Weber’s View of Confucianism Revisited

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This article revisits Weber’s view of Confucianism for two purposes. First, though many scholars have put forward persuasive criticisms of his view of Confucianism, this article tries to show that it is still valid in many essential regards, despite a number of flaws. Second, Weber attempted to construct a typology of world religions along the two axes of active asceticism versus passive mysticism and this-worldly versus other-worldly religion. It appears that Weber saw Confucianism as this-worldly passive mysticism. Schluchter and Habermas, two prominent Weber interpreters, do not agree with him and with each other. This article attempts to show that Weber came closer to the core of the dominant, orthodox strand of Confucianism, though we need to correct some of his understandings of its nature.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• CONFUCIANISM AS A SALVATION RELIGION
• CONFUCIANISM AS MYSTIC ASCETICISM
• THE CONFUCIAN UNIVERSE “FOLDED IN UPON ITSELF”
• CONFUCIAN RETURN TO THE UNDIFFERENTIATED PRINCIPLE OF NATURE
• CONFUCIANISM UNDER FIRE IN MODERN EAST ASIA
• CONCLUSION
• RERERENCES