Person-in-the-world: a neo-Confucian ecological humanism

Abstract

Within the neo-Confucian writings of Wang Fuzhi one finds a complex and comprehensive natural cosmology and philosophical anthropology. Through hermeneutic exposition this dissertation demonstrates that his theories on the natural world and human beings are a cogent philosophical ecology. In particular, this dissertation begins and ends with the premise that the theoretical structure and terminology of Wang Fuzhi's neo-Confucian discourse offers a rich resource for advancing the paradigm of ecological humanism.