Mencius on Becoming Human

James Behuniak Jr. is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Sonoma State University. He is coeditor (with Roger T. Ames) of The Mencian Conception of Human Nature.

• Acknowledgments Introduction Sketch of the Argument Methodology and Key Terms 1. The Cosmological Background Energy and Propensity Shape and Spontaneity Disposition and Spontaneity Zhuangzi and Shape Characteristics of Chinese Cosmology 2. The Role of Feeling Feeling, Doctrine, and DaoFeeling as Transactional Aspiration and Courage Internal/External and the Botanical ModelDesire, Coherence, and Integration 3. Family and Moral Development Spontaneous vs. Technical ApproachesThe Mohist Challenge Recovering the Confucian Measure Family as the Root Family and Extension 4. The Human Disposition Relationships and the Human Disposition The Human Disposition as Good The Four Sprouts and the Family The Satisfaction of Becoming Human The Value of the Person 5. Advancing the Human Way The Constraints on Aspiration The Conditions for Political Legitimacy The Conditions for Human Achievement Human Virtue in the Sacrifices Aspiration and the Human Way Afterword Notes References Index

"…Behuniak provides a comprehensive reading of the Mencius, ranging from cosmology and metaphysics to familial relations and human ethical development. This reading is frequently enlightening, sometimes surprising, and consistently interesting. Behuniak displays a thorough knowledge of Warring States texts and a remarkable ability to draw these together into a coherent perspective on the Mencius." — Philosophy East & West"In this book James Behuniak Jr. has clearly identified a central question in Chinese philosophy—what it is to be human. The book is boldly interpretative in its main thesis, and this thesis is sustained throughout and developed in various ways. It is also insightful in places … The breadth of scholarship is impressive … The thesis of the book may be controversial, but this is the stuff of philosophical hermeneutics, out of which further insights (to use a botanical metaphor) will grow." — Dao"…a highly unified interpretation of a text whose interest lies, in part, in its intellectually dynamic contradictions." — China Review International"This work is neatly balanced between commentary and independent philosophic study. It exemplifies what modern comparative philosophy ought to be. The author is faithful to the original materials and seeks to link the Mencius to current philosophic debates by presenting the Mencius text in light of the theme of becoming human." — John H. Berthrong, author of Concerning Creativity: A Comparison of Chu Hsi, Whitehead, and Neville