Zigong inquired, “What if everyone in a village despises a person?” The Master said, “It's not enough. It would be better if the best villagers love and the worst despise, this person.” -Analects 13:24 There's no one more emblematic of Chinese wisdom than the ancient Chinese sage, Confucius (Kong Zi). His legacy as a philosopher in Chinese history is … [Read more...] about Defaming Confucius
Philosophy
The Euphemism of Freedom – Case Study on Google in the Aftermath of Benghazi
Whenever a for-profit - or even non-profit - organization professes to do good, to be a society's guardian - as Google has - I feel queasy. It's not that I think Google (or more generally corporations, NGOs, charities, even churches) is inherently evil. It's just that no non-government entity owes society at large a fiduciary duty per se, as governments do. Take as a case … [Read more...] about The Euphemism of Freedom – Case Study on Google in the Aftermath of Benghazi
The universality of human rights: a Chinese perspective
One of the most influential people of the twentieth century, but who is almost unknown by name, is a man named P.C. Chang (1892-1957). He (along with Charles Malik) were the two principle drafters of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, one of the most influential documents of the twentieth century. … [Read more...] about The universality of human rights: a Chinese perspective
Brzezinski: Dangerously Wrong
Zbigniew Brzezinski is a well known political scientist and the media often gives him opportunities to voice opinions on foreign policy. How deserving is this accorded credibility? Well, though I have not read much from him, from the looks of this article he wrote in foreignpolicy it would appear that his competence as a expert on international affairs is grossly inadequate … [Read more...] about Brzezinski: Dangerously Wrong
Eric X Li, Chinese pluralism vs. Western universality
As regular readers of this blog may know, we are fans of Eric X. Li. In this video below at the Aspen Institute, Anand Giridharadas (of NYT) interviewed him in front of a live audience. As Giridharadas said at the introduction, Eric indeed shakes the foundation of prevailing Western views present in the room. I especially liked his confident and forthright answers to a … [Read more...] about Eric X Li, Chinese pluralism vs. Western universality