New Horizons in Eastern Humanism: Buddhism, Confucianism and the Quest for Global Peace

China now attracts global attention in direct proportion to its increasing economic and geopolitical power. But for millennia, the philosophy which has shaped the soul of China is not modern Communism, or even new forms of capitalism, but rather Confucianism. And one of the most striking phenomena relating to China’s ascendancy on the world stage is a burgeoning interest, throughout Asia and beyond, in the humanistic culture and values that underlie Chinese politics and finance: particularly the thought of Confucius passed on in the Analects. In this stimulating conversation, two leading thinkers from the Confucian and Buddhist traditions discuss the timely relevance of a rejuvenated Confucian ethics to some of the most urgent issues in the modern world: Sino/Japanese/US relations; the transformation of society through education and dialogue; and the role of world religions in promoting human flourishing.
Exploring correspondences between the Confucian and Buddhist world-views, the interlocutors commit themselves to a view of spirituality and religion that, without blurring cultural difference, is focused above all on the ’universal heart’: on harmony between people and nature that leads to peace and to a hopeful future for all humanity.

Tu Weiming (1940-) has been a professor of Chinese history and philosophy and of Confucian studies at Harvard University since 1981. He is the former Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute (1996-2008) and a distinguished research scholar at the Asia Center, Harvard University. Currently he is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies at Peking University. Daisaku Ikeda (1928-) is President of Soka Gakkai International, a Buddhist network that actively promotes peace, culture and education whose members come from over 190 countries throughout the world. He is the author of more than 100 books on Buddhist themes, and received the United Nations Peace Award in 1983. The world’s academic community has awarded him more than 300 academic degrees.