Confucian Perfectionism: A Political Philosophy for Modern Times (Book Review)

Abstract

After being marred by all kinds of political turmoil in the twentieth century, Confucianism began to experience a steady revival in recent decades. Meanwhile, with the rise of China as an unignorable force in the world, this ancient Chinese philosophy has also received mounting attention from the West. The book represents an attempt to explore Confucianism from a western perspective. It is unique, in the sense that it uses the norms and terminology of western normative philosophy to reconstruct and modernize Confucianism, and simultaneously draws Confucian resources to enrich and revise the western tradition of liberal democracy. It therefore represents an effort to channel the two philosophical traditions with the hope of strengthening and developing both.