The Confucian Creation of Heaven: Philosophy and the Defense of Ritual Mastery (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780791401910)

Demonstrating that the relation between practice and theory in early Confucianism is highly systematic, the author suggests that Confucianism represents a species of 'synthetic' philosophy, distinct from the analytical traditions of the West but equally rigorous in its attempt to disclose the foundations of understanding. He illustrates how theory served as an ancillary activity, expressing ethical insights derived from the systematic structure of core ritual practice, and legitimizing those insights in terms of teleological model of their efficacy in creating a divinely ordained political utopia. The central agenda of the early Confucians is pictured as the preservation and promotion of ritual skills and the aesthetic social perspectives they generate. Metaphysical and political theory serve as practical vehicles mediating between the skill-based philosophy of the early Confucian community and the changing features of the intellectual, social, and political environments in which that community had to survive.

Author: Robert Eno
ISBN-10: 079140191X
ISBN-13: 9780791401910
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Language: English
Published: 06/01/1990
Pages: 362
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 1.00d