NOBILITY AND CIVILITY: Asian Ideals of Leadership and the Common Good

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There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. De Bary's objective is to counter the crude and equally dominant reading of the classical literary records of the Orient as bespeaking nothing but crude interests. The author contends that the pre-modern Orient was as much oriented towards a democratic ideal as has been the West ever since its infancy.

The main problem with de Bary's book is that it is based almost entirely upon historicist and "multiculturalist" assumptions alien to the records he interprets. Notions such as "ideals" and "values" pervade and frame most arguments, preventing them from allowing the reader to see the realities they are imposed upon without severe distortions.

In this crucial respect, de Bary's "apology" of its Oriental authors does a disservice to them. This book provides evidence that one cannot resist post-modernism's tyrannical reduction of all meaning to self-expressive power, by merely returning to Kant's "as if"--all the more where one replaces Kant's confidence in the autonomy of reason with a sentimental appeal to "traditions". In order to free itself from its limitations, de Bary's work would have to question or at least "bracket" its "Christian" reading of Nature. Only then would the "Oriental" or rather, pre-modern appeal to Nature as fundamental point of reference for the determination of Right, be allowed to manifest its roots in their own light.

One person found this helpful. In his new book de Bary examines many Asian cultures to see what they have to offer to the "humanizing" of the march towards globalization. He traces the history of Confucianism in both China and Japan also Buddhism is discussed. There is a separate chapter on India. He rejects the "clash of civilizations" model and says, "We owe it to ourselves to make another more determined effort to understand how the Customers who bought this item also bought.

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Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Globalization has become an inescapable fact of contemporary life. Some leaders, in both the East and the West, believe that human rights are culture-bound and that liberal democracy is essentially Western, inapplicable to the non-Western world. How can civilized life be preserved and issues of human rights and civil society be addressed if the material forces dominating w Globalization has become an inescapable fact of contemporary life.

How can civilized life be preserved and issues of human rights and civil society be addressed if the material forces dominating world affairs are allowed to run blindly, uncontrolled by any cross-cultural consensus on how human values can be given effective expression and direction? In a thoughtful meditation ranging widely over several civilizations and historical eras, Wm. Theodore de Bary argues that the concepts of leadership and public morality in the major Asian traditions offer a valuable perspective on humanizing the globalization process. Turning to the classic ideals of the Buddhist, Hindu, Confucian, and Japanese traditions, he investigates the nature of true leadership and its relation to learning, virtue, and education in human governance; the role in society of the public intellectual; and the responsibilities of those in power in creating and maintaining civil society.

De Bary recognizes that throughout history ideals have always come up against messy human complications. Still, he finds in the exploration and affirmation of common values a worthy attempt to grapple with persistent human dilemmas across the globe.

Hardcover , pages. Published October 15th by Harvard University Press. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

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