This book is a critical examination of the different roles of conscience and cognition in social research in China and the West, exploring how the two traditions can enrich each other and help societies navigate through the complex intellectual and moral crises of our time.
Drawing on a rich array of primary and secondary sources, this title traces the development of the Confucian conception of conscience, from Confucius and Mencius to Xiong Shili and Mou Zongsan, two representatives of Neo-Confucianism. This primacy of a moral sense is compared and contrasted with the tension within the Western culture between strains that place a premium on understanding and a deep commitment to the search for meaning in such philosophers as Habermas and Heidegger. The author explicates why such a commitment is essential to social research and how the focus on instrumental rationality that has defined modernity may be corrected by recentering the role of conscience on intellectual inquiry in general. To that end, both Chinese and Western cultures have plenty to offer both in terms of substantive insights and research methodologies.
The book will be a crucial reference for scholars and students interested in Western philosophy, comparative philosophy and Chinese philosophy.
1. Seeking the Integration of “Explanation” and “Understanding”: On the Developmental Trajectories of Social Research in the Past 200 Years 2. The Positivist Methodology of Social Science and the Dialectic of Enlightenment 3. Rational Choice Theory and Critical Theory’s Critique 4. The Duality of Religion: A Dialectic Review on “Rational Choice Theory of Religion” 5. “Communicative Rationality” and “Political Theology” in the Public Sphere 6. Conscience and Cognition: A Comparison in the Contexts of Chinese and Western Cultural Heritage 7. Xiong Shili’s Interpretation and Criticism of Wang Yangming’s “Four-verse Teaching” 8. A Comparison between Xiong Shili’s and Mou Zongsan’s Interpretation of the “Aporia of Extending Knowledge” 9. On the Existential Concerns and Humanistic Atmosphere of Chinese Poems in light of Heidegger’s Interpretation of Poem 10. Wandering Between Kant, Hegel and Marx: A Review of Habermas's "Once Again: On the Relationship Between Morality and Ethical Life" 11. The Responsibility of Philosophy
Biography
Zhang Qingxiong is Professor and doctoral supervisor of Philosophy at Fudan University (China), currently serving as Editor-in-Chief of Modern Foreign Philosophy, a journal published by the Chinese Modern Foreign Philosophy Society. His research interests include phenomenology, analytical philosophy and comparative studies of Chinese and European culture.
