Activity and Communal Authority: Localist Lessons from Puritan and Confucian Communities

Puritanism and Confucianism have little in common in terms of their substantive teachings, but they do share an emphasis on bounded, authoritative, localized human arrangements, and this profoundly challenges the dominant presumptions of contemporary globalization. It is not enough to say that these...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophy east & west 2008-01, Vol.58 (1), p.36-59
Main Author: Fox, Russell Arben
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analogy (Linguistics)
Analysis
Authority
Binding
Communitarianism
Communities
Community
Community life
Comparative analysis
Confucianism
Evaluation
Globalism
Globalization
Human rights
Ideology
Liberalism
Local communities
Metaphor
Morality
Philosophical thought
Politics
Puritanism
Rituals
Social organization
Society
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Summary:Puritanism and Confucianism have little in common in terms of their substantive teachings, but they do share an emphasis on bounded, authoritative, localized human arrangements, and this profoundly challenges the dominant presumptions of contemporary globalization. It is not enough to say that these worldviews are "communitarian" alternatives to globalism, for that defines away what needs to be explained. This article compares the ontology of certain elements of the Puritan and Confucian worldviews, and, by focusing on the role of both authority and activity in these systems, assesses (with the assistance of Max Weber) the theories of harmony that each invoke. It concludes by identifying the distinct options that these two modes of human existence suggest for those who wish to defend the relevance of boundedness and authority, and thus the very possibility of a human-scaled politics, in today's world.
ISSN:0031-8221
1529-1898
1529-1898
DOI:10.1353/pew.2008.0011