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his kind of academic background brings Nevilles some unconventionalideas,compared with the concerns of other scholars of new Confucianism at home and abroad.His proposition that Confucianism should become a philosophy of globalization also bringsnew perspective for contemporary Confucianism.

Chapter 2 Pragmatic Confucianism:A Comparative Philosophy

2.1 The Retrieval of Ritual

Among contemporary North American Confucian scholars,Boston Confucianism is mostinterested in and discusses Confucian ritual theory,particularly Xunzi’s theory of ritual.Neville is a typical representative of these scholars,and he attempts to solve Western society’sproblems through the retrieval of ritual.

2.1.1 Neville:As a Boston Confucian

In his book Boston Confucianism:Portable Tradition in the Late-Modern World,Nevillestated that the first meaning of Boston Confucianism is the general project of bringing theConfucian tradition into play with the other great civilized traditions in the creation of a worldcivilization.Its main goal is to introduce Confucian philosophy into the global philosophicalconversation(2000:1).

In the Foreword of this book,Tu Weiming summarized Neville’s idea of Confucian ritualas following:“We need to go beyond‘existential Confucianism’and develop a theory of ritualas constitutive of humanity so that the New Confucian approach to norms can be made moreeffective in an age of pluralism,social disintegration,and conflict...Neville’s calling ourattention to the authentic possibility of formulating“the ritual theory of normative cultures”from Confucian resources in the Xunzian tradition,but if we are mindful of the fluidity anddynamism of meaning-making in live conventions,we need to avoid the danger ofessentializing,if not museumizing,ritual as a static structure.Neville’s idea of the self as‘maintaining poise in balancing all together’rather than as‘a fixed pattern of harmonization’is instructive.By emphasizing(1)the relational character of personal existence in orientation,(2)the harmonizing character of individual life in poise,and(3)the particular character ofindividuality in actions,he offers a persuasive reading of the Confucian conception of theritual life”(ibid.:xvii).

2.2 Pragmatic-Confucian Theory of Ritual

Neville comes from a young pragmatist lineage.He began with naturalism and rejectedthe path of Reductionism.He developed his own theology based on Peirce’s semiotics andWhitehead’s cosmology,emphasizing creativity and non-determinism(Liu 2022,127).Thissection summarizes the basic concepts of Charles S.Peirce’s semiotics and examines theirrole in Neville’s theory of ritual.In brief,Neville conceives Confucian ritual as a process ofsign-interpretation,Confucian ritual theory can be translated into the language of pragmaticsemiotic theory without much difficulty:any habit with a vague meaningful character as defined within a semiotic code is a learned ritual.

2.2.1 Charles Peirce’s Semiotics

According to Peirce,a sign may be simple or complex.Unlike Saussure,Peirce does notdefine the sign as the smallest unit of signification.Any thing or phenomenon,no matter howcomplex,may be considered as a sign from the moment it enters into a process of semiosis.Peirce’s numerous definitions of a sign differ in minor details,but almost all agree that a signis defined by being bound up in an irr本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。