Course Objectives

Our goal in this class is to engage with Confucianism as a potentially live philosophy in the twenty-first century. We will consider how it can respond to a series of challenges deriving from alternative ethico-political traditions and from developments in state and society over the most recent centuries. Examples of the terrain on which we will challenge Confucianism include authoritarianism, human rights, and gender; for more details, see the class calendar. In addition, we will reflect on what "Confucianism" is and whether it can be reconstructed in the ways some contemporary philosophers believe. What does it mean to reconstruct a tradition? Is a philosophy that can answer our challenges still “Confucianism”?

Readings and Position Papers

The course will revolve around the reading and discussion of contemporary secondary works on Confucianism. It is vital that you come to class having read the week's assignment, ready to discuss or ask questions about its key points. In the interest of preparing you for such discussion, each week each student must post a position paper on WebBoard (see below) by 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning. In this paper you will briefly assess the readings for that class and state one or more positions on the questions raised by the readings. You can choose to concentrate on issues you find particularly compelling; for instance, for 9/13, you might pay particular attention to Yu's criticisms of DeBary on the issue of gender, to DeBary's responses, and then offer your own assessment. These positions are of course preliminary: we will all, I expect, revise our views after in-depth discussion in class (and afterward).

Readings will be from two books that I have ordered through Atticus Bookstore (347-1194), and a lengthy coursepack available at the Mail Center (344-933). The coursepack contains only the required readings. Optional readings are either on reserve at Olin, or available from me directly.

On-Line Discussion

In addition to in-class discussion, we will all take part in further discussions via WebBoard, a web-based discussion forum. This should provide opportunities to float ideas, ask questions about difficult passages, and pursue issues in more depth than we have time for in class. I will respond to questions when appropriate, but I hope that you all will strive to help one another out by offering your own answers whenever possible.

Participation in WebBoard discussion is required, and the requirement is simple: everyone must post at least one message a week—on top of your pre-class position paper. You can certainly post more than one message, and you can post at any time throughout the week.

Papers

Three writing assignments are required for the course: two 4 page papers and a 15 page research paper. I will suggest topics for the first two, but you are also free to develop your own topic, perhaps based on postings you have made on WebBoard. The paper topics will be assigned and papers due--in each case, by 5 p.m. in a box in the second-floor lobby of Russell House--as follows:

	Assigned	Due
Paper One	September 20	October 6
Paper Two	October 18	November 3
Research Paper Rough Draft	November 29	December 1
Research Paper Final Draft	n/a	December 13

Each short paper will count for 1/5 of your final grade. The research paper will count as 2/5. The remaining 1/5 will come from my weekly assessment of your performance both in-class and on-line.

My office is 216 Russell House; my office hours will be Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Often I'll be available in my office before class, though it would be best to make an appointment in advance so I make sure to be there. I'm happy to find another time to meet with you if these times won't work; just speak to me after class.

My phone number is x3654; my email address is "sangle@wesleyan.edu."