This paper is a literature review and exploration of early Human Rights in Eastern Cultures, focusing specifically on the philosophy of Confucianism. It includes an historical overview of Confucian China and development of Human Rights in the West, the roles of individual and collectivistic views of rights, and egalitarianism vs. more socially stratified view of society in relation to human rights. This paper was written for the capstone of my Independent Course Study in Philosophy in 2013.

2002

Opposing Sides of the Human Rights Debate The human rights debate has typically been framed as an argument between opposing sides: Asia vs. the West, "Asian values" vs. "Western values," and specifically Eastern (Confucian) Communitarianism vs. Western Individualism. In Asia, according to this view, the "rights of the community" are emphasized over individual, "political and civil" rights. In addition, defenders of "Asian values" accuse Western liberal democracies of pursuing an oppressive, colonialist agenda, threatening the viability of communities-in-transformation by the one-sided and single-minded assertion of selfish individual needs. This debate has assumed a series of associations: Asian, Confucian, communitarian, authoritarian, and statist, on the one hand; Western, Christian, individualist, and liberal-democratic, on the other. I would like to argue in this paper that these are false associations, focusing on the Asian side of the equation, and that Asian, and specifically Confucian, values are a powerful, universal resource for a profound affirmation of human freedom expressed in both individual and communitarian terms. Far from asserting the hegemony of the state, community, or family over and against individuals, Confucianism supports human liberation for individuals-in-community. Western liberal democracy is not the only model for universal human rights: I will argue that Confucianism can and should be a universal ethic of human liberation. The goal of personal freedom is not uniquely Western, and it is not anti-Confucian. Selfdetermination is as much a Confucian value as it is a Western value, and the West has a great deal to learn from the East about self-cultivation in the context of family and community life. Embedded in the Confucian classics, as well as historically in specific Confucian institutions, is a profound idea of individual possibility, creativity, and achievement, in some ways more dynamic and

1998

Human Rights and Human Nature, (eds.) Marion Albers, Thomas Hoffmann, Springer, 2014., 2014

Asian studies, 2024

Chinese humanism developed distinctly from European humanist discourses, reflecting unique cultural and philosophical traditions. Analysing these differences can enhance our understanding of both the specific characteristics of Chinese humanism and the diverse potentialities within contemporary global humanist thought. This comparative perspective, enhanced by employing the method of sublation, underscores the planetary relevance of humanism. It demonstrates how diverse cultural perspectives enrich and broaden the scope of global discourse, leading to a more inclusive understanding of humanism worldwide. In this paper I will give a brief historical overview of the origins and development of the formation of ideas which, in China, placed the human being at the centre of culture and the cosmos. But in order to better understand the differences that demarcate Chinese views of humans and their position in the world from European ones, we will first look at how the relationship between people and the communities in which they live is structured in the Chinese tradition. We will then examine the political and philosophical currents shaping Confucian discourse and take a look on the way in which each of them contributes to the Chinese model of humanism. By applying the method of sublation, we intend to investigate how these two systems could complement and enhance each other, thereby helping to establish a foundational framework for a newly proposed transcultural planetary ethics.

Confucianism is often erroneously referred to as a religion, but as this paper will show it is more correctly the first humanist ethical system, and is deeply embedded within the popular notions of humanism. This is critical if we are to properly refine humanism as a philosophy, and provides suggestions for how a coherent humanist codex and system can be developed. This paper investigates the ways in which the Confucian ethical system operates as the conceptual predecessor and foundation of modern-day humanist thought, by looking at specific cases of ethical beliefs that were developed at that time and which find analogy so strong as to be identity in modern western thought. In the same way that Siddhartha Gautama rejected the authoritarian and hierarchical approach of Hinduism, Confucianism succeeded the autocratic nature of legalism as the state philosophy in China. When it became the state philosophy it underwent significant conceptualisation and codification. In developing its societal approach, Confucianism presents the first codification of humanist ethics. It is unlikely that the commonalities between Confucian thought and the humanist perspective are coincidental, as explored in the first paper in the series. NOTE: This paper is the third in a series tracing the development of humanist thought across Eurasia. For an overview and details on how the philosophy developed and was transferred across Eurasia, please see the first paper, which present a historical overview. Other papers detail the development of humanist spiritual, legal and professional systems through Buddhist & Taoist Indo-china, Medieval Islam, and modern medical practice, respectively and chronologically.

Cambridge University Press eBooks, 2004

I would like to begin by considering some familiar contexts in which talk of rights, especially those one person might claim against another, seems quite out of place.

While the concept of Menschenwürde (universal human dignity) has served as the foundation for human rights, it is absent in the Confucian tradition. However, this does not mean that Confucianism has no resources for a broadly construed notion of human dignity. Beginning with two underlying dilemmas in the notion of Menschenwürde and explaining how Confucianism is able to avoid them, this essay articulates numerous unique features of a Confucian account of human dignity, and shows that the Confucian account goes beyond the limitations of Menschenwürde. It is arguably richer and more sophisticated in content, and more constructive for protecting and cultivating human dignity.