Neo-Confucianism is the sophisticated revival of Confucian theorizing, responding to challenges from Buddhism and Daoism, which began around 1000 C.E. and came to dominate the Chinese intellectual scene for centuries thereafter. What would happen if we took Neo-Confucianism and its central ideal of sagehood seriously as contemporary philosophy? Sagehood represents supreme human virtue: a flawless, empathetic responsiveness to every situation in which one finds oneself. How could this be possible? How might one work toward such a state? According to Neo-Confucians, we should all strive to become sages, whether or not we ultimately achieve it. Taking neo-Confucianism seriously means to explore the ways that its theories of psychology, ethics, education, and politics engage with the views of contemporary philosophers. Angle's book is therefore both an exposition of Neo-Confucian philosophy and a sustained dialogue with many leading Western thinkers--and especially with those philosophers leading the current renewal of interest in virtue ethics. The book's significance is two-fold: it argues for a new stage in the development of contemporary Confucian philosophy, and it demonstrates the value to Western philosophers of engaging with the Neo-Confucian tradition.

Table of Contents:
Dedication; Preface; Chronology and Dramatis Personae; ; PART I: KEYWORDS: ; 1 - Sheng/Sage; ; 1.1 "Sage" in the Confucian Tradition; ; 1.1.1 Historical Survey; ; 1.1.2 Neo-Confucianism; ; 1.1.3 Shengren versus Junzi ; 1.2 Western Ideals; ; 1.2.1 Greece; ; 1.2.2 Contemporary Saints and Heroes; ; 1.3 Concerns About Sagehood; ; 1.3.1 Is Sagehood Realistic ? ; 1.3.2 Is Sagehood Desirable? ; 2 - Li/Coherence; ; 2.1 First Steps; ; 2.2 Subjective and Objective; ; 2.2.1 Nature and Subjectivity; ; 2.2.2 Settled Coherence and Objectivity; ; 2.3 Li and Qi ; 2.4 One and Many; ; 2.5 Normativity and Creativity; ; 3 - De/Virtue; ; 3.1 Virtue as a Bridge Concept; ; 3.2 Early ; 3.3 Neo-Confucian ; 3.4 Final Thoughts; ; 4 - He/Harmony; ; 4.1 Early Classical Sources; ; 4.1.1 Complementary Differences; ; 4.1.2 Natural Patterns and Creativity; ; 4.2 The Zhongyong ("Doctrine of the Mean"); ; 4.3 Song Neo-Confucianism; ; 4.4 Wang Yangming: Summary and Initial Engagement; ; 4.4.1 Harmony, Coherence and One Body; ; 4.4.2 A Contemporary Example; ; 4.4.3 Politics; ; PART II: ETHICS AND PSYCHOLOGY; ; 5 - The Scope of Ethics: Dialogue with Slote and Murdoch; ; 5.1 Balance and Harmony in Slote's Agent-Based Ethics; ; 5.1.1 Caring, Humaneness (Ren ?), and Empathy; ; 5.1.2 Two Kinds of Balance; ; 5.1.3 The Motivation for Overall Balance; ; 5.1.4 Agent-Basing; ; 5.1.5 Reverence; ; 5.2 Murdoch on the Importance of a Transcendent Good; ; 5.2.1 Unity, Mystery, and Faith; ; 5.2.2 Selflessness; ; 5.3 Conclusion: The Scope of Ethics; ; 6 - Challenging Harmony: Consistency, Conflicts, and the Status Quo; ; 6.1 Nussbaum and Stohr Against "Harmony"; ; 6.2 Imagination; ; 6.3 Maximization; ; 6.4 Residue; ; 6.4.1 Complicating the Picture; ; 6.4.2 Grief versus Regret; ; 6.5 Dimensions of Dilemmas; ; 6.6 Emotional Vanilla?; ; 6.6.1 Myers's Challenge; ; 6.6.2 Neo-Confucians on Anger; ; 6.6.3 Conclusions; ; 7 - Sagely Ease and Ethical Perception; ; 7.1 Wang Yangming on Analects ; 2:4; the Centrality of "Commitment"; ; 7.1.1 Commitment in Classical Texts; ; 7.1.2 Commitment in Wang Yangming; ; 7.1.3 Deepening Our Commitment; ; 7.2 Connecting "Commitment" to "Unity of Knowledge and Action"; ; 7.3 Cua on commitment to realizing a harmonious world; ; 7.3.1 Active Moral Perception; ; 7.3.2 Creativity Revisited; ; 7.4 A Fuller Picture; ; 7.4.1 Murdoch on M and D; ; 7.4.2 Intrusions of the Self; ; 7.4.3 "True Vision Occasions Right Conduct"; ; PART III: EDUCATION AND POLITICS: ; 8 - Learning to Look for Harmony; ; 8.1. Stages of Ethical Education; ; 8.1.1 Lesser Learning; ; 8.1.2 Establishing a Commitment; ; 8.1.3 Matur(ing) Commitment; ; 8.2. Practices of self-improvement; ; 8.2.1 Spiritual Exercises; ; 8.2.2 Ritual; ; 8.2.3 Reading; ; 8.2.4 Attention - First Steps; ; 8.2.5 Reverence; ; 8.2.6 Further Implications; ; 8.2.7 Reverence and Coherence; ; 8.2.8 Self-Restraint and Quiet Sitting; ; 8.2.9 Conclusion; ; 9 - Engaging Practices; ; 9.1 The Nature of Commitments; ; 9.2 Stages and the Accessibility of Sagely Ideals; ; 9.3 Attention Revisited; ; 9.4 Imagination and Fantasy; ; 9.5 Dialogue; ; 9.6 Faith and Belief; ; 10 - The Political Problem; ; 10.1 Introduction: The Trouble with Sagehood; ; 10.2 Sage and Politics in Song-Qing Neo-Confucianism; ; 10.2.1 Sage-King ideal; ; 10.2.2 Limits and Guidance; ; 10.2.3 Ritual; 10.2.4 Institutions; ; 10.2.5 Vaulting Ambition: Rulers Who Think They are Sages; ; 10.3 Confucian Soft Authoritarianism; ; 10.4 Separating the Moral from the Political?; ; 10.4.1 Yu Yingshi and Xu Fuguan; ; 10.4.2 Mou Zongsan; ; 11 - Sages and Politics: A Way Forward; ; 11.1 Perfection and Fallibility; ; 11.2 Reverence and Ritual; ; 11.3 Perfectionism and Institutions; ; 11.3.1 Moderate Perfectionism; ; 11.3.2 Confucian State Perfectionism; ; 11.3.3 Specificity and Particularism; ; 11.4 Participation; ; 11.4.1 Three Arguments; ; 11.4.2 Implications and Objections; ; 11.5 Laws and Rights as a System of Second Resort; ; 11.5.1 Rule by Law; ; 11.5.2 Law and Morality; ; 11.5.3 A Confucian Approach; ; Conclusion: The Future of Contemporary Confucianisms; Bibliography; Index Locorum; General Index