scholarly journals “Trustworthiness is the Foundation of Right”: Confucian Trustworthiness as an Existential Principle of Japanese Political Culture of the Nara Period

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-115
Author(s):  
Valentin Matveenko
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Japanese Culture ◽  
Close Connection ◽  
Confucian Tradition ◽  
Close Attention ◽  
Political Thinking

The author attempts to analyze several categories of the Japanese political culture of the Nara period of the 7th–8th centuries AD, such as harmony (wa 和), and righteousness (gi 義). The author supposes that the existential disposition of trust forms the basis for such categories. In Confucian tradition, this disposition is expressed through trustworthiness (sin 信). The article begins with an overview of the Japanese political culture of the Nara period in order to clarify the place of wa, gi, and sin in Japanese political thought. The author pays close attention to the roles of language and myth in Japanese culture as well. It is argued that political culture is a sort of superstructure for language, which is a substructure. Since language is the logos of culture as a whole, it is possible to identify the existential meanings of categories of political culture that are ontologically rooted in language. The author claims that the patterns of political thinking in Japanese tradition are reflected in myth. In order to prove this, the authors offers an analysis of the use of such characters as wa 和 and gi 義 in the Japanese chronicles Kojiki and Nihongi, highlighting the variety of their meanings and the close connection with trustworthiness as their basis.

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Popular Chinese Political Thought

1975 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter R. Moody
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Social Conflict ◽  
Chinese Politics ◽  
Confucian Tradition ◽  
Major Area ◽  
Political Values ◽  
Chinese Political Culture ◽  
Study Of Chinese Politics ◽  
Chinese Political Thought

In recent years, scholars have been increasingly applying “behavioral” approaches to the study of Chinese politics. One interesting strain of this is the work of Lucian Pye and Richard Solomon, who stress the study of Chinese “political culture” analyzed mainly in terms of an “authority crisis.” Solomon's explication is the more detailed and elaborate. Part of his thesis is that harmony and peace are “basic and enduring political values in the Confucian tradition,” and therefore “questions of the handling of social conflict constitute a major area of tension in the Chinese political culture.” The Chinese hopes for order and believes that this comes about only through strong authority; without such authority there is luan, “chaos.” But the means required to exercise authority create resentment, and resentment becomes the basis for more luan.

Heraclitus’ Political Thought

Apeiron ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Maximilian Robitzsch
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Traditional View ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Political Thinking ◽  
Difficult Question ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
Political Realm

Abstract This paper deals with Heraclitus’ political thought. First, in discussing the conception of cosmic justice, it argues that it is a mistake to separate Heraclitus’ political thought from his cosmological thought. Second, the paper works out two basic principles of Heraclitean political thinking by offering a close analysis of fragment B 114 as well as related texts. According to Heraclitus, (1) there is a standard common and relevant to all human beings in the political realm, namely, the logos, and (2) ruling well is a matter of grasping the logos and using it as a guide in all things political. Finally, the paper tackles the notoriously difficult question of whether there are certain forms of political order towards which Heraclitean thought is more or less inclined. According to what may be called the traditional view, Heraclitus is seen as a supporter of an aristocratic political order, while according to what may be called the revisionist view, Heraclitus is classified as a supporter of a democratic political order. The paper concludes that while Heraclitean philosophy is compatible with a plethora of different forms of political order, including democratic ones, the two basic principles of Heraclitean politics that were distinguished above are more conducive to aristocratic forms of political order.

Byzantine Traditions of the Sublime Porte: the Title qayṣar-i Rūm in the Ottoman Political Thought

Istoriya ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5 (103)) ◽  
pp. 0
Author(s):  
Dmitry Korobeynikov
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The State ◽  
Great Power ◽  
The Sublime

The article is focused on the problem of the title qayṣar-i Rūm, “Caesar of Rome”, which was a traditional title of the Byzantine emperors in Arabic and Persian sources. It is believed that the title was accepted by Mehmed II Fatih after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. It seems that the Ottoman chancery began to use the title only during the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent. The first evidence thereof was the famous inscription of Suleyman in the fortress of Bender (Bendery, in Moldavia/Moldova) in 1538—1539. The Ottomans recognized themselves as a new Rome only after they went into conflict with a great power in Persia, the state of the Aq-Qoyunlu and the Safawi Empire at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century. They did so, however, in the categories of their Persianate political culture, and the title qayṣar-i Rūm was believed to have been an equivalent of the title padishah.

Notions of justice

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 79-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Delia Lin
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The Political ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Justice As Fairness ◽  
Political Conception ◽  
Liberal Culture

This paper compares the conception of justice grounded on the liberal political thought and the Chinese notion of justice deeply rooted in Confucian and Legalist theories from the standpoint of the political culture they each supports. It argues that whereas the former supports the liberal culture marked by the plurality of reasonable doctrines and by seeing persons as free and equal, the latter supports an authoritarian culture based on a dogmatic, comprehensive moral doctrine. Such cultural differences have made it difficult for the Chinese elite holding a Confucian view to negotiate and appreciate the political conception of justice as fairness. This paper suggests that it is important for a modern state to formulate philosophies that accommodate the plurality of diverse and often incompatible doctrines and also to think about justice in procedural terms. For China to achieve this requires a change of political culture.

Constructing a China Metaphor: Sukarno's Perception of the PRC and Indonesia's Political Transformation

1997 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong Liu
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
Political Imagination ◽  
Political Thinking ◽  
Political Career ◽  
Political Model ◽  
Point Of Reference

Throughout Sukarno's long and colourful political career, China constituted one of the central objects in his construction of the outside world. What did the PRC stand for in his intellectual and political imagination? How relevant was Sukarno's China perception to the evolution of his own socio-political thought? This paper suggests that Sukarno's favourable view of the PRC reflected more of his predispositions about Indonesia than it did Chinese realities. China as seen through Sukarno's eyes became the point of reference for both intellectual judgement and political thinking. Furthermore, Sukarno employed his perception of China as a cultural metaphor, social symbol, and political model in his drive to establish and consolidate the Guided Democracy regime.

scholarly journals WESTERN CULTURE AS A FACTOR IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PHILOSOPHY AND POLITICAL CULTURE IN TAISHO JAPAN

2020 ◽  
pp. 12-14
Author(s):  
A.A. Astahova
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Western Culture ◽  
Taisho Era ◽  
Spiritual Tradition ◽  
Western Intellectual

The changes in Japanese philosophy and political culture in the Taisho era (1912-1926) that occurred as a result of the influence of Western intellectual systems are grounded. The evolution from their formal importation to reformulation and rethinking on the basis of their own spiritual tradition is shown. The trends of democratization of socio-political thought and a shift in emphasis to traditional Japanese values are revealed.

Seneca the Elder, the Controuersia Figurata, and the Political Discourse of the Early Empire

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-150
Author(s):  
Matthew Leigh
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Roman History ◽  
The Political ◽  
Turn On ◽  
Specific Event ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Seneca The Elder

This paper studies examples of how exponents of Roman declamation could insert into arguments on the trivial, even fantastic, cases known as controuersiae statements of striking relevance to the political culture of the triumviral and early imperial period. This is particularly apparent in the Controuersiae of Seneca the Elder but some traces remain in the Minor Declamations attributed to Quintilian. The boundaries separating Rome itself from the declamatory city referred to by modern scholars as Sophistopolis are significantly blurred even in those instances where the exercise does not turn on a specific event from Roman history, and there is much to be gained from how the declaimers deploy Roman historical examples. Some of the most sophisticated instances of mediated political comment exploit the employment of universalizing sententiae, which have considerable bite when they are related to contemporary Roman discourse and experience. The declamation schools are a forum for thinking through the implications of the transformation of the Roman state and deserve a place within any history of Roman political thought.

Approaching the Hellenistic Polis through Modern Political Theory: The Public Sphere, Pluralism and Prosperity

2018 ◽  
pp. 68-98
Author(s):  
Benjamin Gray
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Thinking ◽  
The Public ◽  
Civic Values ◽  
Hellenistic World ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Hellenistic Philosophy

This chapter discusses methods and problems in reconstructing an inclusive, dynamic picture of the political thought and debates of the Hellenistic cities (c. 323– 31 BC), drawing on theories and models from modern political and social theory. It shows the benefits of integrating together the widest range of possible evidence, from Hellenistic philosophy to the most everyday inscriptions, in order to reconstruct for the Hellenistic world the kind of complex, wide-ranging picture of political thought advocated by P. Rosanvallon and others in the study of modern political thinking. When studied in this way, the political thinking and rhetoric of Hellenistic philosophers, intellectuals and citizens reveal attempts to reconcile the Greek polis with ideals of cosmopolitanism and social inclusion, without diluting political vitality. As evidence for this political vitality, the paper demonstrates is the fruitful interlocking and mutual counterbalancing within the Hellenistic public sphere of the three types of political discourse studied in turn in Ober’s trilogy on Classical Athens: political lobbying and negotiation, including rival attempts to shape civic values; philosophical and critical reflection about the foundations of politics; and rationalistic consideration of efficiency, especially the devising and advertisement of incentives.

scholarly journals An Origin for Political Culture’: Laws 3 as Political Thought and Intellectual History

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 468-484
Author(s):  
Carol Atack
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Critical Engagement ◽  
Greek Epic ◽  
History Of ◽  
Conjectural History

Abstract Plato’s survey in Laws book 3 of the development of human society from its earliest stages to the complex institutions of democratic Athens and monarchical Persia operates both as a conjectural history of human life and as a critical engagement with Greek political thought. The examples Plato uses to illustrate the stages of his stadial account, such as the society of the Cyclops and the myths of Spartan prehistory, are those used by other political theorists and philosophers, in some cases also drawing on the presence of the same stories in classical Greek epic and tragedy. By incorporating his critique into a timeline Plato is able to suggest that some approaches are limited in scope to specific social conditions, whereas his Athenian Stranger presents his analysis from an external and superior viewpoint, looking down on human society from above.

A Buddhist Response to Ancient-style Learning: Qisong's Conception of Political Order

T oung Pao ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 97 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 1-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Skonicki
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Political Order ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
The Creation

AbstractThis article focuses on the political thought of the Song-dynasty Chan monk Qisong (1007-1072). In opposition to earlier studies, which have tended to view Qisong's political theorizing simply as an offshoot of his philosophical syncretism, it is contended here that his political arguments played an important role in his refutation of the Ancient-style Learning movement's attacks against Buddhism. As is well known, several Song-dynasty proponents of Ancient-style Learning impugned Buddhism for the negative impact it exerted on Chinese social and political culture. Qisong responded to their attacks by crafting a comprehensive political theory, which sought to demonstrate not only that Ancient-style Learning thinkers had misunderstood the dao and proper governance, but also that Buddhist institutions were indispensable to the creation of political order.

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