[1] In 2012, Stephen C. Angle, Professor of Philosophy, and Mansfield Freeman, Professor of East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University, first put forward the idea of Progressive Confucianism as a continuation of the Confucian tradition that accepts the challenges posed by contemporary society.
[citation needed] ''Self-restriction'' (Chinese: 自我坎陷) is an essential notion Angle adopts from Mou Zhongsan to set the overall framework for Progressive Confucianism.
In Angle's conception, Mou identifies two kinds of reasoning, one ''ethical and subjective'', serving as "an innate moral consciousness that has the ability to directly intuit the basic moral nature of the cosmos," while the other ''analytical and objective'', operating as "a cognitive, analytical consciousness that works by distinguishing subject from object.
[3] In order for individuals to fully live by Confucian virtues, some objective, public structures (like laws) are needed.
'"[2] Sor-hoon Tan, Professor of Philosophy at Singapore Management University points out that Confucian ritual (Chinese: 礼) works together with the rule of law and plays a unique role in shaping a harmonious community.
[5] Tan notes that "litigation inclines people toward selfishness by requiring them to think in terms of themselves as being opposed to others, thus undermining trust and reducing the chances of harmonious association thereafter."
"[5] In order to achieve the harmonious state desired by Confucianism, the external rule of law and the internal regulation of rituals need to form an organic whole in guiding people's behaviors.
Angle's understanding of Confucian human rights is based on Zhao Tingyang's normative concept of ''all-under-heaven''.
Compared to the western notion of the state of nature and veil of ignorance thought experiments, the grounding of Confucian human rights is in "real relationships in which we join our lives and the moral communities (beginning with the family) on which our agencies depend.
Ann Pang-White, Director of Asian studies at The University of Scranton and the editor of The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Chinese Philosophy and Gender, suggests that "yin-yang cosmology when appropriately understood does not necessarily support a rigid oppositional split of 'femininity/female/women versus masculinity/male/men.'