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The Lexicon of Empiricism and Chinese Modernization offers a deeply reflective exploration of how culture, philosophy, and empirical inquiry intersect in shaping China’s modern transformation. In this ambitious work, Thomas A. Metzger argues that understanding modernization requires studying not only measurable events but also the Lebenswelt—the evolving moral concepts and cultural assumptions that guide political and social life. He highlights the enduring influence of Confucian value rationality, suggesting it aligns more closely with aspects of Western Enlightenment thought than commonly assumed. Blending philosophy, historiography, and cultural analysis, the book challenges mainstream approaches and offers a fresh perspective on China’s intellectual landscape and its implications for global modernity.
Price: $52.00
Pages: 400
Publisher: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press
Imprint: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press
Publication Date:
31 December 2026
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9789882374164
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
Thomas A. Metzger (1933–2025) was senior fellow emeritus of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and professor emeritus of the University of California, San Diego.
Preface
Part I: Philosophical and Methodological Considerations
1. The Complexity of Empiricism
2. Chinese Epistemological Optimism and the Epistemological Pessimism of the GMWER
3. Aspects of Confucian Thought and the GMWER Lessening the Contrast between Them
4. The Historical Teleology Implied by Charles Darwin’s and Max Weber’s Scientific Findings
5. Weber’s Rationalistic Discounting of Empirical Data about Culture
6. The Symbiosis of Culture and Philosophy: Philosophical and Methodological Questions Raised by the Metaphysical Nature of Culture
7. The Analysis of the Lebenswelt and the Lexicon of Empiricism
8. Wertrationalität in the Modern West: A Dilemma or an Advantage? The Scientistic, Egocentric Quest for Indubitability
9. Tang Jun-yi’s Concept of the Indubitability of the Confucian Understanding of Wertrationalität
10. U.S. Policy and the Exceptional Nature of Confucian Culture
Part II: An Historiographical Outline of Chinese Modernization
11. Criticizing Political Criticism
12. The Inflation of Controversies about Political Criticism Caused by Modernization in Culturally Different Societies: The New Importance of Philosophy as a Critique of Both Modernization and Culture
13. Empiricism and “Seeking in Facts for What Is True and Right (shi shi qiu shi)”: The Tension between the Fairbankian Project and Contemporary Chinese Scholarship
14. Sociological and Methodological Controversies Affecting Empirical Description of Confucian Culture and Its Effects on Chinese Modernity
15. Historiographical Controversies
16. The Summing Up: A Culture Partly Converging with the Enlightenment’s Concept of Modernity
Endnotes
Appendix
Part I: Philosophical and Methodological Considerations
1. The Complexity of Empiricism
2. Chinese Epistemological Optimism and the Epistemological Pessimism of the GMWER
3. Aspects of Confucian Thought and the GMWER Lessening the Contrast between Them
4. The Historical Teleology Implied by Charles Darwin’s and Max Weber’s Scientific Findings
5. Weber’s Rationalistic Discounting of Empirical Data about Culture
6. The Symbiosis of Culture and Philosophy: Philosophical and Methodological Questions Raised by the Metaphysical Nature of Culture
7. The Analysis of the Lebenswelt and the Lexicon of Empiricism
8. Wertrationalität in the Modern West: A Dilemma or an Advantage? The Scientistic, Egocentric Quest for Indubitability
9. Tang Jun-yi’s Concept of the Indubitability of the Confucian Understanding of Wertrationalität
10. U.S. Policy and the Exceptional Nature of Confucian Culture
Part II: An Historiographical Outline of Chinese Modernization
11. Criticizing Political Criticism
12. The Inflation of Controversies about Political Criticism Caused by Modernization in Culturally Different Societies: The New Importance of Philosophy as a Critique of Both Modernization and Culture
13. Empiricism and “Seeking in Facts for What Is True and Right (shi shi qiu shi)”: The Tension between the Fairbankian Project and Contemporary Chinese Scholarship
14. Sociological and Methodological Controversies Affecting Empirical Description of Confucian Culture and Its Effects on Chinese Modernity
15. Historiographical Controversies
16. The Summing Up: A Culture Partly Converging with the Enlightenment’s Concept of Modernity
Endnotes
Appendix