Geir Sigurđsson: Confucian Propriety and Ritual Learning: A Philosophical Interpretation

Abstract

Even though the book was published more than three years ago, it is still quite topical and unsurpassed. The Outstanding Book Award, which was presented to it last year by the Society of Professors of Education, was therefore well deserved and not surprising. In this work, Geir Sigurđsson reconstructs the meaning, the role and the manifold significance of the Confucian rituality by considering the spatial and temporal context of the present situation. This does not only mean that he wants to elaborate upon the question of what can Confucian rituality “still” offer to the present humankind, and to select those elements of this rich classical tradition that could prove themselves to be most “useful” and “worthwhile” for such endeavors. It rather means that the author aims to offer the readers his own, often quite topical philosophical insights created upon the inspirational foundations of classical Confucian texts. In this context, he proposes a reconsideration of the notion Li, which belongs to the most controversial concepts in the Confucian thought.