American Civilization Portrayed in Ancient Confucianism

כריכה קדמית
Algora Publishing, 2003 - 228 עמודים
Scholars have analyzed Chinese society in the light of contemporary Western social and natural sciences for centuries. This compact volume turns the tables and opens tantalizing new perspectives on the American civilization by examining it through the lens of ancient Confucianism. The current work invites Americans to step through the looking glass -- backwards, this time -- and view ourselves from a Confucian perspective. In his analysis, Zhang draws together references to the I Ching, Leibniz, Tocqueville, Lipset and Aristotle, a judicious few statistics such as crime rate and economic growth, and the lions of Chinese philosophy. Chapter 1: The American Civilization and Ancient Confucianism in Open Society Chapter 2: "All Men Are Created Equal" Versus All Men Are Born Equal Chapter 3: Democracy and Law Chapter 4: Education and Knowledge Chapter 5: Economic Freedom and Development Chapter 6: The American Universalism and Rational Civilizations in the Future

מתוך הספר

תוכן

Preface and Acknowledgements
1
I The American Civilization and Ancient Confucianism in An Open Society
5
II All Men Are Created Equal Versus All Men Are Born Equal
33
III Democracy and Law
57
IV Education and Knowledge
101
V Economic Freedom and Development
127
VI American Universalism and Rational Civili zations in the Future
171
References
205
Preface and Acknowledgements
1
I The American Civilization and Ancient Confucianism in An Open Society
5
II All Men Are Created Equal Versus All Men Are Born Equal
33
III Democracy and Law
57
IV Education and Knowledge
101
V Economic Freedom and Development
127
VI American Universalism and Rational Civili zations in the Future
171
References
205

מהדורות אחרות - הצג הכל

מונחים וביטויים נפוצים

קטעים בולטים

עמוד 202 - The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue, throughout the empire, *first ordered well their own States. Wishing to order well their States, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their...
עמוד 73 - The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations, of which the effects too are, perhaps, always the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion to exert his understanding, or to exercise his invention in finding out expedients for removing difficulties which never occur. He naturally loses, therefore, the habit of such exertions, and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become.
עמוד 40 - Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens.
עמוד 64 - Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap; let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation...
עמוד 74 - He naturally loses, therefore, the habit of such exertion, and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become. The torpor of his mind renders him, not only incapable of relishing or bearing a part in any rational conversation, but of conceiving any generous, noble, or tender sentiment, and consequently of forming any just judgment concerning many even of the ordinary duties of private life.
עמוד 87 - To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers, may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers.
עמוד 143 - ... the sole end which they propose from the labours of all the thousands whom they employ, be the gratification of their own vain and insatiable desires, they divide with the poor the produce of all their improvements. They are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life, which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal portions among all its inhabitants, and thus without intending it, without knowing it, advance the interest of the society,...
עמוד 16 - Given for one instant an intelligence which could comprehend all the forces by which nature is animated and the respective situation of the beings who compose it an intelligence sufficiently vast to submit these data to analysis it would embrace in the same formula the movements of the greatest bodies of the universe and those of the lightest atom...
עמוד 163 - By necessaries I understand not only the commodities which are indispensably necessary for the support of life, but whatever the custom of the country renders it indecent for creditable people, even of the lowest order, to be without.
עמוד 72 - And we define: the democratic method is that institutional arrangement for arriving at political decisions in which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of a competitive struggle for the people's vote.

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