scholarly journals A Confucian Defense of Shame: Morality, Self-Cultivation, and the Dangers of Shamelessness

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 32
Author(s):  
Mark Berkson
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Confucian Tradition ◽  
The West ◽  
Ethical Thought ◽  
Moral Cultivation ◽  
Moral Person ◽  
Negative View ◽  
Shame And Guilt ◽  
Historical Moment ◽  
Trump Administration

Many philosophers and scholars in the West have a negative view of shame. In much of post-classical Western ethical thought, shame is compared negatively with guilt, as shame is associated with the “outer”, how one appears before others (and thus is merely a matter of “face”), and guilt is associated with the “inner” realm of the conscience and soul. Anthropologists and philosophers have used this framework to distinguish more morally evolved Western “guilt cultures” from Asian “shame cultures”. Many psychologists also have a negative view of shame, seeing it as damaging to the self and “devastating in its consequences”. In this paper, I argue that the understandings of shame found in these philosophers and psychologists are misguided, and that their flaws can be revealed by looking at the understanding of shame in the classical Confucian tradition. In response to philosophers who see shame as a “lesser” moral emotion than guilt, Confucius (孔子 Kongzi) and Mencius (孟子 Mengzi) will articulate an understanding of shame that has a deeply internal dimension and is more essential in the process of moral cultivation than guilt. In response to the psychologists who warn about the harm of shame, the Confucians will help us distinguish between moral and pathological shame, showing us why the latter is harmful, but the former is something that no moral person can be without. I will show that the Confucian perspective on shame and guilt is profoundly relevant to the historical moment we are living in (particularly the years of the Trump Administration), and that the Confucian view demonstrates that there is something much worse, and far more devastating, than shame in its consequences—shamelessness.

scholarly journals “I Am Not Good at Any of This.” Playing with Homoeroticism in The Arabian Nights

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 480
Author(s):  
Frank G. Bosman
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Self ◽  
French Translation ◽  
The West ◽  
Arabian Nights ◽  
Safe Environment ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Cross Dressing ◽  
And Gender

The story collection known in the West as The Arabian Nights or One Thousand and One Nights, is famous, among other things, for its erotic playfulness. This eroticism was (and is) one of the key reasons for its continuous popularity after Antoine Galland’s French translation in 1704. The Arabian Nights includes, besides traditional, heterosexual acts, play, and desires, examples of homoerotic playfulness—even though we must tread lightly when using such Western concepts with an oriental text body such as this one. The homoerotic playfulness of The Arabian Nights is the subject of this article. By making use of a text-immanent analysis of two of the Nights’ stories—of Qamar and Budûr and of Alî Shâr and Zumurrud—the author of this article focuses on the reversal of common gender roles, acts of cross-dressing, and, of course, homoerotic play. He will argue that these stories provide a narrative safe environment in which the reader is encouraged to “experiment” with non-normative sexual and gender orientations, leaving the dominant status quo effectively and ultimately unchallenged, thus preventing the (self-proclaimed) defenders of that status quo from feeling threatened enough to actively counter-act the experiment.

Cheng Kuan-Ying: The Comprador as Reformer

1969 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yen-P'ing Hao
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Change ◽  
The Self ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
The West ◽  
Merchant Class ◽  
Western Language ◽  
Social Backgrounds ◽  
Foreign Merchants

In Chinese history, few reformers have been merchants and, prior to Cheng Kuan-ying, none of them was a merchant working for foreigners. In the late Ch'ing, the rise of the merchant class was remarkable and the reformers came from varying social backgrounds. Yet Cheng Kuan-ying (1842–ca. 1923) was the only noted merchant-reformer in this period. Due to his association with the foreign merchants, he was probably the first reformer in modern China who mastered a Western language. This fact made his reform proposals unique in many ways, although his understanding of the West as a whole was limited. The significance of Cheng Kuan-ying as a reformer lies in the fact that he implicitly challenged the programs of the self-strengthening movement by pointing out the necessity of institutional change.

Ancient and Modern Practices of Citizenship in Asia and the West

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
The Self ◽  
First Century ◽  
Care Of The Self ◽  
The West ◽  
City Life ◽  
Good Citizen ◽  
The Past ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Point Of Departure

What does it mean to be a good citizen today? What are practices of citizenship? And what can we learn from the past about these practices to better engage in city life in the twenty-first century? Ancient and Modern Practices of Citizenship in Asia and the West: Care of the Self is a collection of papers that examine these questions. The contributors come from a variety of different disciplines, including architecture, urbanism, philosophy, and history, and their essays make comparative examinations of the practices of citizenship from the ancient world to the present day in both the East and the West. The papers’ comparative approaches, between East and West, and ancient and modern, leads to a greater understanding of the challenges facing citizens in the urbanized twenty-first century, and by looking at past examples, suggests ways of addressing them. While the book’s point of departure is philosophical, its key aim is to examine how philosophy can be applied to everyday life for the betterment of citizens in cities not just in Asia and the West but everywhere.

scholarly journals Identity and Participation Among the New Saudis

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Mongi Zidi ◽  
Turki Al-Shalaki ◽  
Talal Alsaif ◽  
Saeed Al-Dossary ◽  
Desouki Hamed ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Female Students ◽  
The Self ◽  
The West ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
The University ◽  
Academic Year ◽  
Low Rate

An exploratory study was conducted examining the problem of identity and participation among Saudi youth in light of social transformations. The project combined the quantitative and the qualitative curricula and relied on a field study using an electronic questionnaire with a sample of 1318 male and female students from the University of Hail and the participation of 120 students in focus groups during the beginning of the 2020/2021 academic year. The research was based on a number of international and local studies and surveys, and its conclusions were compared with their outcomes. The study outlined a set of indicators that showed the growing expression of the national belonging of the Saudi state in the context of an Arab–Islamic civilisation, a moderate view of the West, a balanced vision of reconciling conservatism with a move towards more openness, and a sense of confidence in the state and in the self. The research also found that the low rate of social participation is matched by a full awareness of its importance and a desire to practise it. The study recommended strengthening the gains of young people and developing areas of participation in proportion to the aspirations of those individuals.

Human Sacrifice

2021 ◽  
pp. 139-154
Author(s):  
John Parker
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
West African ◽  
The Self ◽  
Gold Coast ◽  
Human Sacrifice ◽  
The West ◽  
Southeastern Nigeria ◽  
Forms Of Violence

This chapter recounts the broader Akan world's or Asante's human sacrifice. It notes that the practice, as established by Law, was widespread in those parts of the West African coastal and forest zones largely untouched by Islam, both in powerful states such Benin, Dahomey and Asante and among non-centralized peoples such as the Igbo in present-day southeastern Nigeria. The chapter presents evidence suggesting that human sacrifice may well have increased in magnitude in the era of the Atlantic slave trade, as increasing levels of militarization and accumulation generated new forms of violence, predation and consumption. The earliest evidence for human sacrifice in the region, however, came from the Gold Coast itself, where, as elsewhere in West Africa, it was identified as an integral part of mortuary customs for the wealthy and powerful. The chapter then shows seventeenth-century accounts about the slaves who composed the majority of those immolated at royal funerals. It also explores how the self-sacrifice of certain individuals served on the early Akan states.

scholarly journals Failures of Domesticity in Contemporary Russian-American Literature: Vapnyar, Krasikov, Ulinich, and Reyn

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Gender Roles ◽  
American Literature ◽  
The Self ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
The West ◽  
Russian Culture ◽  
Female Writers ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Women's Gender Roles

Hybrid literature has flourished in the Russian diaspora in the last decade and much of it is semi-autobiographical, concerned with the reconfiguration of identity in emigration. It dwells productively on the translation of the self and (more broadly) on the relationship between center and margin in the post-Soviet, transnational world. Gender roles are subject to contestation, as writers interrogate and reconsider expectations inherited from traditional Russian culture. This article situates Russian hybrid literature vis-à-vis Western feminism, taking into account Russian women’s particular experience of feminism. Four female writers of contemporary Russian-American literature – Lara Vapnyar, Sana Krasikov, Anya Ulinich, and Irina Reyn – inscribe failures of domesticity into their prose. Their female characters who cannot or do not cook or clean problematize woman’s role as nurturer. Home (geographic or imaginary) carries a semantic load of limitation and restriction, so failure as a homemaker may be paradoxically liberating. For female characters working in the West to support their families in Russia, domesticity is sometimes even more darkly cast as servitude. Rejection of traditional Russian definitions of women’s gender roles may signal successful renogotiation of identity in the diaspora. Although these writers may express nostalgia for the Russian culture of their early childhood, their critique of the tyranny of home is a powerful narrative gesture. Failures of domesticity represent successful steps in the redefinition of the self and they support these writers’ claim to transnational status.

Education as Transformation: Becoming a Healer Among the !Kung and the Fijians

1981 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Katz
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Model ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
The Self ◽  
Mental Health Workers ◽  
The West ◽  
Kalahari Desert ◽  
Fiji Islands ◽  
Personal Use ◽  
Community Mental Health Workers ◽  
And Training

Current education and training of community mental health workers in the West have focused on the accumulation of knowledge and on healing technology. Richard Katz,through ethnographic work in the Kalahari Desert and the Fiji Islands, presents an alternative model of healer education that stresses the transformation of the healer's character. This transformation connects the healer to healing resources beyond the self,commits the healer to service in the community, and becomes the context within which healing knowledge and technology can be used while the healer remains a fully contributing member of the community, disavowing the accumulation of power for personal use.

“Your Obedience is Known to All” (Rom 16:19)

2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-274
Author(s):  
Christoph W. Stenschke
Keyword(s):  
Early Christianity ◽  
The Self ◽  
The West ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Community Of Faith ◽  
Full Support ◽  
Private Matter ◽  
The Church

In Romans does Paul refer on several occasions to Christians other than the addressees. This essay gathers these references and examines their function in the overall argument of the letter. It argues that these references to individual Christians, the Christians of whole regions or even the wider Christian community, play an important role for the self-representation of Paul. In addition, they serve to place the Roman audience in the wider community of faith in which Paul claims to be well rooted and accepted. Thus he deserves full support for his further mission in the West. His upcoming visit to them and his request for their future support is far from a mere private matter. Furthermore, these references contribute to our understanding of Paul’s understanding of the nature of the church and to understanding the translocal nature of early Christianity.

How Old Magic Does the Trick for Modern Politics

2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 428-450
Author(s):  
Claudio Sergio Nun-Ingerflom
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
The Self ◽  
The West ◽  
Modern Politics ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Material Form ◽  
Spiritual Ideal

This article attempts to interpret the insurrection led by Razin in the seventeenth century as the beginning of modern politics, because it was founded on the immanence of the social in contrast to the transcendent conceptions of power maintained by the court and church. This advance was made possible by the working of magic. Through performative speech, magic permitted the creation of a verbal presence for the non-existent tsarevich Alexis, who, however, was never given material form. In keeping the self-appointed heir invisible and by declaring his father’s rule illegitimate, the rebels reduced the role of the tsar to a pure signifier. The proof that this uprising represented a turn toward modern politics is that it did not rely upon the invocation of an intangible philosophical or spiritual ideal (as in the West); it was built instead upon an armed people, expressing itself in a language that was still archaic but already oriented toward a new representation of power as socially legitimatized. This analysis opens an important line of argument that has power beyond this specific case.

Textual Criticism More Sinico

Early China ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 393-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
William G. Boltz
Keyword(s):  
Textual Criticism ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
The West ◽  
Spelling Errors ◽  
Negative View ◽  
Destructive Process ◽  
Textual Transmission ◽  
Chinese Texts ◽  
Orthographic Errors

Textual transmission is viewed in the West typically as a destructive process that results in ever greater corruption and error in a text, and the enterprise of textual criticism in correspondingly seen as the task of restoring the damaged text to a form as close to its original as possible. In China such a negative view of the process of textual transmission does not normally obtain, and textual criticism therefore does not carry the image of being primarily a rehabilitative procedure.An important part of the reason for the different perception of the consequences of textual transmission and of the goals of textual criticism lies with the nature of the writing systems involved. Western texts in alphabetic scripts directly reveal errors at the level below that of the word, e.g., spelling errors, grammar errors, pronunciation errors, etc., for which no interpretation is available save that of seeing them as mistakes. Orthographic errors in Chinese texts, written in logographic script, are not prone to such immediate identification as mistakes. All variants in a text written in a logographic script have the potential to be meaningful and therefore are perceived as different, but are not stigmatized automatically as wrong.

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