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Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Ethics and Political Philosophy

Piecemeal Progress, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2010

Piecemeal Progress, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

What relevance do alternative moral traditions, such as early Chinese ethical thinking, have for people in the contemporary world? For example, suppose that we can find in early Confucian ethics particular values that are distinctively different from Western notions. How important would such a finding be today? According to three influential accounts of comparative ethics, the presence (or absence) of any given concept is not, on its own, of much significance. Chad Hansen, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Thomas Metzger all emphasize the importance of holistic units of analysis like “traditions” and “discourses” rather than focusing on individual ideas; all would suggest …


Neither Morality Nor Law: Ritual Propriety As Confucian Civility, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2010

Neither Morality Nor Law: Ritual Propriety As Confucian Civility, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

It is common for recent authors on the topic of “civility” to spend some time sketching
the history of their subject.1 One narrative goes like this: civility emerges in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and is part of a larger trend toward disciplining bodily appetites that enables a new kind of cooperation among individuals. Civility interweaves politeness and political respect; it undergirds modern notions of republicanism, civil society, and the public good. In more recent decades—some writers point to World War I as a turning point, but for others, it is the 1960s—civility has declined or at least changed …


Neither Morality Nor Law: Ritual Propriety As Confucian Civility, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2010

Neither Morality Nor Law: Ritual Propriety As Confucian Civility, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

It is common for recent authors on the topic of “civility” to spend some time sketching
the history of their subject.1 One narrative goes like this: civility emerges in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and is part of a larger trend toward disciplining bodily appetites that enables a new kind of cooperation among individuals. Civility interweaves politeness and political respect; it undergirds modern notions of republicanism, civil society, and the public good. In more recent decades—some writers point to World War I as a turning point, but for others, it is the 1960s—civility has declined or at least changed …