Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
Articles 1 - 15 of 15
Full-Text Articles in Ethics and Political Philosophy
Human Rights In Chinese Tradition, Stephen C. Angle
Human Rights In Chinese Tradition, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
This chapter in Sarah Biddulph and Joshua Rosenzweig, eds., Handbook on human rights in China (Edward Elgar, 2019) -- examines three different approaches: the Chinese tradition is (1) an obstacle to human rights, (2) an alternative to human rights, or (3) a source of human rights. While some scholars have insisted on one or another of these approaches, I will argue here that there is truth in all of them. Nothing about the Chinese tradition determines, once-and-for-all, what modern Chinese must think about human rights, but there is no question that it has had, and will continue to have, varying …
Moral Virtue, Civic Virtue, And Pluralism, Stephen C. Angle
Moral Virtue, Civic Virtue, And Pluralism, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
Kim Sungmoon’s Confucian Democracy in East Asia: Theory and Practice makes many important contributions to our understanding of what is at stake in thinking of Confucianism as a viable political theory in the modern world. One of the book’s most interesting features is its grounding in the on-going practice of Confucianism in South Korea, on the one hand, and yet its emphasis on pluralism within Korean society, on the other.[1] Kim thus aims to describe and defend a polity that, while not relying on its citizens’ unanimous acceptance of Confucianism as comprehensive doctrine, nonetheless can legitimately maintain a distinctively …
Virtue Ethics, Rule Of Law, And Self-Restriction, Stephen C. Angle
Virtue Ethics, Rule Of Law, And Self-Restriction, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
It is a provocative coincidence that 1958 saw the publication of both Elizabeth Anscombe’s “Modern Moral Philosophy,” an essay widely seen as initiating the revival of Western philosophical interest in virtue ethics, and the “Manifesto to the World’s People on Behalf of Chinese Culture,” a jointly-authored argument that Confucianism was still alive and had much to offer to the world. A great deal of research and debate has flowed from each of these sources over the last half-century, but so far there has been very little dialogue between modern Western virtue ethics and modern Confucianism.1 Scholars of ancient Confucianism …
Seeing Confucian ‘Active Moral Perception’ In Light Of Contemporary Psychology, Stephen C. Angle
Seeing Confucian ‘Active Moral Perception’ In Light Of Contemporary Psychology, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
A central goal of my 2009 book Sagehood was to demonstrate the value of putting Neo-Confucian thinkers like Zhu Xi (1130-1200) and Wang Yangming (1472-1529) into dialogue with contemporary Western philosophers. I argued there that on a range of topics—from the scope and motivation for ethics, to understanding and responding to moral conflicts, to moral perception, to ethical education—Western philosophers could learn from Zhu and Wang, and the contemporary heirs of the Neo-Confucians could learn from their Western counterparts. In Sagehood I also dipped into some recent psychological literature on the lives and psychology of moral exemplars, which I used …
Sages And Self-Restriction: A Response To Joseph Chan, Stephen C. Angle
Sages And Self-Restriction: A Response To Joseph Chan, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
Many thanks to Joseph Chan for his insightful review, and to the editors of this journal for allowing me this brief response. By the time this exchange appears in print, Joseph’s important book Confucian Perfectionism will have been published, and readers will be able to see all the more clearly the many ways in which Joseph’s and my visions of broadly democratic Confucian political philosophy overlap and, I think, reinforce one another. Still, there are places where we see things differently, and so dialogue like the present exchange—and the prior workshop on my book that Joseph generously arranged at his university …
Sages And Self-Restriction: A Response To Joseph Chan, Stephen C. Angle
Sages And Self-Restriction: A Response To Joseph Chan, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
Many thanks to Joseph Chan for his insightful review, and to the editors of this journal for allowing me this brief response. By the time this exchange appears in print, Joseph’s important book Confucian Perfectionism will have been published, and readers will be able to see all the more clearly the many ways in which Joseph’s and my visions of broadly democratic Confucian political philosophy overlap and, I think, reinforce one another. Still, there are places where we see things differently, and so dialogue like the present exchange—and the prior workshop on my book that Joseph generously arranged at his university …
Is Conscientiousness A Virtue? Confucian Responses, Stephen C. Angle
Is Conscientiousness A Virtue? Confucian Responses, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
Among contemporary philosophers sympathetic to the theoretical centrality of virtue, there is little agreement on the status of conscientiousness. Indeed, there is little agreement even on what the word “conscientiousness” means; for the time being, let us take it to mean consciously ensuring that one does one’s duty. Adams and Wallace both take conscientiousness to be a virtue, whereas Roberts calls it a “quasi-virtue” and Slote argues that it is both different from and inferior to virtue.The landscape becomes still more complicated when we add in the vexed concept of “continence,” which we can initially gloss as forcing oneself to …
The Analects And Moral Theory, Stephen C. Angle
The Analects And Moral Theory, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
Over the last century, scholars both within China and without have considered how the Analects relates to modern, Western philosophy. Should we think of the Analects—or the early Confucian tradition more broadly—as “philosophy,” and if so, should we seek to analyze its contents in terms of Western philosophical categories? With regard to the ethical teachings in the text, a more specific concern has also been raised: does it make sense to think of the Analects as engaging in “moral” theory, or is its framework adequately different from modern Western moral philosophy that a different set of categories are necessary?1 …
The Analects And Moral Theory, Stephen C. Angle
The Analects And Moral Theory, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
Over the last century, scholars both within China and without have considered how the Analects relates to modern, Western philosophy. Should we think of the Analects—or the early Confucian tradition more broadly—as “philosophy,” and if so, should we seek to analyze its contents in terms of Western philosophical categories? With regard to the ethical teachings in the text, a more specific concern has also been raised: does it make sense to think of the Analects as engaging in “moral” theory, or is its framework adequately different from modern Western moral philosophy that a different set of categories are necessary?1 …
Is Conscientiousness A Virtue? Confucian Responses, Stephen C. Angle
Is Conscientiousness A Virtue? Confucian Responses, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
Among contemporary philosophers sympathetic to the theoretical centrality of virtue, there is little agreement on the status of conscientiousness. Indeed, there is little agreement even on what the word “conscientiousness” means; for the time being, let us take it to mean consciously ensuring that one does one’s duty. Adams and Wallace both take conscientiousness to be a virtue, whereas Roberts calls it a “quasi-virtue” and Slote argues that it is both different from and inferior to virtue.The landscape becomes still more complicated when we add in the vexed concept of “continence,” which we can initially gloss as forcing oneself to …
Neither Morality Nor Law: Ritual Propriety As Confucian Civility, Stephen C. Angle
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
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 …
Sagely Ease And Moral Perception, Stephen C. Angle
Sagely Ease And Moral Perception, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
In what is probably the most famous description of a sage in all of Chinese philosophy, the Analects tells us that when Confucius reached the age of seventy, he was able to “follow his heart’s desire without overstepping the bounds” (Analects 2.4). It seems that Confucius came to be able to act properly without even trying. Now one might well suspect that at least some of the time, acting properly is easy for most of us. When not faced with a difficult choice or temptation, perhaps we get along fine. The Analects is nonetheless making a very strong claim, even …
Sagely Ease And Moral Perception, Stephen C. Angle
Sagely Ease And Moral Perception, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
In what is probably the most famous description of a sage in all of Chinese philosophy, the Analects tells us that when Confucius reached the age of seventy, he was able to “follow his heart’s desire without overstepping the bounds” (Analects 2.4). It seems that Confucius came to be able to act properly without even trying. Now one might well suspect that at least some of the time, acting properly is easy for most of us. When not faced with a difficult choice or temptation, perhaps we get along fine. The Analects is nonetheless making a very strong claim, even …
Review Of Cua - Moral Vision And Tradition, Stephen C. Angle
Review Of Cua - Moral Vision And Tradition, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
Antonio Cua is a prolific author, with four books and some fifty articles to his credit. For all that, he is not as widely cited, nor as widely read, as several of his contemporaries or juniors in the field of Chinese philosophy. There are at least two reasons for this comparative neglect. First, his writing is often dense and technical, and his essays weighed down by references to others of his writings wherein, one is told, concepts relied on in the current essay are more carefully explained. Second, Cua’s methodology may be off-putting to some. He is upfront about working …