Path-bound normativity and a Confucian case of historical holism

I bring a new thesis of historical holism to bear on the well-known Mencius-Xunzi dispute about xing/性. The significance of doing so seems bi-directional: in the first direction, i.e. applying the thesis to the dispute, my reconstruction of both Mencius’s and Xunzi’s views aims at revealing a largel...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Zheng, Yujian (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Carfax 2022
In: Asian philosophy
Year: 2022, Volume: 32, Issue: 2, Pages: 215-235
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Mengzi 372 BC-289 BC / Xunzi ca. 340 BC/298 - 245 BC/230 / Debate / Holism / Normativity / Humanity
IxTheo Classification:AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism
BM Chinese universism; Confucianism; Taoism
KBM Asia
TB Antiquity
VA Philosophy
Further subjects:B path-bound normativity
B Historical holism
B Mencius-Xunzi dispute
B xing / 性
B retrospective necessity
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Summary:I bring a new thesis of historical holism to bear on the well-known Mencius-Xunzi dispute about xing/性. The significance of doing so seems bi-directional: in the first direction, i.e. applying the thesis to the dispute, my reconstruction of both Mencius’s and Xunzi’s views aims at revealing a largely neglected but important aspect of Confucian thought. While in the second direction, whoever is otherwise convinced by the Mencian insight may find its successful reconstruction as a case of historical holism good evidence for the thesis itself, which seems ground-breaking in certain areas of contemporary analytic philosophy. The paper largely focuses on the first direction, with quite detailed exposition of key analytic elements for understanding historical holism. A notion of retrospective necessity stands out in the exposition, supporting the main idea of path-bound normativity which turns out to be, for our present case, a notion of implicit and endogenous normativity.
ISSN:1469-2961
Contains:Enthalten in: Asian philosophy
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/09552367.2021.1977456