The philosophical foundations of Confucianism as the common ideational heritage of East Asia

Ogrizek, Marko (author)

Confucianism is among the elements that not only connect, but in a way, help define the East-Asian cultural sphere. Nevertheless, when approaching the study of Confucianism as such it soon shows itself to be an extremely rich and diverse, and, consequently, a hard to grasp notion that carries many tensions within itself. Confucianism can be seen in the following ways: as a tradition that for two and a half millennia has connected dif-ferent philosophical schools; as the starting point of the civil religion and the political doctrine of Confucianism; as a transmitter of a specific, cultural heritage-based system of values – a system that managed to establish itself within the narrower cultural con-text of China, but also in the wider environment. This article tries to present one of the approaches to the study of Confucianism through the use of comparative philosophy. It tries to present the philosophical foundations of Confucianism and to show an out-line of a unified Confucian ethical teaching, and then to contrast certain main elements of the Confucian tradition in China and Japan and thus the tense relationship between the universal and particular, which the tradition develops. Through such a presentation, both the strengths and weaknesses of seeing Confucianism as a unified philosophical tradition can be evaluated.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Confucianism, East Asia, Confucian ethics, ethics, comparative philosophy, dao
• Typology: 1.16 - Independent Scientific Component Part or a Chapter in a Monograph
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 11-33
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-167648
• UDC: 14:221.7
• COBISS.SI-ID: 227989251
• Publication date in RUL: 05.03.2025

Record is a part of a monograph

• Title: Foundations and futures : East Asian intellectual, political and linguistic landscapes
• Editors: Marko Ogrizek
• Place of publishing: Ljubljana
• Publisher: Založba Univerze, = University of Ljubljana Press
• Year: 2025
• ISBN: 978-961-297-482-4
• COBISS.SI-ID: 217930499
• Collection title: Zbirka Studia Humanitatis Asiatica
• Collection ISSN: 2463-8900

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Filozofski temelji konfucijanstva kot skupne idejne dediščine Vzhodne Azije

Abstract

Konfucijanstvo spada med elemente, ki ne le povezujejo, temveč tudi pomagajo definira-ti vzhodnoazijsko kulturno sfero. Vendar pa se ob pristopanju k študiju konfucijanstva kot takega kaj hitro pokaže, da gre za izredno bogat in raznolik, zato pa težko zajemljiv po-jem, ki v sebi nosi tudi številne napetosti: konfucijanstvo kot tradicija, ki že dve tisočletji in pol povezuje različne filozofske šole; kot izhodišče civilne religije ter politične doktrine konfucianizma; kot prenašalec specifičnega, na kulturni dediščini temelječega vrednost-nega sistema – ki se mu uspe v različnih oblikah uveljaviti tako v ožjem kulturnem okolju Kitajske kot tudi širše. Pričujoči članek skuša predstaviti enega od pristopov k študiju konfucijanstva – in sicer s pomočjo metode primerjalne filozofije. Najprej skuša pred-staviti filozofske temelje konfucijanstva ter očrtati podobo enovitega konfucijanskega etičnega nauka, nato pa s kontrastiranjem poglavitnih elementov konfucijanske tradicije na Kitajskem in Japonskem pokazati na odnos med univerzalnim in partikularnim, ki ga razvija tradicija. Tako se v članku pokažejo prednosti in pasti obravnave konfucijanstva kot opisane enotne filozofske tradicije.

• Keywords: Vzhodna Azija, konfucijanska etika, konfucianizem, etika, primerjalna filozofija, dao