Metaphor and Analogy in Chinese Thought: Governance Within the Person, State, and Society

David B. Wong is one of the most distinguished moral philosophers today, recognized for his research in ethics, moral psychology, comparative ethics, and Chinese philosophy. In this collection, volume editors Ellie Hua Wang and Kai Marchal interweave five of Wong’s career-defining lectures with responses and reflections from contemporary philosophers and scholars who specialize in Chinese philosophy, allowing readers to more easily comprehend philosophical debates and engage with the deeper questions at stake.

In each lecture, Wong illuminates core concepts in Chinese philosophy, from its beginnings to medieval and late imperial times. He explores the ways in which analogy and metaphor are deployed in early Chinese texts and how they articulate certain understandings of how human beings should be organized internally, and, correlatively, how society should be organized. Wong focuses primarily on the use of metaphor in Confucian and Neo-Confucian texts but also discusses Daoist texts that offer significantly different alternatives to Confucian conceptions of governance. Eight short essays follow Wong’s lectures, raising questions about the legitimacy of Wong’s reinterpretation of Confucianism, the viability of his version of moral relativism and his theory of ＂accommodation＂, and the possibility of cross-cultural learning between the West and the East (with a particular focus on Taiwan, a liberal, Chinese-speaking democracy).

David B. Wong’s primary research is in ethical theory and comparative philosophy, Chinese and Western.

Ellie Hua Wang teaches philosophy at National Chengchi University. Her work focuses on early Confucianism and cross-cultural studies on ethics and moral psychology.

Kai Marchal teaches philosophy at National Chengchi University. He specializes in the history of Chinese philosophy, ethics, and comparative political theory.