Boston Confucians 213966 216052168 2008-05-30T21:28:22Z Koavf 205121 fmt {{unref|date=May 2008}} '''Boston Confucians''' are a group of "[[New Confucianism|New Confucian]]s" from [[Boston]], of whom the best known are [[Tu Wei-Ming]] of [[Harvard]] and [[Robert Neville (Boston University)|Robert Neville]] of [[Boston University]]. Neville coined the phrase to refer to those who hold that [[Confucianism]] could be successfully adapted to a western perspective, and does not have to be confined to [[China|Chinese]] [[culture]] and [[tradition]]. (Both [[Platonism]] and [[Christianity]] began as such portable traditions, which can be practiced outside of the [[ancient Greece|Greek]] and [[Jew]]ish roots which originally generated them.) However, this is a view that is common to New Confucians in general, whether from Boston, [[Beijing]], [[Taipei]], [[Hong Kong]] or [[Singapore]]. Indeed, there are contemporary advocates of Confucianism who are not New Confucians, but who would agree that Confucianism is not geographically or culturally parochial, any more than Buddhism or Islam have been. ([[Philip J. Ivanhoe]], [[Joel J. Kupperman]] and [[David B. Wong]] would fall into this latter category.) Consequently, "Boston Confucian" is a term more closely linked to geography than intellectual content. ==References== * Robert Neville, ''Boston Confucianism.'' Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2000. * Bryan W. Van Norden, Review of ''Boston Confucianism'' in ''Philosophy East & West'' 53:3 (July 2003): 413-417. ==See also== *[[List of ethicists]] [[Category:American Confucianists| Boston]]