The Useless Tree

Philosophy

  • Globalization And The Uses Of The Past

        An interesting post over at Diligence China (hat tip, Granite Studio), on the cultural implications of China’s economic rise.  The topic is framed in terms of business culture – or, more specifically, how foreign business people can use… Continue reading

  • Confucian Pragmatism

        A nice little piece in tomorrow’s Seoul Times (because today is tomorrow in Korea!), by Taru Taylor, considers the modern utility of Confucianism (hat tip: Western Confucian):  Confucianism is much misunderstood. The United Nations, for example, classifies it… Continue reading

  • What Chinese Want To Know

        Virtual China translates Baidu’s (a Chinese search engine) most popular questions for 2006 (hat tip, Roland).  Here is the original Chinese page.  What a great service!  It gives us a sense of the kinds of questions people in… Continue reading

  • Forever Small

        This story came across the wires yesterday: In a case fraught with ethical questions, the parents of a severely mentally and physically disabled child have stunted her growth to keep their little “pillow angel” a manageable and more… Continue reading

  • What He Said…

         Thanks to Frog in a Well, I had the pleasure of discovering Yu Ying-shih’s acceptance speech for the "Nobel prize for historians."  In it, he emphasizes the recognition of universal humanity in ancient Chinese thought: If history is… Continue reading

  • Off to Beijing

       Sorry for fewer posts this week.  I have been frantically grading and getting myself ready to fly off to Beijing tomorrow.  I will be attending a conference, "The International Symposium on Confucianism in the Postmodern Era," at the Beijing… Continue reading

  • Bush and Hu: Losing the Mandate of Heaven

         A couple of perceptive comments to my post on the Rui’an affair have raised the question of political legitimacy, especially as expressed through the notion of the "Mandate of Heaven."         Alexus McLeod, who blogs at… Continue reading

  • Ernest Gellner and Chuang Tzu

        Just back from a two-day jaunt to New York City.  We saw a Yankee game, a win for Wang Chien-ming!  But more on that later.       On the train I was re-reading a book I have assigned… Continue reading

  • Edmund Burke channels Confucius

        I am reading Kwame Anthony Appiah’s book Cosmopolitanism.  It raises many good questions, though I am not sure it provides as clear a set of answers as I had hoped.  In any event, I just came across this… Continue reading

  • Why No Chinese Terrorists?

         Chan Akya has a notable piece in today’s Asia Times, "Islam and the absence of Chinese terrorists."  Akya makes a culturalist argument, suggesting that deep historical forces, manifest in various elements of traditional Chinese culture, especially including Buddhism,… Continue reading