CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 1Language, Metaphor, and CognitionLanguage, Discourse, Communication StrategiesChinese history and philosophy

A Chinese Way of Thinking

Open access
Gamsa, Mark·2018·Philosophy East and West
DOI 10.1353/pew.2018.0002
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

This article presents case-based thinking as a characteristic form of Chinese reasoning and argumentation. It discusses such thinking comparatively in view of the renewed interest in casuistry and the anecdotal, and it challenges the tendency to limit the analysis of "thinking through cases" to ancient and imperial China.

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

The article argues that “thinking through cases”—reasoning by examples, anecdotes, types, and models—is a durable feature of Chinese thought and rhetoric, not confined to imperial China. It compares this mode with European casuistry and exemplarity and suggests it remains relevant for cross-cultural understanding.

Key findings

  • Chinese uses of the case tend to validate established beliefs; the paper says they are better described as case histories, case stories, or anecdotes than as case studies. Examples include Confucian exemplary biographies, Buddhist karmic retribution, hell paintings, and modern political rhetoric.
  • The paper claims China is strongly oriented toward typification. Unlike Europe, where Huizinga treated typism as obsolete and Ginzburg located casuistry’s decline in early modern discovery and scientific change, China did not undergo a comparable break.
  • Modernity replaced Chinese exemplars with Western sages and then Communist models; Lei Feng and a 2017 collection of 109 stories and anecdotes attributed to Xi Jinping show continuity. Lin Yutang’s 1931 liberalism essay and Lu Xun’s writings illustrate anecdotal enumeration.
  • For cross-cultural communication, foreign visitors or business partners may encounter a different argument style; reducing it to Communist borrowing or politics alone is insufficient, since it connects to older assumptions about authority and correctness.

Methods

  • Qualitative essay in intellectual history and comparative philosophy; no formal sample or statistical analysis.
  • Compares Chinese case-based thought with European casuistry and exemplarity using secondary literature (Huizinga, Furth, Ginzburg, Nakamura) and primary examples from texts, visual artifacts, and public discourse.
  • Sources include Lin Yutang’s 1931 *China Critic* essay, Lu Xun, hell paintings in Fiesole, Lei Feng propaganda, Xi Jinping’s story collection, and scholarship on early Chinese rhetoric.

Limitations

  • The author states no claim that thinking through cases is the most salient East-West difference, the only Chinese mode, or inferior to European thought; terms such as cases, anecdotes, types, and models are not interchangeable.
  • The author acknowledges provocative generalization and possible counterarguments to calling China a typification-oriented culture.
  • Text evident: evidence is illustrative and selective rather than systematic; broad claims about “Chinese” thought risk essentialism; examples are drawn mainly from elite texts, political discourse, and selected artifacts, with no empirical sampling.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1353/pew.2018.0002

Cites

47 of 47 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Claims the paper makes

0 of 39 cited sources checked · 0 supported · 0 flagged

  • Findingcitation

    Attempts to answer the question in terms of the particularity of Chinese thought in the present tense have been largely banished from Western academic research for political incorrectness.

    “Attempts to answer this question in terms of the particularity of Chinese thought, and to do so in the present tense as distinct from analysis limited to Chinese antiq uity and the premodern era, 44 have been largely banished for reasons of political incorrectness from academic research in the West.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [44]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Findingreasoning

    Such attempts can be found in tourist guides, popular nonfiction, and etiquette manuals aimed at foreign business people.

    “They can be found in abundance in tourist guides, popular nonfiction, and various etiquette manuals, which aim to teach the foreign business person how to decode messages and avoid mistakes in negotiations with Chinese counterparts.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim
  • Findingcitation

    Printed biographies of Chinese clerks, magistrates, and ministers served as a main didactic tool to confirm the good type and condemn the bad.

    “The printed biographies of China’s clerks, magistrates, and ministers were a main didactic tool in the confirmation of the “good” type and the parallel condemnation of the “bad.””
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [18]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Findingreasoning

    When new model lives were set up in early twentieth-century Chinese intelligentsia writings, the main novelty was that they were Western rather than Chinese.

    “When in the first decades of the twentieth century new model lives were set up in the writings of the Chinese intelligentsia, the main novelty about them was that they were no longer Chinese but Western.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim
  • Findingown data

    Visual traces show thinking through cases applied to moral and immoral conduct at work in China in the early twentieth century.

    “There are some striking visual traces by which “thinking through cases,” applied to examples of moral and immoral conduct, may be seen at work in China in the early twentieth century.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim
    • Rests on an assumption: The hell paintings in the Fiesole museum are representative of Chinese popular religious imagery and of early twentieth-century Chinese case-based thinking.
  • May combine two claims. 13
  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim. 31

  • May combine two claims.

    Findingreasoning

    Both Nationalists and Communists classified individuals and social groups as good or bad elements, and such language remains constantly in evidence.

    “For example, both the Nationalists and the Communists in China classified individuals and social groups as “good” or “bad” elements, and such language is still constantly in evidence.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Findingreasoning

    These publications prepare readers for the possibility that in discussions about China combining a capitalist economy and rapid financial growth with Communist ideology they may be told Deng Xiaoping resolved the contradiction with the cat quote.

    “For example, they prepare readers for the eventuality that in the course of a discussion about China’s combining a capitalist economy and rapid financial growth with adherence to Communist ideology they may be told that the engineer of new China, Deng Xiaoping, had resolved this contradiction when he said: “it matters not whether a cat is white or black; if it catches mice it is a good cat.””
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing), S4 (based). May combine two claims.

    Findingnone given

    Lei Feng succeeded foreign models that had dominated Chinese discourse in the republican period, and his political cult continues in the People's Republic of China today.

    “This Communist model, a selfless hero soldier and fervent admirer of Chairman Mao, succeeded the foreign models that had dominated Chinese discourse in the republican period, and his political cult continues in the People’s Republic of China today.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim.

    Findingreasoning

    Lin Yutang's argument aligns multiple examples in a way that combines appeal to high authority with a listing of case stories.

    “The aligning of multiple examples in the manner Lin uses here combines the appeal to high authority with a listing of “case stories.””
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim
    • Rests on an assumption: Lin Yutang's and Lu Xun's texts are representative examples of modern Chinese rhetoric.

  • May combine two claims.

    Findingcitation

    Chinese culture pressured people to see themselves as models or types and judged them accordingly.

    “Chinese culture exerted strong pressure on persons to think of themselves as models, or types, and passed judgment on them in the same terms.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [15]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

    • Rests on an assumption: There is a Chinese way of thinking that can be studied as a national-specific pattern.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing). May combine two claims.

    Premisecitation

    A study of early China observes that the art of the anecdote never disappeared in China and that for a long time the anecdote continued as a primary medium through which Chinese readers came to know the world, its history, and its meaning.

    “does observe, in a brief conclusion on “legacies of the anecdote,” that “the art of the anecdote never disappeared in China” and that “for a long time . . . the anecdote continued to serve as a primary medium through which Chinese readers came to know the world, its history, and its meaning.””
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [42]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Premisecitation

    The logic of casuistry derived much of its persuasive power from confidence in continuity between past and present and the authority of past examples.

    “Ginzburg reminds us that the logic of casuistry derived much of its power of conviction from confidence in the continuity between past and present, and hence the authority and relevance of past examples.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [24]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Premisecitation

    The assumption of continuity was first challenged in the sixteenth century by Europe's discovery of the New World.

    “According to Ginzburg, this assumption of continuity was first challenged in the sixteenth century by Europe’s discovery of the New World.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [24]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • May combine two claims.

    Premisecitation

    The rising popularity of micro-history has meant a return to narrative and a return to cases.

    “The rising popularity of micro-history has meant both a return to narrative -telling stories as a way of writing history has become legitimate once again -and a return to cases.51”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [51]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Premisecitation

    There is continuity in assumptions about the exercise of authority in traditional China and the PRC.

    “The continuity in assumptions about the exercise of authority in traditional China and the PRC has been addressed in previous scholarship.48”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [48]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • May combine two claims.

    Interpretationcitation

    It is hardly possible to separate casuistry from its moral dimension, and Ginzburg cannot maintain that distinction.

    “It is hardly possible to make this distinction, and even Ginzburg cannot maintain it, since the relation of the casuist argument to morality stands at the center of any discussion of casuistry as such.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim0 of 2 sources checked
    • cites [21]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

    • cites [22]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S4 (based).

    Interpretationnone given

    Modern Chinese forms of argument often seriously hinder cross-cultural communication with the outside world.

    “modern Chinese forms of argument are often a serious barrier to cross-cultural communication with the outside world.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Premisecitation

    Chinese exempla were always embedded in a moral discourse.

    “pointing out that Chinese exempla were always embedded in a “moral discourse.””
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [23]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Premisecitation

    The world of casuistry was shattered by seventeenth-century scientific advances.

    “It was shattered along with “the world of casuistry” by the scientific advances of the seventeenth century.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [24]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Premisecitation

    A new historicism has turned the anecdotal into the truly exemplary.

    “A new historicism, poised between literature and cultural history, has turned”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [52]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • May combine two claims.

    Interpretationcitation

    Even if the idea of correctness was borrowed from Leninist Russia, it merged seamlessly with the Confucian teaching that correct ideas follow from proper behavior.

    “it seems to have merged seamlessly with the Confucian teach-ing that”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [46]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing), S4 (based).

    Premisenone given

    Pithy sayings by wise men and maxims by leaders are often repeated in China.

    “pithy sayings by wise men and maxims by”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Premisecitation

    Furth identifies European casuistry as the closest parallel to Chinese thinking with cases.

    “Furth recognizes European casuistry, which she glosses as “cases of conscience,” as the closest parallel to Chinese “thinking with cases.””
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [23]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing), S4 (based). May combine two claims.

    Interpretationnone given

    In Chinese novels, quick succession of names is facilitated by perceiving characters as types rather than individual heroes; Chinese theater roles corresponded to types rather than individual dramatis personae.

    “The quick succession of names in a Chinese novel is facilitated by their being perceived as types, instead of individual “heroes”; similarly, roles in Chinese theater corresponded to a list of types rather than individual dramatis personae.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim
    • Rests on an assumption: There is a Chinese way of thinking that can be studied as a national-specific pattern.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing). May combine two claims.

    Interpretationreasoning

    Less educated Chinese used persuasion by anecdote and enumeration in earnest and were likely to quote authoritative sayings and stories without questioning them.

    “It was the less educated who still used it in earnest and who were (and are) likely to quote authoritative sayings and stories about famous men without questioning them.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S4 (based).

    Interpretationreasoning

    Lin Yutang's rhetorical devices in his English-language text are symptomatic of modern Chinese writing.

    “However, Lin’s rhetorical devices in this English-language text are symptomatic of modern Chinese writing.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim
    • Rests on an assumption: Lin Yutang's and Lu Xun's texts are representative examples of modern Chinese rhetoric.

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim. May combine two claims.

    Premisecitation

    Confucian and Daoist traditions seek to establish oneness, whereas the Western tradition questions identity, value, and knowledge under separate categories.

    “a new study by a scholar of Chinese philosophy argues that both the Confucian and Daoist traditions look for establishing “oneness,” where in the Western tradition we would expect to see the questioning of identity, value, and knowledge under the separate categories of ontology, ethics, and epistemology.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [14]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S2 (checkable).

    Interpretationcitation

    It is unproductive to analyze in political terms alone a way of thinking or cognitive map that is far from limited to the political context.

    “It is moreover unproductive to analyze in political terms alone a way of thinking, or a cognitive map, that is far from limited to the political context.47”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [47]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Interpretationreasoning

    Lin Yutang's method resembles nineteenth-century Western writing such as Emerson's Representative Men.

    “It needs acknowledging that Lin Yutang’s method is also reminiscent of a type of nineteenth-century Western writing that poses comparable difficulties today: for a salutary reminder that modern Chinese rhetoric cannot be read in isolation, as the expression of a “way of thinking” singular to China, consider how names of authority figures are aligned in the opening lecture of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [39]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Premisecitation

    Scholars of Chinese religion see belief in divine courts with laws and netherworld bureaucracy as evidence of a perceived judicial continuum between the earthly world and the afterlife.

    “Scholars of Chinese religion see the belief in divine courts, with their sets of laws and netherworld bureaucracy, as evidence of a perceived “judicial continuum” between the earthly world and the afterlife.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [31]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • May combine two claims.

    Premisecitation

    In the history of science, Thomas Kuhn in 1962 discarded the hierarchical order placing theory above case studies and examples; in Kuhn's conception, cases and exemplars became paradigms.

    “In the history of science, Thomas Kuhn in 1962 had already discarded the hierarchical order placing theory above case studies and examples (taken as mere means to illustrate the theory); in Kuhn's revolutionary conception, cases and exemplars became paradigms.53”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [53]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing), S4 (based).

    Interpretationnone given

    The terms cases, anecdotes, types, models, exemplars, and examples are not interchangeable.

    “Referring to the use of cases and anecdotes, types and models, exemplars and examples, it would be wrong to consider these terms interchangeable.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim.

    Interpretationreasoning

    A perspective rejecting the hierarchical distinction between history and biography, text and context, gives anecdotes new relevance.

    “On the contrary, a perspective rejecting the hierarchical distinction between history and biography, text and context, gives them new relevance.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Interpretationcitation

    Settling on personal trivia about a Western authority figure may have seemed to scholars in China too unscientific, or too Chinese.

    “settling on such personal trivia with regard to a Western authority figure may have seemed to scholars in China too unscientific, or, indeed, by coming dangerously close to the logic of case stories, too Chinese.57”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [57]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Premisecitation

    The President of the PRC has no qualms about telling illustrative stories to suit just about any occasion.

    “The President of the People's Republic, however, has no qualms about telling illustrative stories to suit just about any occasion”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [58]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Premisecitation

    As the bicentenary of Charles Darwin was celebrated in 2009, some scholarly attention in his home country and the world at large focused on the scientist's beard.

    “As the bicentenary of Charles Darwin was being celebrated in 2009, some of the scholarly attention in his home country and in the world at large focused on the scientist's beard.54”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [54]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S2 (checkable), S3 (load-bearing).

    Interpretationreasoning

    Fixation on trivial biographical fact, arguing in examples, retelling homely anecdotes about great men, and the rest of thinking through cases have a surprisingly modern ring.

    “There is a sense in which fixation on the trivial biographical fact, arguing in examples, retelling homely anecdotes about great men, and the rest of what has been called here”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S4 (based).

    Interpretationnone given

    Thinking patterns or habits can be compared.

    “It does argue that thinking patterns or habits can be compared”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Premisecitation

    Xi Jinping's anecdotes have become so numerous that they have been gathered in a book.

    “so numerous have Xi Jinping's anecdotes become that they have now been gathered in a book.58”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [58]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S2 (checkable), S3 (load-bearing), S4 (based).

    Interpretationreasoning

    Kuhn could hardly have predicted a new cultural history in which everything would become personal yet again.

    “he could hardly have predicted a new cultural history in which everything would become personal yet again.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing). May combine two claims.

    Premisecitation

    Wisps of hair from Darwin's beard were displayed in the Natural History Museum in London, while historians analyzed beard-wearing and Darwin's self-representation through it.

    “Wisps of hair from the Darwin beard were displayed in the Natural History Museum in London, while historians analyzed beard-wearing and Darwin's self-representation through it”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [54]

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S4 (based). May combine two claims.

    Interpretationnone given

    All the conceptually related components of thought and rhetoric (cases, anecdotes, types, models, exemplars, examples) are today still part of the Chinese worldview and among the means of its expression.

    “Rather, this article argues that all of the above, conceptually related components of thought and rhetoric, are today still part of the Chinese worldview and among the means of its expression.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim
    • Rests on an assumption: Chinese and Western modes of argument are comparable in a way that allows identifying a characteristic Chinese mode.
    • Rests on an assumption: Thinking through cases is a coherent and identifiable mode of thought.
37 of 37

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    There is a Chinese way of thinking that can be studied as a national-specific pattern.

    “I will plead for the relevance of my subject, the study of a Chinese way of thinking, to conversation within a larger theoretical ambit.”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Chinese culture can be treated as a coherent entity across historical periods for the purpose of identifying a characteristic way of thinking.

    “To borrow Huizinga’s terminology, China is the culture of typism writ large.”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The hell paintings in the Fiesole museum are representative of Chinese popular religious imagery and of early twentieth-century Chinese case-based thinking.

    “The set of images that demonstrates the enduring logic of examples in the Chinese imaginary is a series of large-size paintings of hell.”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Lin Yutang's and Lu Xun's texts are representative examples of modern Chinese rhetoric.

    “However, Lin’s rhetorical devices in this English-language text are symptomatic of modern Chinese writing.”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The category Chinese discourse is sufficiently unified to support generalizations about its tendencies.

    “Chinese discourse, however, tends to employ cases to confirm the validity of established sets of beliefs.”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The notion of unfailingly correct leaders had analogs in the Soviet Union and elsewhere in Europe during the twentieth century.

    “While the notion of unfailingly correct”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Past sinological writing commonly held that contemporary Chinese speakers still necessarily followed patterns set by their cultural tradition.

    “the belief, common in past sinological writing, that contemporary Chinese speakers still necessarily followed the patterns set by their cultural tradition”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Anglophone scholarship is reluctant to notice differences between Western and non-Western styles of argument lest any commentary be criticized as essentializing or Orientalist.

    “the presentday reluctance, especially of Anglophone scholarship, to notice differences between Western and non-Western styles of argument lest any commentary on these be criticized as”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Chinese and Western modes of argument are comparable in a way that allows identifying a characteristic Chinese mode.

    “It does argue that thinking patterns or habits can be compared, and it identifies”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Thinking through cases is a coherent and identifiable mode of thought.

    “the rest of what has been called here”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The examples of Western attention to particulars are representative of a broader trend.

    “Evidence of this development can be seen in contemporary historiography.”
11 of 11

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 17

  1. An original study from the 1960s is Liou Kia-hway, "The Configuration of Chi- nese Thinking," trans. Nora McKeon, Diogenes 49 (1965): 66-96.
  2. -Johannes Süßmann, "Einleitung: Perspektiven der Fallstudienforschung," in Süßmann et al., Fallstudien, pp. 7-27.
  3. Rodney J. Payton and Ulrich Mammitzsch (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), pp. 250- 251. 13 -Ibid., pp. 270, 276-278, 281.
  4. -Arthur F. Wright, "Values, Roles, and Personalities," in Arthur F. Wright and Denis Twitchett, eds., Confucian Personalities (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1962), pp. 3-23, calls the scholar-officials "prime living exemplars" (p. 7); see more on "the authority of examples and exemplars," pp. 9-10, and the "role playing" involved in choosing past or living examples for emulation, pp. 10-16. Cf. Denis Twitchett, "Problems of Chinese Biography," Confucian Personalities, pp. 24-39, at p.
  5. -Furth, "Introduction: Thinking with Cases," in Furth et al., Thinking with Cases, pp. 1-27, at p. 15.
  6. -Nakamura, Ways of Thinking of Eastern Peoples, p. 196. See his whole chapter 17, "Emphasis on the Particular."
  7. -See Tong Lam, A Passion for Facts: Social Surveys and the Construction of the Chinese NationState, 1900-1949 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011), pp. 41-49; cf. p. 166.
  8. -Carlo Ginzburg, "Ein Plädoyer für den Kasus" (originally in English: "A Case for Cases"), trans. Mike Marklove and Gisela Engel, in Süßmann et al., Fallstudien, pp. 29-48, at p.
  9. Ginzburg arrives at the question he wishes to avoid when his interpretation of The Prince triggers the assertion that "Machiavelli was not an immoral person" (pp. 39-40). Cf. Carlo Ginzburg, "Casuistry: For and Against: Pascal's Provinciales and Their Aftermath," Tanner Lectures on Human Values, Harvard University, April 15-16, 2015.
  10. -Furth, "Introduction," pp. 15-16, 18.
  11. -Ginzburg, "Ein Plädoyer für den Kasus," pp. 42-45.
  12. As John D. Lyons puts it: "The Early Modern world, after being shaken by the discovery of the New World Zeitlin, "The Literary Fashioning of Medical Authority: A Study of Sun Yikui's Case Histories," in Thinking with Cases, p. 196. Such usage is less appropriate, as "case-based reasoning" directs to the terminology of computer and cognitive science. 33 -Cf. Wright, "Values, Roles, and Personalities," p. 21. 34 -The three quotations come from the introduction to Lam, A Passion for Facts. 35 -"What Is Required of Us as Fathers Today" (1919), in Lu Xun, Selected Works, 4 vols., trans. Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2003), vol. 2, pp. 56-71, at pp. 67-68.
  13. -Cf. James M. Hargett, "Sketches," in Mair, The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, pp. 560-565.
  14. by Qian Zhongshu (1910-1998), one of the most erudite authors and critics of his time, in Kirk A. Denton, ed., Modern Chinese Literary Thought: Writings on Literature, 1893-1945 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), pp. 443-449.
  15. -See on Chinese "correlative" (or "proto-scientific") thinking in Joseph Need- ham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 2, History of Scientific Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1956), pp. 279-303, and Christoph Harbsmeier, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 7, part 1, Language and Logic (same publisher, 1998).
  16. -Jean-Claude Passeron and Jacques Revel, "Penser par cas: Raisonner à partir de singularités," in Passeron and Revel, Penser par cas, pp. 9-44, at pp. 28-29.
  17. See principally Christoph Irmscher, "Darwin's Beard," in Christa Jansohn, ed., Old Age and Ageing in British and American Culture and Litera ture (Münster: LIT, 2004), pp. 87-106.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Gamsa, M.
Corresponding author
Gamsa, Mark
ORCID
Gamsa, Mark
Venue
Philosophy East and West
Publisher
Project MUSE
Published
2018
Volume
68
Issue
1
Pages
42-58
ISSN
  • 0031-8221 (ISSN-L)
  • 1529-1898
DOI
10.1353/pew.2018.0002
OpenAlex
W2779960462
Semantic Scholar
a8692daa0d772d2328dec6dfe3c2825e924d9d45
Cited by
1
References
44
Citations by year
2019: 1
FWCI
0.22
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Philosophy East and West (publishedVersion)
  • Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Language, Metaphor, and Cognition
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Chinese history and philosophy
Keywords
casuistry, comparative philosophy

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Claims read by deepseek-v4.1-flash under definition version 3 (extract-v3) on 2026-10-04.

Classified by jev-1.13-20260917 (gold-guideline-v0.2) on 2026-10-04.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review