Mencius

Edited by Hagop Sarkissian (CUNY Graduate Center, Baruch College (CUNY))
Assistant editor: Andrew Lambert (College of Staten Island (CUNY))
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  1. The Difference Between Ren and Yi: Mengzi’s Anti-Guodianism at 6A4-5.Waldemar Brys - forthcoming - Sophia:1-16.
    Passages from the recently excavated Guodian manuscripts bear a surprising resemblance to a position ascribed to Gaozi and his followers in the Mengzi at 6A4-5, namely that righteousness is “external.” Although such a resemblance has been noted, the philosophical implications of it for the debate between Gaozi and Mengzi and, by extension, for Mengzian ethics have been largely unexplored. I argue that a Guodian-inspired reading of 6A4-5 is one that takes the debate to be about whether standing in certain family (...)
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  2. Mengzi's Reception of Two All-Out Externality Statements on Yì 義.L. K. Gustin Law - forthcoming - Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy.
    In Mengzi 6A4, Gaozi states that “yì 義 (propriety, rightness) is external, not internal.” In 6A5, Meng Jizi says of yì that “...it is on the external, not from the internal.” Their defenses are met with Mengzi’s resistance. What does he perceive and resist in these statements? Focusing on several key passages, I compare six promising interpretations. 6A4 and a relevant part of 2A2 can be rendered comparably sensible under each of the six. However, what Gaozi says in 6A1 clearly (...)
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  3. Doing what you really want: an introduction to the philosophy of Mengzi. [REVIEW]Waldemar Brys - 2023 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 31 (1):137-140.
    A book review of Perkins (2022), "Doing what you really want: an introduction to the philosophy of Mengzi", Oxford University Press.
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  4. Virtuous actions in the Mengzi.Waldemar Brys - 2023 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 31 (1):2-22.
    Many anglophone scholars take the early Confucians to be virtue ethicists of one kind or another. A common virtue ethical reading of one of the most influential early Confucians, namely Mengzi, ascribes to him the view that moral actions are partly (or entirely) moral because of the state from which they are performed, be it the agent’s motives, emotions, or their character traits. I consider whether such a reading of the Mengzi is justified and I argue that it is not. (...)
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  5. Epistemology in the Mencius.Waldemar Brys - 2023 - In Yang Xiao & Kim-Chong Chong (eds.), Dao Companion to the Philosophy of Mencius. Cham: Springer. pp. 491-514.
    This chapter examines Mencius’s views on knowledge and how they might contribute to contemporary debates in epistemology. For this purpose, I focus on three features that I take to be characteristic (although not exhaustive) of Mencian epistemology: first, Mencius’s views on knowing things; second, the role that wisdom or intellectual virtue plays in acquiring knowledge; and third, Mencius’s views on “knowing-to”, a kind of knowledge conceptually distinct from knowing-that and knowing-how. I argue that the views we find in the Mencius (...)
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  6. Extending Kindness: A Confucian Account.Waldemar Brys - 2023 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 104 (3):511-528.
    The Confucian philosopher Mengzi believes that ‘extending’ one's kindness facilitates one's moral development and that it is intimately tied to performing morally good actions. Most interpreters have taken Mengzian kindness to be an emotional state, with the extension of kindness to centrally involve feeling kindness towards more people or in a greater number of situations. I argue that kindness cannot do all the theoretical work that Mengzi wants it to do if it is interpreted as an emotion. I submit that (...)
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  7. Confucianism and Transgenerational Grounds for Justice.May Sim - 2023 - The Monist 106 (2):181-193.
    This article explores Mencius’s virtue-oriented ethics and its metaphysical foundation for resources they can provide to transgenerational communities. Mencius’s ethics offers moral norms for human actions that transcend those generations with whom they can interact and impact generations of people in the future. These actions range from the preservation of traditional values to the challenges of climate change, offering grounds for transgenerational justice. Mencius’s account of virtues offers a moral justification for the standards of living that are common to all (...)
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  8. Dignidad humana, personalidad y control de constitucionalidad. ¿Normatividad fuerte sin metafísica?Wei Feng - 2022 - UNIVERSITAS. Revista de Filosofía, Derecho y Política 37:2-50.
    El concepto de dignidad humana ha sido considerado o demasiado denso o demasiado delgado. Sin embargo, desde el punto de vista del no-positivismo, la normatividad jurídica de la dignidad humana puede ser justificada y reforzada por medio de su corrección moral. Desde una perspectiva individual, la comprensión de Mencio sobre la dignidad humana como un valor intrínseco y el imperativo categórico de Kant (el ser humano como un fin en sí mismo) podrían ser adecuadamente comprendidos con base en la diferencia (...)
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  9. A Mencian Account of Resentment.Daryl Ooi - 2022 - Philosophy Compass 17 (9):e12870.
    The reactive attitude of ‘resentment’ has been gaining increasing attention within contemporary philosophical literature. However, little attention has been given to the conceptions of resentment in Asian philosophy. In recent years, some philosophers have argued that there is a positive account of resentment in Confucian philosophy. This paper brings a recent Mencian account of resentment in conversation with contemporary philosophical discussions. The conversations revolve around aspects of resentment such as exculpatory conditions, payback, transition, and moral cultivation. The conversation not only (...)
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  10. Intuitive Learning in Moral Awareness. Cognitive-Affective Processes in Mencius’ Innatist Theory.İlknur Sertdemir - 2022 - Academicus International Scientific Journal 13 (25):235-254.
    Mencius, referred to as second sage in Chinese philosophy history, grounds his theory about original goodness of human nature on psychological components by bringing in something new down ancient ages. Including the principles of virtuous action associated with Confucius to his doctrine, but by composing them along psychosocial development, he theorizes utterly out of the ordinary that makes all the difference to the school. In his argument stated a positive opinion, he explains the method of forming individuals' moral awareness by (...)
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  11. Cultivating Goodness or Manifesting Goodness: Two Interpretations of the Mencius.H. C. Winnie Sung - 2022 - In Tom Angier and Lisa Raphals (ed.), Skill in Ancient Ethics The Legacy of China, Greece and Rome. pp. 203–220.
    This chapter explores Mencius’s view on the kind of effort that is needed to attain a state in which one is fixated on propriety. In Mencius 2A:2, Mencius claims that he attained the unmoved xin 心 (heart/mind) at the age of forty. Very roughly, we may understand the unmoved xin as a state in which xin is fixated on propriety. That Mencius attained the unmoved xin only when he was forty suggests that xin’s fixation on propriety is not a given (...)
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  12. Philosophical Systematicity and Its Implications for Confucian and Comparative Philosophy.Justin Tiwald - 2022 - Journal of Confucian Philosophy and Culture 37:5-14.
    When studying historical thinkers, it helps enormously to know on which issues they had philosophically systematic views. For example, if attributing to Mencius the view that all existence is process-like rather than substance-like, it is very useful to know whether Mencius had philosophically systematic views about the (process-like or substance-like) nature of existence in the first place, or whether speculation about this particular issue is more constructive on the part of interpreters. In this paper, I offer a rough-and-ready account of (...)
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  13. The Epistemology of Mengzian Extension.Waldemar Brys - 2021 - In Karyn L. Lai (ed.), Knowers and Knowledge in East-West Philosophy. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 43-61.
    In this chapter I give an account of the epistemology underlying the concept of “extension” in the Mengzi, an early Confucian text written in the fourth century BCE. Mengzi suggests in a conversation with King Xuan of Qi that a solution to the King’s problem of how one comes to act in a kingly manner is that one engages in “extension”. I argue that a long-standing scholarly debate on the exact nature of Mengzian “extension” can be resolved by closely investigating (...)
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  14. Naturalism, Human Flourishing, and Asian Philosophy: Owen Flanagan and Beyond. [REVIEW]L. K. Gustin Law - 2021 - Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2021.
  15. Mengzi on Nourishing the Heart by Having Few Desires.David Machek - 2021 - Philosophy East and West 71 (2):393-413.
    This article reconstructs grounds for Mengzi's view that moral self-cultivation, or the process of "nourishing the heart" (yangxin 養心), depends largely on minimizing the desires of the senses. I argue that these desires are detrimental for the growth of the heart in two different ways: directly, by distorting or desensitizing the heart's moral perception, and indirectly, by depriving it of its nutrients, that is, of the exercise of moral actions.
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  16. Resenting Heaven in the Mencius: An Extended Footnote to Mencius 2B13.Daryl Ooi - 2021 - Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 20 (2):207-229.
    It is widely accepted among Mencius scholars that for Mencius, the junzi 君子 is the kind of person who accepts Heaven’s will and never resents Heaven. There are, however, several passages where resentment seems to be presented as a quality that the junzi possesses. In particular, Mencius 2B13 has been the subject of much contention. In Section 1, I will discuss various interpretations of 2B13, building on and updating Philip Ivanhoe’s helpful 1988 survey. In Section 2, I will present an (...)
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  17. Moral Beauty and the Beast: Ethical Dilemmas in the Mencius.Paul van Els - 2021 - Journal of Confucian Philosophy and Culture 35:13–45.
    This article analyzes Mencius 7B.23, a concise passage that offers complex ethical dilemmas. It provides a close reading of the passage, along with relevant passages elsewhere in the text and, occasionally, in other texts. The narrow goal of the article is to present a coherent reading of the passage within the context of the Mencius as a whole. This reading suggests that while the passage touches upon a wide range of topics, including personal credibility and political responsibility, the overarching concern (...)
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  18. Confucianism and Totalitarianism: An Arendtian Reconsideration of Mencius versus Xunzi.Lee Wilson - 2021 - Philosophy East and West 71 (4):981-1004.
    Totalitarianism is perhaps unanimously regarded as one of the greatest political evils of the last century and has been the grounds for much of Anglo-American political theory since. Confucianism, meanwhile, has been gaining credibility in the past decades among sympathizers of democratic theory in spite of criticisms of it being anti-democratic or authoritarian. I consider how certain key concepts in the classical Confucian texts of the Mencius and the Xunzi might or might not be appropriated for ‘legitimising’ totalitarian regimes. Under (...)
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  19. What is the Nature of “the Unperturbed Mind-heart” in Mencius 2A:2?Peter Tsung Kei Wong - 2021 - Chinese Studies 漢學研究 39 (2):1-37.
    「不動心」的本質是甚麼? ─《孟子》〈知言養氣章〉的文理與義理 / 漢學研究 39.2 (2021): 1-37. Scholars have tended to focus on the implications of such philosophical terms as “flood-like qi” 浩然之氣 and “unperturbed mind-heart” 不動心 in Mencius 2A:2, but have failed to identify the common thread of this rather long chapter. This article argues that Mencius 2A:2 frequently alludes to Analects 2.4, and that this allusion is precisely the common thread holding 2A:2 together. According to Mencius’s interpretation, Confucius’s achievements in different ages as stated in Analects 2.4 are (...)
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  20. Mencius, Hume, and the Virtue of Humanity: Sources of Benevolent Moral Development.Jeremiah Carey & Rico Vitz - 2020 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 28 (4):693-713.
    In this paper, we elucidate the moral psychology and what we might call the moral sociology of Mencius and of Hume, and we argue for three claims. First, we demonstrate that there are strong similarities between Mencius and Hume concerning some of the principal psychological sources of the virtue of humanity. Second, we show that there are strong similarities between the two concerning some of the principal social sources of the virtue of humanity. Third, we argue that there are related, (...)
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  21. Love’s Extension: Confucian Familial Love and the Challenge of Impartiality.Andrew Lambert - 2020 - In Michael Kühler Rachel Fedock (ed.), Love, Justice, and Autonomy: Philosophical Perspectives. New York, NY, USA: pp. 364pp.
    The question of possible moral conflict between commitment to family and to impartiality is particularly relevant to traditional Confucian thought, given the importance of familial bonds in that tradition. Classical Confucian ethics also appears to lack any developed theoretical commitment to impartiality as a regulative ideal and a standpoint for ethical judgment, or to universal equality. The Confucian prioritizing of family has prompted criticism of Confucian ethics, and doubts about its continuing relevance in China and beyond. This chapter assesses how (...)
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  22. The Wrong of Rudeness. [REVIEW]Andrew Lambert - 2020 - Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2020.
    Amy Olberding, The Wrong of Rudeness: Learning Modern Civility from Ancient Chinese Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 2019, 183pp., $29.95 (hbk), ISBN 9780190880965. Reviewed byAndrew Lambert, City University of New York, College of Staten Island.
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  23. De heer en het beest: De eerbare mens volgens Mencius.Paul van Els - 2020 - Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 82:241–64.
    Anecdotes play an important role in ancient Chinese philosophical writings. This essay offers a close reading of one anecdote in the Mencius, one of the most influential Confucian texts. This reading provides insight into what it means, according to Mencius, to be a morally superior human being. The goal of this essay is to provide insight into the ethical and political philosophy of Mencius and, more broadly, to provide a guideline for reading Chinese philosophical writings in an attentive and receptive (...)
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  24. The challenge of selfish actions to the fight against COVID-19 and Mencius's condemnation of Yang Zhu.Ranie Villaver - 2020 - SES Journal:32-52.
    Because Mencius’s condemnation is equivalent to condemnation of ethical egoism, Mencius’s condemnation of Yang Zhu has something to say about the fight against COVID-19. There are measures, imposed by government, to fight the virus and defiance against these measures is condemned as selfish. In other words, Mencius’s condemnation of Yang Zhu could be said to be saying that the defiance is to be condemned as selfish.
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  25. Space, Time and the Ethical Foundations (2nd edition).Robert Elliott Allinson - 2019 - London and New York: Routledge.
    Anthony C. Yu, Carl Buck Distinguished Professor in Humanities, Chairman, Division of East Asian Languages, University of Chicago, Divinity School, writes: "Robert Allinson's book represents tremendous thoughtfulness, originality, and erudition. Its wide-ranging and lucid discussions cover a huge terrain, from ancient metaphysics to quantum mechanics. The enlistment of certain classical Confucian concepts and themes at critical junctures to advance the book's argument also provides luminous comparison. His interpretation of the Confucian emphasis on life as social and self-preservation is both humane (...)
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  26. Part 1: Moral motivation in Mencius—When a child falls into a well.Jing Iris Hu - 2019 - Philosophy Compass 1 (8).
    As a 4th century BCE Confucian text, Mencius provides a rich reflection on moral emotions, such as empathy and compassion, and moral cultivation, which has drawn attention from scholars around the world. This two-part discussion dwells on the idea of natural moral motivation expressed through the analogy of the four sprouts—particularly the sprout of ceyin zhixin (the heart of feelings others' distress)—as the starting point, the focus, and the drive of moral cultivation. In this paper, Part 1, I stress the (...)
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  27. Emotional Attachment and Its Limits: Mengzi, Gaozi and the Guodian Discussions.Karyn L. Lai - 2019 - Frontiers of Philosophy in China 14 (1):132-151.
    Mengzi maintained that both benevolence (ren 仁) and rightness (yi 義) are naturally-given in human nature. This view has occupied a dominant place in Confucian intellectual history. In Mencius 6A, Mengzi's interlocutor, Gaozi, contests this view, arguing that rightness is determined by (doing what is fitting, in line with) external circumstances. I discuss here some passages from the excavated Guodian texts, which lend weight to Gaozi's view. The texts reveal nuanced considerations of relational proximity and its limits, setting up requirements (...)
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  28. Bu Ren 不忍 in the Mencius.Winnie Sung - 2019 - Philosophy East and West 69 (4):1098-1119.
    The term bu ren 不忍, which may be loosely translated as "cannot bear to harm others," does not occur frequently in the Mencius. However, the passages where the term does occur are ones that are crucial to our understanding of Mencius' thought. In one of the key passages, 1A:7, Mencius uses the example of King Xuan of Qi 齊宣王 having the heart/mind of bu ren for an ox to show that he has the kind of heart/mind that enables him to (...)
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  29. The Reification of Fate in Early China.Mercedes Valmisa - 2019 - Early China 1 (42):147-199.
    Early Chinese texts make us witnesses to debates about the power, or lack thereof, that humans had over the course of events, the outcomes of their actions, and their own lives. In the midst of these discourses on the limits of the efficacy of human agency, the notion of ming 命 took a central position. In this article, I present a common pattern of thinking about the relationship between the person and the world in early China. I call it the (...)
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  30. A History of Classical Chinese Thought.Li Zehou & Andrew Lambert - 2019 - New York, New York: Routledge. Edited by Andrew Lambert.
  31. Mengzi’s Moral Psychology, Part 1: The Four Moral Sprouts.John Ramsey - 2018 - 1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology.
    Mengzi (372–289 BCE), or Mencius, an early Confucian whose thinking is represented in the eponymous Mengzi, argues that human nature is good and that all human beings possess four senses—the feelings of compassion, shame, respect, and the ability to approve and disapprove—which he variously calls “hearts” or “sprouts.” Each sprout may be cultivated into its corresponding virtue of ren, li, yi, or zhi. -/- Here we explore why Mengzi thinks we possess these four hearts and their relation to the cultivated (...)
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  32. Mengzi’s Moral Psychology, Part 2: The Cultivation Analogy.John Ramsey - 2018 - 1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology.
    We explore the central analogy behind Mengzi’s view of ethical cultivation. -/- Philosophers sometimes ask what makes a person’s life worthwhile or what conditions make for a good life. Mengzi’s answer involves cultivating our innate moral senses into fully ripened virtues of ren (humaneness), yi (rightness), li (propriety), and zhi (wisdom). This cultivation neither is individualistic nor can it happen in isolation: it requires a lifetime of meaningful interactions with other people. In short, one’s ethical cultivation is interdependent with other (...)
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  33. 孟子的性之伦理学中的几个关键概念 (Mencius's Nature-Ethics).Yang Xiao - 2018 - In Bulletin of the Zhejiang University Institute for Advanced Study. Zhejiang University Institute for Advanced Study. pp. 4 - 48.
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  34. Confucianism and American Philosophy.Mathew A. Foust - 2017 - Albany, USA: SUNY Press.
    In this highly original work, Mathew A. Foust breaks new ground in comparative studies through his exploration of the connections between Confucianism and the American Transcendentalist and Pragmatist movements. In his examination of a broad range of philosophers, including Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Charles Peirce, William James, and Josiah Royce, Foust traces direct lines of influence from early translations of Confucian texts and brings to light conceptual affinities that have been previously overlooked. Combining resources from (...)
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  35. Confucianism and American Philosophy. [REVIEW]Andrew Lambert - 2017 - Review of Metaphysics 71 (4).
  36. “Benevolence-Righteousness” as Strategic Terminology: Reading Mengzi’s “Ren-Yi” through Strategic Manuals.Ting-Mien Lee - 2017 - Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 16 (1):15-34.
    This essay offers an experimental interpretation for Mengzi’s 孟子 ren-yi 仁義 discourses, reading them as strategic prescriptions akin to those presented in classical strategic manuals. However, rather than arguing that it is the correct interpretation of Mengzi, I use it to highlight the ambiguity of Mengzi’s discourses. This ambiguity, I argue, motivated Zhuangzi’s 莊子 criticisms of moral language abuse and rationalizes some early narratives about Mengzi.
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  37. Wong on Three Confucian Metaphors for Ethical Development.Christian B. Miller - 2017 - Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 16 (4):551-558.
    This is my contribution to a symposium on David Wong’s paper, “Early Confucian Philosophy and the Development of Compassion.” I simply grant Wong his reading of the relevant texts and consider the merits of the ideas about ethical development on their own terms. In particular, my aim is to see how fruitful these ideas might be in the contemporary philosophical landscape.
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  38. Evaluative Desire in the Mencius.Sin Yee Chan - 2016 - Philosophy East and West 66 (4):1168-1195.
    The concept of yu 欲 is an under-explored concept in the scholarship on early Confucianism. Perhaps due to the focus on the term “the yu of eyes and ears,” a common term in early Chinese philosophy denoting desires for sensual gratification, or on the Daoist stance on desires, many scholars tend to emphasize the negative and the hedonistic connotations of the term. For example, Chad Hansen notes that the early Confucians do not “make desires central in their account of human (...)
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  39. Correlative Reasoning about Water in Mengzi 6A2.Nicholaos Jones - 2016 - Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 15 (2):193-207.
    Mengzi 孟子 6A2 contains the famous water analogy for the innate goodness of human nature. Some evaluate Mengzi’s reasoning as strong and sophisticated; others, as weak or sophistical. I urge for more nuance in our evaluation. Mengzi’s reasoning fares poorly when judged by contemporary standards of analogical strength. However, if we evaluate the analogy as an instance of correlative thinking within a yin-yang 陰陽 cosmology, his reasoning fares well. That cosmology provides good reason to assert that water tends to flow (...)
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  40. Human Nature and Moral Sprouts: Mencius on the Pollyanna Problem.Richard T. Kim - 2016 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 99 (1):140-162.
    This article responds to a common criticism of Aristotelian naturalism known as the Pollyanna Problem, the objection that Aristotelian naturalism, when combined with recent empirical research, generates morally unacceptable conclusions. In developing a reply to this objection, I draw upon the conception of human nature developed by the ancient Chinese philosopher Mencius, and build up an account of ethical naturalism that provides a satisfying response to the Pollyanna Problem while also preserving what is most attractive about Aristotelian naturalism.
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  41. How Kierkegaard can help us understand covering in Analects 13.18.Andrew James Komasinski - 2016 - Asian Philosophy 26 (2):133-148.
    ABSTRACTI suggest that Kierkegaard proves a helpful interlocutor in the debate about Analects 13.18 and the meaning of yin 隱. After surveying the contemporary debate, I argue that Kierkegaard and the Confucians agree on three important points. First, they both present relational selves. Second, both believe certain relationships are integral for moral knowledge. Third, both present a differentiated account of love where our obligations are highest to those with whom we are closest. Moreover, Kierkegaard’s ‘covering’ in the deliberation ‘Love covers (...)
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  42. Confucian Harmony, Greek Harmony, and Liberal Harmony.Chenyang Li - 2016 - Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 15 (3):427-435.
    In this paper I respond to criticisms from Jiyuan Yu, Yu Kam Por, and Daniel Bell on interpreting Confucian philosophy of harmony and on various views of harmony from Confucian, Greek, liberal and global perspectives.
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  43. Rosemont Jr., Henry, Against Individualism: A Confucian Rethinking of the Foundations of Morality, Politics, Family, and Religion.Hans-Georg Moeller - 2016 - Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 15 (3):483-488.
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  44. Confucian Role Ethics: A Critical Survey.John Ramsey - 2016 - Philosophy Compass 11 (5):235-245.
    This article surveys recent scholarship on Confucian role ethics, examines some of its fundamental commitments, and suggests future directions for scholarship. Role ethics interprets early Confucianism as promoting a relational conception of persons and employs this conception to emphasize how a person's roles and relationships are the source of her ethical obligations and ethical growth. While there is much consensus among role ethic scholars, they disagree over the role of theory in further explicating the view and about the metaphysical basis (...)
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  45. Confucian Role Ethics and Relational Autonomy in the Mengzi.John Ramsey - 2016 - Philosophy East and West 66 (3):903-922.
    This essay examines whether Confucian role ethics offers resources to identify and redress gender inequality and oppression. On its face, Confucian role ethics seems ill suited for this task for two reasons. First, a central tenet of role ethics is that a person is constituted by her roles. Because roles are constituted by norms that govern them, many social roles are, and have been, historically oppressive. Second, discussions of Confucian role ethics tend to avoid talk of autonomy, yet autonomy is (...)
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  46. The relational self and the Confucian familial ethics.Qiong Wang - 2016 - Asian Philosophy 26 (3):193-205.
    ABSTRACTIn this article, I shall briefly examine the basic characteristics of Confucian familial morality, especially of the concept of filial piety, and argue that ancient Confucians tend to be conservative on allowing breach of filial obligations although they may not entirely exclude particular considerations to exceptional situations to a certain degree. I shall then argue that this conservative aspect of the Confucian idea of filial piety accurately captures some distinctive features of familial relationships and may thus shed light on our (...)
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  47. Chinese Harmony and Greek Harmony—On Li Chenyang’s The Confucian Philosophy of Harmony.Jiyuan Yu - 2016 - Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 15 (3):413-419.
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  48. The Role of Human Nature in Moral Inqiury: MacIntyre, Mencius, and Xunzi.Richard Kim - 2015 - History of Philosophy Quarterly 32 (4):313-333.
    Appeals to human nature in normative inquiry have fallen out of favor among contemporary philosophers. There are a variety of reasons frequently cited by those who see appeals to human nature as deeply problematic: (a) that the notion of human nature, which conceives nature as having a teleological direction, is incompatible with evolutionary biology; (b) that the manifest diversity of cultural values and traditions falsify any essentialist claims involving a common nature necessarily shared by all humans; (c) that appeals to (...)
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  49. Mencius and the Stoics – tui and oikeiôsis.R. A. H. King - 2015 - In The Good Life and Conceptions of Life in Early China and Graeco-Roman Antiquity. De Gruyter. pp. 341-362.
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  50. Mengzi’s Externalist Solution to the Role Dilemma.John Ramsey - 2015 - Asian Philosophy 25 (2):188-206.
    The role dilemma raises a problem for role ethic interpretations of Confucianism. The dilemma arises from the conflict between the demands and obligations of Humaneness and the demands and obligations of roles one occupies. Favoring the demands of Humaneness undermines a role ethic because roles and role-obligations no longer ground the ethic. However, favoring social role-obligations permits immoral and unjust role-obligations and allows for uncharitable readings of Confucianism.This paper examines how Mengzi resolves the dilemma. I argue that Mengzi’s account of (...)
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