Confucian Relationism and Global Ethics: Alternative Models of Ethics and Axiology in Times of Global Crises

"Environmental disasters, unequal distribution of resources, viral pandemics, and other types of trans-national disasters, are global crises that cannot be solved within the narrow framework of individual nation-states. They must be addressed through global cooperation and solidarity. Such strategies require intercultural dialog that goes beyond fashionable slogans and can lead to a truly equal exchange of knowledge and ideas. Towards this endeavour, this book by Jana S. Rošker focuses on the traditional Confucian ethic of relationism, which historically spread throughout many regions of East Asia. She examines the specific features of relational ethics and explores its possible contribution to the new global ethics"-- Provided by publisher Contents Prologue: The Year of the Metal Rat, the Curse of the Bat and the Search for a New Ethos 1 1 Methodological Introduction 7 1 Beyond East and West 9 2 Global Crises in Transcultural Perspective 11 3 Mutual Learning: Frames of Reference, Discursive Translations and the Method of Sublation 13 4 Political and Philosophical Discourses: Confucianism and Ruism 18 5 On Our Way to Global Ethics: A Transcultural Interpretation of Ethics and Morality 21 2 Freedom, Responsibility and the Relationship between the Individual and Society 27 1 The Thesis of Immanent Authoritarianism 27 2 Individualism: Universal, Collectivist and Communitarian 34 3 Relationism and Confucian “Role Ethics” 41 4 Personhood and the Question of Individual Uniqueness 49 3 Confucian Humanism and Democracy 56 1 Humaneness (ren) and Humanness (ren xing) 58 2 The Deontological Character of Confucian Ethics and the Foundations of the Confucian Model of Democracy 64 3 Confucian Humanism 69 4 Subjectivity, Control, and Digital Technology 74 1 Problems of Isolation and Digital Tracking Measures 74 2 Interpersonal Responsibility and the Origins of the Social Credit System 77 3 Digital Technologies as a New Universalism 84 4 Cosmotechnology in the Mirror of Technological Plurality 90 5 Ontology of Digital Objects and Structural Ontoepistemology 102 6 The Agony of Enlightenment Values and Two Types of Inhumanity 113 7 Intimacy, Privacy and Isolation 118 vi Contents 5 Restructuring the Axiology of Global Ethics: On a Winding Path from Transcultural to Global Ethics 132 1 Backgrounds 133 2 First Steps 137 3 Sublating Relationism 141 Epilogue: The New Politeia, the Land of Rusting Arms, and the Deliverance from Dark Times 148 Glossary of Chinese Terms 153 Sources and Literature 159 Index 17 "Environmental disasters, unequal distribution of resources, viral pandemics, and other types of trans-national disasters, are global crises that cannot be solved within the narrow framework of individual nation-states. They must be addressed through global cooperation and solidarity. Such strategies require intercultural dialog that goes beyond fashionable slogans and can lead to a truly equal exchange of knowledge and ideas. Towards this endeavour, this book by Jana S. Rošker focuses on the traditional Confucian ethic of relationism, which historically spread throughout many regions of East Asia. She examines the specific features of relational ethics and explores its possible contribution to the new global ethics"-- Provided by publisher