February 10th, 2:30pm – Hawai’i Standard Time on Zoom
Dr. Yong Li
Dr. Yong Li, (PhD, Saint Louis University), Professor of Philosophy at Wuhan University, Associate Dean of School of philosophy. Dr. Li works primarily in ethics and political philosophy, and focuses on Confucian ethics and comparative political philosophy. He serves as a book review editor for Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy, an associate editor for Journal of Social and Political Philosophy, co-editor for the Book Series Routledge Studies in Contemporary Chinese Philosophy. He has published on Acta Analytica, Asian Philosophy, International Philosophical Quarterly and other journals. His recent monograph Moral Partiality is published by Routledge.
ABSTRACT: One may claim as a citizen of the world, we have impartial obligations to people outside the national boarder. In contrast, others believe that due to our national identity, we (only) have special obligations to people inside the national boarder. We may provide humanitarian assistance to those in need outside the national boarder, which is not an obligation. This is the rivalry between cosmopolitanism and nationalism. I argue that the Confucian idea of Tianxia can provide an alternative model of global justice. The narrow meaning of Tianxia refers to the benevolent ruling and moral order among states ruled by the mandate state(s), which is endorsed by some contemporary Confucians. In contrast, a broad meaning of Tianxia refers to a moral and political global order that is not based on national states that compete with each other. I argue for the broad meaning of Tianxia.