CEACOP Series in East Asian Comparative Ethics, Politics, and Philosophy of Law
This new series by Amsterdam University Press is organized and overseen in cooperation with the Center for East Asian and Comparative Philosophy (CEACOP), which is located in the Department of Public Policy at City University of Hong Kong. We publish path-breaking and field-defining works in East Asian comparative ethics with a special interest in works of normative and applied ethics, political theory, and philosophy of law. We seek works that are more historically grounded as well as those that are more focused on contemporary affairs and problems that meet the standards of clarity and argumentative rigor characteristic of the best philosophy in the Anglo-American tradition. We expect more historically grounded works will demonstrate a sophisticated sensitivity and approach to issues of historical context and interpretation while wholly contemporary works will begin from and respond to issues of relevance to modern East Asian and Western societies. Ideal manuscript length is 80,000 words, but works on either side of this standard can under certain circumstances be accommodated. Monographs that incorporate empirically-based research in the social sciences are most welcome. We do not accept manuscripts for review that have not passed an initial proposal screening process. Complete proposals, meeting the guidelines described below are welcome by electronic submission.
In terms of geographic area, we seek manuscripts that take as their focus the ethical, political, or legal thought of one or more of the following East Asian cultures: China, Korea, or Japan. Studies that compare the thought of one or more of these cultures with one another or with parts of the Western philosophical tradition are most welcome. As noted above, we are equally interested in works that are grounded in and focused upon traditional philosophy as well as contemporary thought or that rely upon careful empirical research as part of their method. In every case, we seek works that draw such resources into the service of original, constructive philosophical projects that make significant contributions to contemporary legal, political, and normative or applied ethical theory.
Our guiding aim is to contribute original, constructive analytical works to the fields of East Asian and comparative philosophy. While we insist that these works honor and accurately present the East Asian and Western sources that serve as their basis, our goal is to produce publications that will engage, challenge, and contribute to on-going debates and controversies in contemporary legal, political, and ethical theory. We aim to produce books that will be read by non-specialists as well as specialists in East Asian ethics, politics, and law and that will find a privileged place within the canonical writings in these disciplines. We find it regrettable that it is still possible to find published works on The History of Ethics, The History of Political Theory, or Philosophy of Law that are exclusively focused on the Western tradition, as if great traditions of ethics, politics, and law do not exist outside the West. It is our firm belief that those who fail to study these and other disciplines from a comparative perspective are profoundly limited in their understanding of even their home traditions. Without the benefit of comparative study, one is too easily led to take the particular nature and history of one’s tradition as representing or defining the realm of possible theory and practice and attribute ontological status to contingent features of human experience. Such assumptions are naïve, provincial, and constrained. In order to address this state of affairs, we feel a grand imperative to introduce a new series that respects the distinctive features and qualities of East Asian sources but also values and is fully conversant with the best ethical and political thought in the Western tradition. We are committed to bringing East and West into deep, productive, and mutually enriching dialogue.
