This title carefully maps the Chinese modernization discourse, highlighting its relationship to other, similar discourses and situating it within historical and theoretical contexts. In contrast to the majority of recent discussions of a ocChinese development modelocy that tend to focus more on institutional then cultural factors, and are more narrowly concerned with economic then overall social development, the book offers several important focal points for many presently overlooked issues and dilemmas.

Specific Chinese models for theories of knowledge were premised upon a structurally ordered external reality; since natural (or cosmic) order is organic, it naturally follows the 'flow' of structural patterns and operates in accordance with structural principles that regulate every existence. In this worldview, our mind is also structured in accordance with this all-embracing, but open, organic system. The axioms of our recognition and thought are therefore not arbitrary, but follow this rationally designed structure. The compatibility of both the cosmic and mental structures is the basic...

The so-called Confucian revival which came to prominence at the end of the twentieth-century, and which is manifested in the philosophical stream of Modern Confucianism, is one of the most significant elements within new Asian modernisation ideologies. By providing new insights into the culturally conditioned structure of Asian societies, this book contributes to the improvement of political, economic and cultural relations between "Western" and East Asian countries. Most classical Western modernisation theories have assumed that Confucianism would have to be abandoned if East Asia wanted to...