PHILOSOPHY 308/RELIGIOUS STUDIES 308: CONFUCIANISM AND DAOISM

TEXTS: Ames and Rosemont, The Analects of Confucius (AR); Chen, The Tao Te Ching (optional); Ivanhoe & van Norden, Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy (I&N); Ivanhoe, Confucian Moral Self-Cultivation (CMSC); Watson, The Chuang-tzu (optional); A. C. Graham, Chuang-Tzu: The Inner Chapters (optional); Gier, Spiritual Titanism (optional).

RESERVED BOOKS: D. C. Lau, Mencius; Hall & Ames, Thinking from the Han (TH); Watson, The Chuang-tzu; Chen, The Tao Te Ching; Chan, Source Book in Chinese Philosophy (SB); Herbert Fingerette, Confucius: The Secular as Sacred; Hall & Ames, Thinking Through Confucius (TC); Tu Wei-ming, Centrality and Community; Tu Wei-ming, Confucian Thought; Benjamin Schwartz, The World of Thought in Ancient China; Fung Yu-Lan, A Short History of Chinese Philosophy; Gier, Spiritual Titanism (ST).

E-Text Reserve:  Point your browser to www.lib.uidaho.edu and check reserve and then "G" for Gier's reserve list.  Click the article that you want and enter phil30801 and then tHKWm-y.  Adobe Acrobat 4.0 is required to obtain these texts.

DEPARTMENT RESERVE (DR): Shirokauer, "Rationality in Chinese Philosophy"; Ames & Hall, TC ("Uncommon Assumptions," 1-25; Pin-Yin/Wades-Giles Conversion Table; O'Hara, The Position of Women in Ancient China; D. C. Lau, "On Mencius' Use of Analogy"; Hsu's "Lao Tzu's Conception of Ultimate Reality"; Ivanhoe, "A Happy Symmetry"; Ivanhoe, "Zhuangzi on Skepticism, Skill, and the Ineffable Dao"; Yearly, "The Perfected Person in the Radical Zhuangzi"; translations of Analects, Daodejing, and Zhuangzi.

8/26&28 INTRODUCTION. I&N, Introduction; Source Book, chap. 1; Ames & Hall, TC, pp. 1-25 (DR); The Virtues of Asian Humanism.

8/30  CHINESE RATIONALITY.  Shirokauer, "Rationality in Chinese Philosophy" (DR); Dialectic: East & West; Synthetic Reason and Aesthetic Order.

8/30  IN-CLASS WRITING.  Find your question here.

9/4 THE LIFE OF CONFUCIUS. A slide-lecture. Read ST, chap. 9.

9/4-18 CONFUCIUS. Chan, SB, pp. 3-13 (DR); read Analects (complete up to and including chapter 12 and selections from later chapters) in at least three translations (Ames & Rosemont, Muller, and Slingerland [I &N]); Fingarette, pp. vii-56; Tu, Confucian Thought, chapter v; Hall & Ames, TH, chap. 2 (DR) and TC as needed; Ivanhoe, CMSC, chap. 1.  Paper on Analects due on Sept. 23.

9/9   IN-CLASS WRITING ON CONFUCIUS.  Find your question here.

9/13 VIRTUE ETHICS AND CHINESE WOMEN.  O'Hara, The Position of Women in Ancient China; Ivanhoe, "Woman and Virtue"; Raphals, Sharing the Light, 1-7 (DR). Group paper due on Sept. 16.

9/23-10/2 MENCIUS. Lau's Mencius on library reserve; I&N, chap. 3; Source Book, chap. 3; Muller's web translation; Lau, "On Mencius' Use of Analogy" (e-text), also DR and an appendix to Lau's Mencius; Schwartz, pp. 254-290; Tu, Confucian Thought, chap. vi; Ivanhoe, CMSC, chap. 2.  Paper on Mencius due on October 2.

9/27  GUEST LECTURE AND READING FROM THE YI JING.

10/4 FIRST TERMS EXAM.  Check the glossary at Terms.

10/4-9 DOCTRINE OF MEAN. Source Book, chap. 5; Tu, Centrality and Commonality, pp. 23-122.

10/11-21 XUNZI (HSÜN TZU). I&N, chap. 6; Source Book, chap. 6; Schwartz, pp. 290-320; ST, chap. 10; Ivanhoe, CMSC, chap. 3; both of Ivanhoe's e-texts on Xunzi ("Happy Symmetry is also on DR). 

10/18 IN-CLASS WRITING ON XUNZI.  Find your question here.

10/23 TAKE-HOME EXAM. (100 pts.) Study questions on website, four questions posted on Oct. 23, and the exam is due on Oct. 28 at 2:30.

10/25  GROUP WORK ON HUMAN NATURE. Group paper due on October 30.

10/21&23 MOZI (MO TZU). I&N, chap. 2. Source Book, chap. 9.

11/1  IN-CLASS WRITING ON MOZI.  Your question is here.

10/28-11/6  ZHUANGZI (CHUANG-TZU). I&N, chap. 5; Source Book, chap. 8; Ivanhoe e-text (also DR); Yearly, e-text (also DR); other translations of the Zhuangzi on DR reserve; Premodernism, Modernism, and Postmodernism; ST, Chap. 11.  Papers on Zhuangzi due on Nov. 11.

11/8  DAOIST RELIGION. Please do this e-text reading: "The Roots of Altruism."

11/11-15  THE DAO DE JING. I&N, chap. 4; Source Book, chap. 7; Read Hsu's "Lao Tzu's Conception of Ultimate Reality" (e-text). 

11/15  SECOND TERMS EXAM.  Check the terms in the second section of this glossary.

11/18-22   PRESENTATIONS ON THE DAO DE JING.  Attendance at all presentations is required and unexcused absences will count against the grade on the DDJ paper. Paper on DDJ due on Dec. 2. 

12/2   A DAOIST TEMPLE.  A slide show on a Daoist Temple.

12/4&6   YI JING ( I CHING). Source Book, chap. 13

12/9-13  NEO-CONFUCIANISM.  Ivanhoe, CMSC, chaps. 4-7; Chan, 460-480. 

12/13  In-class writing on Neo-Confucianism.

12/16  IN-CLASS FINAL. (100 pts.) We will meet in Administration 227 at 3:30.  Please prepare for these exam questions. You must use Pin Yin for all Chinese words and names (except for 20th Century Chinese philosophers) or be marked down.  You must also post a course evaluation before taking the final.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS: One take-home exam and one in-class final exam worth 100 pts. each; five in-class writings (50 pts.); four short papers (120 pts.); two terms exams (40 pts.); two sets of group work (40 pts.); and five postings on ConDao talk (50 pts.). Total points for course are 500 and final grades are as follows: 450+=A; 400+=B; 350+=C; 275+=D.

CONDAO TALK. By the beginning of spring break, you should have three postings on the following topics: Confucius, Chinese Women, Mencius, Doctrine of the Mean, and Xunzi. (Postings not done by this deadline will be forfeited.) By the end of dead week you should have another two postings on the following: Mozi, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Daoist Religion, and Neo-Confucianism. These postings cannot overlap with any other assignment on these topics.   Postings must be one substantial paragraph and several of them should engage the postings of other students.

CONDAO TALK will be used for the final course evaluation, which will be printed out by my assistant and sent to me after the end of finals week.  Students may post anonymous evaluations of the class at any time during the semester.

NOTE: Students taking the course pass-fail need to fulfill all the requirements in order to pass the course.

OFFICE HOURS: MWF 10:30-12:00 in Morrill Hall 403. Phone: 885-6284 (office); 882-6534/883-3360 (home); e-mail: ngier@idaho.edu.

PIN YIN AND WADE-GILES. There are two ways to transliterate Chinese characters. The 19th Century convention--called Wade-Giles and still used in Hong Kong and Taiwan--gives a very poor approximation to actual Mandrin pronunciation. The Pin Yin method was introduced by the Communist Chinese and does a much better job of approximating proper pronunciation. Pin Yin will be our default transliteration style. You must use Pin Yin for all Chinese words and names (except for 20th Century Chinese philosophers) or be marked down.