In this book, the author offers the first comprehensive overview and exegesis of the work of Li Zehou in Western languages. Li is one of the most significant and influential Chinese philosophers of our time. The author shows us how Li’s complex system of thought seeks to revive various Chinese traditions, and at the same time attempts to harmonize or reconcile this cultural heritage with the demands of the dominant economic, political, and axiological structures of our globalized world. Variously characterized as “neo-traditional,” “neo-Kantian,” “post-Marxist,” “Marxist-Confucian,” “pragmatist,” “instrumentalist,” “romantic,” and more, Li’s work was central to the period known as the Chinese Enlightenment in the 1980s and has helped modify and transform antiquated patterns of Chinese intellectual discourse. He is one of the rare Chinese thinkers whose work has not only had a deep and lasting impact on Chinese intellectuals, but has acquired a broad readership outside of China as well. Seen from a broader intercultural perspective, Li’s unique and imaginative approach to a wide range of basic theoretical problems has created new styles of intellectual investigation, while reminding us of our belonging to a common humanity, regardless of differences in our individual cultures, languages, preferences, and traditions. The most innovative elements of his philosophical system can be seen in the fields of Chinese aesthetics, philosophical anthropology, new Chinese pragmatism, but also within his interpretations of the relation between China’s tradition and modernity.
COBISS.SI-ID: 68637282
ANG: The monograph presents the aesthetic theory of Xu Fuguan (1904-1982), who was one of the central representatives of the second generation of the ideological current of modern Confucianism. The central subject of this work are his fundamental contributions to the philosophy of this current, especially in the areas of reinterpretation and re-evaluation of the basic axiological concepts of the original Confucianism, Taoist aesthetics and modernization of Chinese aesthetics. Xu Fuguan 's theory of Chinese ideational tradition is defined by the paradigm of the traditional link between ethics and aesthetics, which clearly shows the complementarity of Confucianism and Taoism. In his work, Xu shows that Confucian works mainly contributed to the coherence of traditional Chinese aesthetics with axiological elements, while Daoist works contributed elements of aesthetics as a holistic way of human existence. This is reflected, among others, in Xu Fuguan's innovative interpretation of the traditional aesthetic concept of qiyun shengdong, which is still one of the most complex and difficult concepts to understand in the Chinese ideational tradition. The central theoretical contributions of Xu Fuguan, namely the concept of anxiety and the interpretation of the axiological foundations of Chinese aesthetics, are among the most important theoretical innovations of modern Confucianism. These are starting points that are also interesting from the perspective of Euro-American theoretical discourses, as they reveal important culturally determined differences in the perception and interpretation of reality. The book also aroused great interest among the general public. On February 5, 2021, the author was interviewed on the 1st program of Radio Slovenia by the journalist Goran Dekleva (Beauty in Chinese: What esthetic criteria are used to judge what is beautiful and what is not on the other side of the Great Wall?, (Culture Focus). Radiotelevizija Slovenija 2021; https://radioprvi.rtvslo.si/2021/01/lepota-po-kitajsko/ .)
COBISS.SI-ID: 18379523
The paper focuses on the phenomenon of quoting Confucius, the classical Chinese thinker of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Firstly, it approaches the core issue of quotes and historicity of the “master said” narrative which marked the tradition of quoting Confucius and understanding his heritage through the form of quotes. In the core part of the paper, a selection of ten quotes that most commonly circulate on the Internet are analysed and traced to their most probable sources, while the paper then concludes by approaching the problem of misquoting from a historical and philosophical point of view.
COBISS.SI-ID: 69842530
The article opens with a discussion of recent theoretical and methodological innovations in the field of comparative philosophy. In this regard, the author proposes and explains a new possible method of contrasting particular aspects of divergent philosophical texts or discourses and denote it as a ‘philosophy of sublation’. Then, the paper provides a concrete example for such a post-comparative method of reasoning; the author applies a ‘sublation philosophy’ approach for a reinterpretation of certain aspects of the complex philosophical intersections between modern Japanese and Chinese philosophies through the lens of a contrastive analysis of Nishida Kitaro’s and Mou Zongsan’s dialectical thought. In this way, the author hopes to shed some new light upon some general questions regarding different models of dialectics.
COBISS.SI-ID: 36499293
The article closely examines the phenomenon of preservation societies or hozonkai, which strives to preserve Japanese folk songs and other folk performing arts in an authentic form or intact without change. As an example of hozonkai’s treatment of the folk song, it takes a closer look into organization and current activities of Kokiriko uta hozonkai; a hozonkai formed in 1951 and in charge of preservation and transmission of song accompanied by dance Kagura mai. Taking into consideration Hughes’ general characteristics of hozonkai as a base, the author points out the commonly shared characteristics which Kokiriko uta hozonkai shares with most preservation societies, but at the same time also shows its particularities. Kokiriko uta hozonkai has a stronger concept of locality and it is not absolutely conservative with respect to possible changes to Kagura mai in the future. Moreover, the research on Kokiriko uta hozonkai and its treatment of Kagura mai raises questions to what extent hozonkai really transmits the ancient revived Kagura mai?
COBISS.SI-ID: 36553821