The Idea of Freedom in Comparative Perspective: Critical Comparisons between the Discourses of Liberalism and Neo-Confucianism

Abstract: Largely thanks to the high-flying works of Isaiah Berlin and Chang Fo-ch’üan, the distinction between negative and positive freedom has long been a part of Chinese political discourse; with this distinction in mind, the belief that the endorsement of real freedom in Confucianism is in conflict with liberalism has been firmly asserted. In this article it is argued that the attempt to reje…