Moral Agency in Eastern and Western Thought

Jonathan Jacobs (PhD, University of Pennsylvania) is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Institute for Criminal Justice Ethics at John Jay College/CUNY. He is also a member of the Doctoral Faculty of Philosophy at CUNY. His most recent books are The Liberal State and Criminal Sanction: Seeking Justice and Civility, (Oxford University Press 2020) and Criminology and Moral Philosophy: Empirical Methods and the Study of Values (Routledge 2022). Jacobs has held Fulbright Scholar, NEH, and Earhart Foundation grants, and has been a Visiting Professor or Visiting Fellow at University of Edinburgh, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hebrew University, University of St. Andrews, Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies, and is a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge. He is also the editor of the journal Criminal Justice Ethics. Heinz-Dieter Meyer (PhD, Cornell University) is Professor of education at State University of New York (Albany). He has been Harman Fellow at Harvard University and received a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) award. He has taught at Goettingen University and been Visiting Professor at Penn State University, Beijing University, Boston University, and the East-West Institute (Honolulu). His recent publications include Knowledge and Civil Society (with Glueckler and Suarsana), 2021, and The Design of the University: German, American, and 'World Class' (Routledge 2017).

Part 1: Introduction 1. Exploring Moral Agency Across Traditions Jonathan Jacobs and Heinz-Dieter Meyer Part 2: Perspectives on Agency and Character 2. Early Confucianism as a Model for Crafting Character Philip J. Ivanhoe 3. Moral Habituation and Technē in Aristotle’s Ethics Tom Angier 4. Crafting Character: Lessons from Confucianism and Stoicism May Sim 5. The Zen Transformation of Ordinary Life into Buddhist Practice: Eating and Drinking as Exploration of Buddha-Nature Christopher W. Gowans 6. Must We Become Who We Are? Aristotle, Confucius, and Maimonides on Moral Agency and Character Jonathan Jacobs 7. The Heart-Mind as that Which Needs Moral Formation: Heinz-Dieter Meyer 8. Kant on Self-Governance: The Structural Nexus of Practical Reason, Will, and Gemüt (Mind) G. Felicitas Munzel 9. On the Use and Misuse of Moral Exemplars for Self-Improvement Amber D. Carpenter 10. Crafting Character with Aristotle and Augustine George Heffernan 11. Moral Agency, Situationism, and Virtue: Xunzi on Moral Development Richard Kim 12. Selfless Agency and the Cultivation of a Moral Character: Insights from Vasubandhu and Derek Parfit Oren Hanner 13. The Formation of Moral Character Through No-Self in Neo-Confucian Thought Doil Kim Part 3: Character and Commensurability 14. The Heart-Mind in the West—Testing for Common Ground Heinz-Dieter Meyer 15. A Look Back to Find a Way Forward Jonathan Jacobs