The Vulnerability of Integrity in Early Confucian Thought

Michael Ing

First study of vulnerability and Confucianism
Draws from an wide array of early Confucian texts
Argues that Confucian thought conceived of tragedy as well as harmony

The Vulnerability of Integrity in Early Confucian Thought

Michael Ing

Description

The Vulnerability of Integrity in Early Confucian Thought is about the necessity, and even value, of vulnerability in human experience. In this book, Michael Ing brings early Chinese texts into dialogue with questions about the ways in which meaningful things are vulnerable to powers beyond our control; and more specifically, how relationships with meaningful others might compel tragic actions.

Vulnerability is often understood as an undesirable state; and as such, invulnerability is preferred over vulnerability. While recognizing the need for adopting strategies of reducing vulnerability in various situations, The Vulnerability of Integrity demonstrates that vulnerability is far more enduring in human experience, and that it enables values such as morality, trust, and maturity. Vulnerability also highlights the need for care (care for oneself and for others). The possibility of tragic loss stresses the difficulty of offering and receiving care; and thereby fosters compassion for others as we strive to care for each other.

This book is structured to explore the plurality of Confucian thought as it relates to the vulnerability of integrity. The first two chapters describe traditional and contemporary views that argue for the invulnerability of integrity in early Confucian thought. The remaining five chapters investigate alternative views. In particular these later chapters give attention to neglected voices in the tradition, which argue that our concern for others can, and even should, lead to us compromise our integrity. In these cases we are compelled to do something transgressive for the sake of others; and in these situations our integrity is jeopardized in the transgressive act.

The Vulnerability of Integrity in Early Confucian Thought

Michael Ing

Acknowledgements
Conventions
Introduction
1. The Invulnerability of Integrity: Early Texts and Commentators
2. The Invulnerability of Integrity: Contemporary Scholarship
3. The Sorrow of Regret
4. Regret, Resentment, and Transgression
5. Irresolvable Value Conflicts in a Conflictual World
6. The Conflictual World of the Sages
7. The Vulnerability of Integrity
Conclusion: The Value of Vulnerability
Bibliography

The Vulnerability of Integrity in Early Confucian Thought

Michael Ing

Author Information

Michael Ing, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington

Michael D.K. Ing is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington.

The Vulnerability of Integrity in Early Confucian Thought

Michael Ing

Reviews and Awards

"Michael Ing has produced a major work that brings out a complexity and depth in the Confucian tradition, and at the same time enhances the tradition as a formidable interlocutor with some of the best Western moral philosophers." - David B. Wong, Duke University, Dao: A journal of Comparative Philosophy

"There are many things going on in The Invulnerability of Integrity that will serve to open exciting new avenues of future exploration in Chinese philosophy... As a model of contemporary Chinese philosophy, it will have a broad appeal to students and teachers of early Confucianism as well as of contemporary philosophy." - Thomas Michael, China Review International

"The volume is an important contribution to the discussion of ancient Chinese thought and contemporary Confucian ethics." - Barbara Hendrischke (University of Sydney), Religious Studies Review Vol.44

"The book is well argued, well presented, and a pleasure to read... The volume is an important contribution to the discussion of ancient Chinese thought and contemporary Confucian ethics." - Barbara Hendrischke, Religious Studies Review

"[S]tudents of Chinese philosophy will benefit from considering its methodological stance, and readers of other academic as well as political and social circles would find in The Vulnerability of Integrity a culturally-unique reiteration of a plea, shared by several contemporary virtue ethicists, for the recognition of guilt and regret as markers not of moral failure but of moral stature." - Sharon Sanderovitch, Reading Religion

"The Vulnerability of Integrity in Early Confucian Thought is an excellent addition to a growing number of works that draw on Confucian sources to enrich the contemporary ethical discourse. Ing's strengths as a thinker and a writer allow him to render the complex moral concepts and dilemmas described in classical Confucian sources intelligible to modern readers who are not necessarily well-acquainted with this tradition... His efforts in making the works of early Chinese thinkers accessible to ethicists that are interested in learning about Confucianism but do not have the training to read the original texts render this book invaluable and deserving of the highest praise." - Ori Tavor, JAAR