Abstract
This article is intended to discuss the issue of argumentation in Mencius in the form of book review, focusing on Haiwen Yang’s newly released monograph The World of Mencius. Unlike many scholars who are inclined to see the argumentations included in the book of Mencius in the light of logical debate, Yang attempts to embed Mencius in his social network, so as to reconstruct a “vivid” and “real” Mencius as lived in his own historical context. Yang’s narrative is characterized by an emphasis on the interaction between the two lines of thought in Mencius, namely “moral idealism” and “cultural conformity.” In line with Yang’s interpretation of Mencius, our reading of Yang and of Mencius focuses on the hermeneutic circumstance in which Mencius’ argumentation came into existence, as a result of that, the political significance as well as humanistic concern in relation to Mencius’ eloquence and his argumentative character will be particularly addressed.
Notes
Haiwen Yang 楊海文, The World of Mencius 我善養吾浩然之氣: 孟子的世界. Jinan 濟南: Qilu Shushe 齊魯書社, 2017. 281 pages. ISBN 978-7-5333-3722-3.
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Yang, Haiwen 楊海文. 2017. The World of Mencius 我善養吾浩然之氣: 孟子的世界. Jinan濟南: Qilu Shushe 齊魯書社.
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Niu, Z., Zheng, S. Argumentation in Mencius: A Philosophical Commentary on Haiwen Yang’s The World of Mencius. Argumentation 34, 275–284 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10503-018-9452-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10503-018-9452-3