Chinese philosophy and western capitalism
Asian Philosophy 9 (1):71 – 79 (1999)
| Abstract | It is commonly supposed that people of Asia, particularly the ethnic Chinese, subscribe to values which are not conducive to economic progress. The gap between the capitalist West and Asia is often attributed to the 'cultural' factor. Behind such perception is the supposition that capitalism is wholly a product of the West, alien to Asia and cannot be successfully embraced without doing violence to its cultural traditions. Against this position, I argue that classical capitalism is perfectly compatible with the key elements of Chinese philosophy. Whether or not there is anything in the suggestion of some historians that Quesnay borrowed from Confucianism, I argue that his economic doctrine could have developed from the fundamentals of Chinese philosophy. If I am right, the economic gap between the West and Asia has to be explained in terms other than the 'cultural' factor, such as, perhaps, colonialism and post-colonialist ideologies. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,882 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesRobert B. Zeuschner (2000). Classical Ethics, East and West: Ethics From a Comparative Perspective. Mcgraw-Hill.
Sor-Hoon Tan (2011). The Dao of Politics: Li (Rituals/Rites) and Laws as Pragmatic Tools of Government. Philosophy East and West 61 (3):468-491.
Chenshan Tian (2002). Tongbian in the Chinese Reading of Dialectical Materialism. Philosophy East and West 52 (1):126-144.
Kevin M. Graham (2008). The Chinese Must Go. Social Philosophy Today 24:151-161.
Yuasa Yasuo, Shigenori Nagatomo & Jacques Fasan (2005). Image-Thinking and the Understanding of "Being": The Psychological Basis of Linguistic Expression. Philosophy East and West 55 (2):179 - 208.
Fang Zhao-hui & David R. Schiller (2002). A Critical Reflection on the Systematics of Traditional Chinese Learning. Philosophy East and West 52 (1):36-49.
Yasuo Yuasa, tr Nagatomo, Shigenori & tr Fasan, Jacques (2005). Image-Thinking and the Understanding of "Being": The Psychological Basis of Linguistic Expression. Philosophy East and West 55 (2):179-208.
Xize Deng (2011). On the Problem of the Meaning of Life in “Chinese Philosophy”. Frontiers of Philosophy in China 6 (4):609-627.
Chad Hansen (2001). How Chinese Thought “Shapes” Western Thought. The Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 2001:25-40.
Wu Kuang-ming (2010). “Let Chinese Thinking Be Chinese, Not Western”: Sine Qua Non to Globalization. Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 9 (2):193-209.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads18 ( #68,530 of 556,916 )Recent downloads (6 months)2 ( #39,122 of 556,916 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
