The Useless Tree

Confucius/Confucianism

  • Why We Need Chinese Philosophy

    I want to recognize, and expand upon, Justin H. Smith's piece in the NYT, "Philosophy's Western Bias."  He makes a case for why academic philosophy departments should incorporate more "non-Western" schools of thought in their curriculum.  I am all for… Continue reading

  • Confucius for thee but not for me

    Thanks to CDT for posting this cartoon by Dashixiong:  The children say: "Grandpa Confucius, we want to study, we want to eat a healthy lunch. We beg you to come back home and teach us…” This is an element of the critique… Continue reading

  • Some Confucian Compassion for Bei Bei Shuai, Please!

    I just caught wind of this story, a sad tragedy:  On 23 December 2010 [Bei Bei] Shuai became so depressed after she had been abandoned by her boyfriend – a married Chinese man who broke his promise to set up… Continue reading

  • Confucius Institutes are not about Confucius

    There is a bit of a dust up over Confucius Institutes, those Chinese-government sponsored organizations that promote Chinese language teaching in US (and locations all over the world). But before we get to the details of this kerfuffle, a word… Continue reading

  • Reply to Eric X. Li: Cultures are not Incommensurable and the CCP is not Confucuian

    Over at the Huffington Post, Rachel Beitarie interviews Eric X. Li, under the title "Democracy is not the Answer."  Li, who describes himself as a Shanghai venture capitalist (which carries a bit of irony, as I will attempt to demonstrate),… Continue reading

  • Filial Piety: Only for the poor?

    Two contrasting articles suggest how demographic and social-cultural changes in China are making it ever more difficult to realize Confucian virtues there. First, we have a piece in The Economist that reports on the growth of nursing homes – or,… Continue reading

  • Confucius is Politically Bolder than Wen Jiabao

    Chinese Premier,  Wen Jiabao, gave his last NPC press conference in his official capacity.  His term of office, and political career, is winding down.  Next year another, most likely Li Keqiang, will be in the seat, taking questions from the… Continue reading

  • How Confucian is the US?

    I hadn't realized just how widespread the concept of "filial responsibility" is in American jurisprudence.  It turns out that 28 states have laws on the books that state that children are responsible for the care of their elderly parents.  … Continue reading

  • A Confucian Critique of Santorum’s Environmental Denialism

    Rick Santorum, who somehow is being taken seriously by Republican primary voters, rejects the idea that global warming is a real phenomenon and that it is connected to human activity on the planet.  He castigated President Obama for having a… Continue reading

  • Confucianism is not a Religion

    Now, there's an attention-grabbing headline.  It seems almost arrogant to so directly claim a clear answer to the rather complex question: is Confucianism a religion?  But I put it up there to insert myself into the perennial debate, which has… Continue reading