Confucianism and the Continuation of Anti-Enlightenment

In 18th-century Europe, before the "e;Counter-Enlightenment,"e; two coexisting perspectives emerged within the Enlightenment: the first was the belief that humans were endowed with the capacity to think independently, which led to the possibility of egalitarianism; the second was the restriction of the faculty's scope of application, which argued that the people must rely on intellectuals as their new shepherds. The latter is "e;Anti-Enlightenment"e; and anti-egalitarian.This book argues that Neo-Confucianism showed these two Enlightenment trends after the 11th century. The imperial examination reform allowed commoners to rise to the bureaucratic elite, thereby achieving top-down "e;Enlightenment"e;. Despite the emerging elite's claims of caring for the people, this benevolence does not expect the people to become self-sufficient adults, which brings up this book's second theme of comparing French Revolution "e;Fraternity"e; with Confucian "e;Benevolence."e;Taking "e;Enlightenment"e; and "e;Fraternity"e; as clues, the author analyses the intellectual history in four countries (China, Japan, Germany, and France), revealing not only the inherent "e;Anti-Enlightenment"e; mentality within the European Enlightenment, but also the process of "e;Enlightenment"e; commenced as early as the 11th century in China.This book will appeal to scholars of Enlightenment, intellectual history, and comparative study of East-West thought.