In the last few years there has been much talk about the so-called “new atheism”. I want to raise two questions about this school of thought: Is it really new? And what are its assumptions about religious faith against which it has defined itself?
The term “rectification of names” comes from Confucian philosophy. Confucius and other Chinese philosophers who followed him thought that much social disorder comes from the wrong names being used to describe groups of people. This mistake was supposed to be most dangerous if it was applied to the proper hierarchy on which social order must rest. For example, if people in the lower classes give themselves, or are given by others, names that properly belong to the higher classes, this will result in rebellion and social disorder. Confucian sages had the task of educating the populace in knowing and accepting the proper names of things, and government had the task of enforcing this vocabulary. Apparently the imperial government had a department concerned with the rectification of names (I think that the same department was responsible for weights and measures, and for the rules of musical composition).
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