Taking Confucian Ethics Seriously

This thought-provoking work presents Confucianism as a living ethical tradition with contemporary relevance. While acknowledged as one of the world's most influential philosophies, Confucianism's significance is too often consigned to a historical or solely East Asian context. Discussing both the strengths and weaknesses of Confucian ethics, the volume's contributors reflect on what this tradition offers that we cannot readily learn from other systems of ethics. Developing Confucian ethical ideas within a contemporary context, this work discusses the nature of virtue, the distinction between public and private, the value of spontaneity, the place of sympathy in moral judgment, what it means to be humane, how to handle competing values, and the relationship between trust and democracy. For all those concerned with ethics, this book offers both new perspectives and resources for the ongoing consideration of how we should live.

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Why Take Confucian Ethics Seriously?
Kam-por Yu, Julia Tao, and Philip J. Ivanhoe

1. What It Means to Take Chinese Ethics Seriously
Heiner Roetz

2. The Handling of Multiple Values in Confucian Ethics
Kam-por Yu

3. Humanity or Benevolence? The Interpretation of ConfucianRen and Its Modern Implications
Qianfan Zhang

4. East Asian Conceptions of the Public and Private Realms
Chun-chieh Huang

5. Trust Within Democracy: A Reconstructed Confucian Perspective
Julia Tao

6. A Defense ofRen-Based Interpretation of Early Confucian Ethics
Shirong Luo

7. Is Sympathy Naive?: Dai Zhen on the Use ofShu to Track Well-Being
Justin Tiwald

8. The Nature of the Virtues in Light of the Early Confucian Tradition
Eirik Lang Harris

9. The Values of Spontaneity
Philip J. Ivanhoe

List of Contributors
Index