On the cusp of a new world order? a dialogue between Confucianism and Dewey and pragmatism

Abstract

ABSTRACT At the end of 2013, China introduced what it calls the ‘One Belt, One Road Initiative’ (BRI) (yidaiyiluchangyi 一带一路战倡议). From a Chinese perspective, this initiative is nothing less than a strategy to replace the existing world order in all of its parts with a vision of ‘intra-national relations’ that emerges out of traditional Chinese thinking reaching back as early as the Yijing 易经or Book of Changes. The self-conscious rhetoric of BRI is ‘equity’ (gongying 共赢) and ‘diversity’ interpreted through the language of a ‘shared future for the human community’ (renleimingyun gongtongti人类命运共同体). China can be challenged to live up to its own rhetoric. John Dewey makes a helpful distinction between the ‘idea’ and the political ‘forms’ of democracy, where his ‘idea’ of democracy is his own account of equity and shared diversity. Again, there is a direct link between Dewey’s ‘idea’ of democracy and his ‘internationalism.’ Can we use Dewey’s ‘idea’ of democracy to formulate the ‘idea’ of BRI as a Confucian version of ‘internationalism?’