School of thought
New Confucianism
Movement
Classification
- Period
- c. 1921 CE onward
- Regions
- east asia
- Domains
- Ethics , Metaphysics
Overview
New Confucianism revitalized Confucian philosophy by engaging with Western thought — especially Kant's moral philosophy and phenomenology — while defending the contemporary relevance of Confucian values. Mou Zongsan argued that Confucianism contains its own form of moral metaphysics, centered on the innate moral mind (liangzhi), that complements and in some ways surpasses Western philosophy.
Key ideas
- Moral Metaphysics: Mou Zongsan: Confucianism has a 'moral metaphysics' grounded in the direct experience of the moral mind — unlike Kant's noumenal realm, it is accessible through self-cultivation.
- Self-Negation of Conscience: The moral mind must 'negate itself' — temporarily set aside moral subjectivity — to make room for cognitive objectivity, science, and democratic institutions.
- Confucian Modernity: New Confucians argue that modernization need not mean Westernization. Confucian values (community, moral cultivation, filial devotion) can ground a distinctive Asian modernity.
Key figures
Xiong Shili · Mou Zongsan · Tang Junyi · Tu Weiming
Influenced by
- Buddhism
Xiong Shili reworked Yogācāra 'consciousness-only' philosophy into a Confucian metaphysics, and Mou Zongsan engaged Buddhist epistemology to reconstruct Confucian moral metaphysics.
- Kantian Critical Philosophy
- Neo-Confucianism
References
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Mou Zongsan
- New Treatise on Vijnaptimatrata (Consciousness-Only) — Xiong Shili
- Centrality and Commonality — Tu Weiming