A Philosophical Sketch of Confucian Cosmopolitanism: The Liberal International Political Theory of New Confucianism

This essay aims to reconstruct a liberal international political theory of New Confucianism by integrating Charles Taylor’s ontology-based and Andrew Linklater’s civility-based approaches to intercultural dialogue and transcultural values. It aligns the New Confucian vision of a “world of great harmony,” rooted in Wang Yangming’s idea of “all-under-Heaven as one family,” with modern cosmopolitan discourse to develop a philosophical sketch of Confucian cosmopolitanism. The study addresses four central issues in the construction of a universal moral community and its relationship with the political community: (1) the moral basis of human rights, (2) the institutional recognition of human rights, (3) the convergence of norms of civility, and (4) the moral grounding for promoting global civility. Through this framework, it advances a normative Confucian vision of weak cosmopolitanism that promotes a shared global moral consensus on human rights and civility while respecting state sovereignty and cultural diversity. It also aims to engage with cultural relativism in China.