BASC70097 - Confucianism in the Modern Age
Course Description
Modern Confucianism is a living tradition, rooted in the selective use of religious ideas for more secular ends. We'll read selections from Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming, exploring their philosophy and their continuing impact on East Asian society.
How can we make life more livable for as many people as possible? What form of government is most effective at promoting not only material but spiritual prosperity—at fostering better relationships and deeper satisfactions? What do we need to know about human nature, and the nature of the cosmos as a whole, to better ground our efforts? For most of the last thousand years, countless East Asian intellectuals have been absorbed in these questions; their collective conversation has created something often called “Neo-Confucianism”, but which we’ll simply call modern Confucianism. Modern Confucianism is a living tradition, rooted in the selective use of religious (primarily Buddhist) ideas for more secular ends. In this course we’ll focus on selected writings by Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming, the two most important thinkers in this tradition; we’ll explore their ideas not only as live philosophical options but also for their continuing impact on East Asian (hence global) society and politics.
Notes
Deadline for Online Registration: Thursday, March 25 at 5 pm CT
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