Free subjectivity and the conception of the human self in neo-confucian and modern confucian metaphysics

Sernelj, Tea (author)

This article examines the conception of the free human subject within Neo-Confucian and Modern Confucian metaphysics, arguing that human subjectivity is always situated with-in a morally and cosmically structured reality. In this framework, the self is never isolated but instead embedded in the structural interconnectedness of li, and freedom is realized through moral self-cultivation and active engagement with the world. Autonomy is not understood as an arbitrary choice, but as a cultivated form of self-determination grounded in ethical insight, responsibility, and practice. Across its classical, Neo-Confucian, and modern formulations, Confucian metaphysics consistently depicts the subject as morally grounded, relationally embedded, and capable of apprehending ultimate reality through ethical realization. This conception challenges reductive interpretations of Confucianism as mere self-restraint or hierarchical submission, revealing instead a comprehensive phil-osophical tradition in which ethics, metaphysics, and existential inquiry are inseparable. Confucian thought thus offers a distinctive humanistic paradigm that affirms the intrinsic value of the human being while rejecting an isolated or self-enclosed conception of sub-jectivity. By grounding freedom in moral cultivation and situating human agency within an interconnected moral and natural order, it articulates a vision of responsibility, rela-tional belonging, and shared value that stands as a powerful response to the contemporary degradation of humanistic ideals, social fragmentation, and ecological crisis.

• Language: English
• Keywords: neo-confucianism, modern confucianism, metaphysics, pattern (li), the self, subjectivity, freedom
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.01.2026
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 51-74
• Numbering: Vol. 14 (30), iss. 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-186601
• UDC: 1(510)
• ISSN on article: 2232-5131
• DOI: 10.4312/as.2026.14.3.51-74
• COBISS.SI-ID: 289855747
• Publication date in RUL: 03.09.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Asian studies = Azijske študije
• Publisher: Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2232-5131
• COBISS.SI-ID: 265206272

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: Svobodna subjektnost in pojmovanje sebstva v neokonfucijanski in moderno-konfucijanski metafiziki
• Keywords: neokonfucijanstvo, moderno konfucijanstvo, metafizika, načelo (li), sebstvo, subjektnost, svoboda