The Faces of Fear: Cross-cultural Dialogues on Fear and Political Community A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Politics Department Bernard Yack, Advisor In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by Jinmin Lee May 2014 The signed version of this form is on file in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. This dissertation, directed and approved by Jinmin Lee’s Committee, has been accepted and approved by the Faculty of Brandeis University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of: DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Malcolm Watson, Dean Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Committee: Bernard Yack, Politics Department Marion Smiley, Philosophy and Politics Departments Jeffrey Lenowitz, Politics Department Copyright by Jinmin Lee May 2014 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is indebted to many individuals and institutions. I wish to express my first and foremost gratitude to Professor Bernard Yack, the most thoughtful and the kindest dissertation advisor anyone can possibly hope for. This project would not have been possible were it not for his knowledge, insights, guidance, patience and encouragement along the way. I owe him simply too much. My sincere gratitude also goes to Professors Marion Smiley and Jeffrey Lenowitz, my dissertation committee members. Professor Marion Smiley’s justice seminar, which I joined in my first term, helped me to shape much of the basic arguments of this dissertation. Ever since then, she has always been intellectually stimulating and incredibly supportive. Professor Jeffrey Lenowitz generously gave his time, ideas and criticisms. He especially enabled me to look at my dissertation afresh through his detailed comments and suggestions. I thank them all dearly. I would like to thank Brandeis University for the all-round support that allowed me to complete this project, and in particular Mellon Foundation and the Department of Politics for making such resources available to me at critical stages along the way. Especially, it has been my good fortune to be surrounded by kind and thoughtful minds in Brandeis community. I am indebted to Professors Robert Art, Steven Burg, Daniel Kryder, Jill Greenlee, Mingus Mapps and Kerry Chase, whose encouragement and feedback have been vital to me. Rosanne Colocouris has been kindness and helpfulness itself during my Brandeis days. For friendship and support, my loving thanks to Shefali Misra, Claudia Schaler, Timothy McCarty, Magdalena Krajewska, Jill Hazelton, Ofir Abu, Tzvetomira K. Laub, Rebekka Friedman, Jonathan Snow and Paul Herron. Special thanks are due to Professor Bryan Garsten in Yale University, for giving me the critical opportunity to reflect upon the concept of fear as an academic theme for the first time. Also, I have been privileged to have the intellectual encouragement and great kindness of Professors Jeffrey Abramson, in the University of Texas at Austin, and Sung Ho Kim, in Yonsei University. Last but hardly least, my heartfelt thanks to my husband Rinho Kim, for his endless support and affection, without whom this whole process would have been unimaginable, to whom my thanks can hardly convey. I also thank my parents, Yoonseo Moon in Seoul and Hui Lee in heaven, who have been my lifelong inspirations. To my parents this dissertation is dedicated with the deepest gratitude. iv ABSTRACT The Faces of Fear: Cross-cultural Dialogues on Fear and Political Community A dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts By Jinmin Lee Inspired by the hopes of better understanding and managing fear in our political lives, this dissertation engages Western and Chinese thinkers in a cross-cultural dialogue about fear. Influenced by the Enlightenment portrayal of fear, we tend to think fear as the greatest evil of civilization and the greatest enemy of freedom. This research shows that this way of thinking about fear is not the only one that is plausible or available to us. In order to understand what is missing from our current understanding of fear, this dissertation explores parallels among six philosophers who represent diverse attitudes to fear and political community. The six philosophers are grouped in three pairs, each of which includes one Western and one Chinese thinker: the moralists, Aristotle and Confucius; the realists, Hobbes and Han Fei; and the Enlighteners, Montesquieu and Liang Qichao. From the dialogue among these thinkers, the thesis shows how the concept of fear has changed its character; how fear has developed critical relationships with justice, equality and liberty; and how fear has been related to the different ways of political life. At the same time, by highlighting each voice’s strengths and weaknesses, this cross-cultural dialogue enables us to see how each theory may hide sources of fear within itself and how, ironically, they sometimes inflate the fears that they were designed to tame. Contemporary liberals, in particular, need to learn that there is much that is missing in our current understanding of fear and how these limitations may undermine their efforts to promote v individual liberty and security. In this regard, these different faces of fear point both to a richer portrait of fear and a better understanding of how to handle it. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 1 Cross-cultural Dialogues on Fear and Political Community 2. A MORALIST DIALOGUE 23 Aristotle and Confucius 3. A REALIST DIALOGUE 77 Hobbes and Han Fei 4. AN ENLIGHTENMENT DIALOGUE 139 Montesquieu and Liang Qichao 5. CONLUSION 201 Fear and Freedom: How to Use the History of Fear APPENDIX 209 BIBLIOGRAPHY 211 vii CHAPTER ONE Cross-cultural Dialogues on Fear and Political Community Adam answered, “I was afraid because I was naked.” … So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. (Genesis 3) Afraid, they know. … Their story – our story – is ready to begin. (Corey Robin, Fear: The History of a Political Idea)1 Introduction This thesis engages Western and Chinese thinkers in a cross-cultural dialogue about fear and political community. Social scientists have already begun to recognize the great benefit from participating in more cosmopolitan forums. Entirely new concepts, different perspectives and fresh insights can be gained from this broader setting. Even familiar concepts become fresher and more interesting when put besides their cultural counterparts. Most importantly, such a dialogue enables us to gain some critical distance on the predominant ideas and institutions of our own culture. Encountering thoughts from older and foreign texts is one way of broadening the range of questions and preconceptions that we can bring to the interpretation of our experience. 1 C. Robin, Fear: The History of a Political Idea (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 1. 1 Being aware of these benefits, political theorists have recently begun to examine a number of concepts from a cross-cultural perspective. Fred Dallmayr, in particular, has been participating in a series of international dialogues since the late 1990s. Highlighting the universality of core themes such as justice and freedom, Dallmayr makes a strong effort to define democracy and defend its universal application through engaging with respectful voices from India, Islam, and East Asia.2 Daniel Bell also calls for more cross-cultural dialogues, especially between political theorists trained in Western and East Asian societies. His works heavily focus on human rights and democracy viewed in this cross-cultural context. He tries to offer East Asian accounts of human rights and democracy that is different from rights-based Western liberal democracy, one of which is widely called “Confucian democracy.”3 According to Bell, it makes both sides open to revising their initial assumptions and learning new perspectives on democracy. Roger Ames, who translated many Chinese classics with David Hall, explores diverse issues through the lens of Chinese philosophy for fresh insights: from the self, virtues, authority, 2 Taking his cue from Hans-Georg Gadamer, Fred Dallmayr seeks for “a fusion of horizons” among Western philosophy, postmodern (and post-Orientalist) theory and the texts of non-Western intellectuals. Dallmayr’s interests in cultural encounters are encapsulated well in his book titles: Beyond Orientalism: Essays on Cross-Cultural Encounter (New York: State University of New York Press, 1996), Alternative Visions: Paths in the Global Village (Rowman & Littlefield, 1998), and Dialogue Among Civilizations: Some Exemplary Voices (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2002). 3 For East Asian accounts of human rights, see D. Bell, East Meets West: Human Rights and Democracy in East Asia (Princeton University Press, 2000) and The East Asian Challenge for Human Rights (with J. Bauer, Cambridge University Press, 1999). Also see Tu Weiming and Wm. Theodore de Bary’s accounts in the same issue: Confucianism and Human Rights (Columbia University Press, 1998). For an overview of “Confucian Democracy,” see Chapter 8 in D. Hall and R. Ames’ The Democracy of the Dead (Chicago, IL: Open Court, 1999) and B. A. Ackerly, “Is Liberalism the Only Way to Democracy?: Confucianism and Democracy” in Political Theory, vol. 33, No. 4 (August 2005). Sor-hoon Tan’s recent book directly explores the topic: Confucian Democracy: A Deweyan Reconstruction (SUNY Press, 2003). Daniel Bell’s Beyond