucianism, focusing on three thinkers from the classical era (Kongzi, Mengzi, and Xunzi) and two from the Neo-Confucian era (Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming). While laying out the fundamental teachings of Confucianism, the book highlights the enduring lessons that the philosophy offers contemporary readers. Although the book reveals the many helpful ways we can engage Confucian philosophy in our modern lives, it also scrutinizes those elements of Confucianism that may not align with 21st-century standpoints. Angle questions whether Confucianism, historically affiliated with patriarchal societies and monarchical governments, genuinely can be attractive to those committed to gender equality and democratic politics, and points the way towards a progressive, evolving version of Confucianism that isnonetheless consistent with the principles it has upheld over the centuries. At its core, Confucianism describes a way for humans to live and grow together in our world-a way characterized at its best by joy, beauty, and harmony. This book builds a case for modern Confucianism as a way of life well worth the attention of reflective modern readers no matter their age, where they live, or the paths they've taken so far.

List of contents

• One: What is Confucianism?


• 1. Introduction


• 2. The History of Confucianism


• Two: How to Be a Confucian


• 3. Be Filial


• 4. Follow Rituals


• 5. Cultivate Your Sprouts


• 6. Read in the Right Way


• 7. Listen to the Right Music


• 8. Reflect Regularly


• 9. Pay Attention


• 10. Be Engaged


• Three: Making Progress


• 11. Commitment


• 12. Fake It Till You Make It


• 13. Expanding the Self


• 14. Dealing with Conflict


• 15. Enlightenment and Sagehood


• 16. Death


• Four: Challenges and the Future


• 17. Progressive Confucianism


• 18. Gender


• 19. Hierarchy


• 20. Confucians Around the Globe


• Further Reading


• Bibliography


• Notes


• Index

About the author

Stephen C. Angle received his B.A. from Yale University in East Asian Studies and his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Michigan. Since 1994 he has taught at Wesleyan University, where he is now Director of the Fries Center for Global Studies, Mansfield Freeman Professor of East Asian Studies, and Professor of Philosophy. The author of several previous books on Confucianism, Angle has co-directed two NEH Summer Institutes and is a recipient of two Fulbright grants, a Berggruen Fellowship, a Millicent C. McIntosh Fellowship, and a Chiang Ching-Kuo Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. In 2006 Angle was awarded Wesleyan's Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

Summary

Ancient and enduring, rich and wide-ranging, the tradition of Confucianism offers profound insights into how we can lead good lives--lives built on understanding that we are deeply connected to one another.

For thousands of years, Confucian thinkers have carefully honed a philosophy for living fully, passing that knowledge along to their students over generations. Kongzi, also known as Confucius (551-479 BCE), is the most famous of the 2500-year-long tradition's philosophers. Though Kongzi lived more than two millennia ago and on the other side of the earth from many picking up this book, his teachings about how to live reverberate everywhere there are parents, children, and families; everywhere people feel stirrings of compassion for others, but sometimes selfishly ignore them; everywhere people wonder how they should interact with their environment.

In Growing Moral, philosopher Stephen C. Angle engages readers to reflect on and to practice the teachings of Confucianism in the contemporary world. Angle draws on the whole history of Confucianism, focusing on three thinkers from the classical era (Kongzi, Mengzi, and Xunzi) and two from the Neo-Confucian era (Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming). While laying out the fundamental teachings of Confucianism, the book highlights the enduring lessons that the philosophy offers contemporary readers.

Although the book reveals the many helpful ways we can engage Confucian philosophy in our modern lives, it also scrutinizes those elements of Confucianism that may not align with 21st-century standpoints. Angle questions whether Confucianism, historically affiliated with patriarchal societies and monarchical governments, genuinely can be attractive to those committed to gender equality and democratic politics, and points the way towards a progressive, evolving version of Confucianism that is nonetheless consistent with the principles it has upheld over the centuries.

At its core, Confucianism describes a way for humans to live and grow together in our world--a way characterized at its best by joy, beauty, and harmony. This book builds a case for modern Confucianism as a way of life well worth the attention of reflective modern readers no matter their age, where they live, or the paths they've taken so far.

Additional text

This book is a guide that profoundly explores Confucian philosophy and its application in modern life. Angle's writing style, both academic and accessible, makes it insightful for readers of diverse backgrounds, and it also holds significant value for those seeking moral and spiritual guidance in the fast-paced modern life.

Report

Steve Angle offers a wide-ranging and masterful exploration of what it could mean to live a Confucian life. Attuned to the fine rewards such a life will promise, Angle maps a new, progressive Confucianism that retains and revitalizes the best of what the old can do. Amy Olberding, The University of Oklahoma

Product details

• Authors: Stephen C. Angle, Stephen C. (Director of the Fries Center fo Angle, Stephen C. (Director of the Fries Center for Global Studies Angle
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.06.2022
• EAN: 9780190062897
• ISBN: 978-0-19-006289-7
• No. of pages: 288
• Series: Guides to the Good Life Series; Guides to the Good Life
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > Eastern philosophy; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Other world religions; History of Ideas, PHILOSOPHY / Religious, PHILOSOPHY / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / General, Philosophy, RELIGION / Philosophy, Ethics & moral philosophy, Ethics and moral philosophy, Philosophy of religion, Philosophical traditions and schools of thought