PHIL 310 - Confucianism

CR: 3.0
Prerequisite: One PHIL course What is Confucianism? Is it a culture tradition, an official ideology, a religion, a moral theory, or a philosophy? For different people at different historical times and regions, the answer may be “yes” to all, some, or none of the above descriptions. However, one thins is certain: the school of Confucianism exerted tremendous influence throughout the history of imperial China and remains influential in the East and Southeast Asian culture sphere even today. In this course, we will explore the various layers of Confucianism– as a tradition, an ideology, a religion, a way of life, and most importantly as a philosophy–through close readings of the Four Books of Confucianism: Analects, Mengzi, Daxue, and Zhongyong.