Asian Philosophy 11 (2):61 – 71 (2001)
Abstract |
It is often supposed that Confucianism is opposed to the idea of equality insofar as the key ideals to which it is committed, such as meritocracy and li , are incompatible with equality. Sympathetic commentators typically defend Confucianism by saying that (a) the Confucian person is not a free-standing individual but a social being embedded in a social structure with different and unequal roles, and (b) social inequality has to be traded in for other values. This paper argues that in advocating meritocracy, Confucianism does not abandon the idea of equality. Indeed, invoking Aristotle's account of equality in the Nicomachean Ethics , it can be argued that the unequal distribution of rights and benefits reflects one aspect of equality, namely the vertical aspect, or the unequal treatment of unequals.
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Keywords | 780199 Other Confucianism Asian Philosophy Equality 440115 Philosophy of Specific Cultures (e.g. Ancient Greek, Chinese) C1 |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
DOI | 10.1080/09552360120087840 |
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References found in this work BETA
Thinking Through Confucius.David L. Hall & Roger T. Ames - 1987 - Philosophy East and West 41 (2):241-254.
The Man of Reason: "Male" and "Female" in Western Philosophy.Genevieve Lloyd, Joan Kelly & Judith Hicks Stiehm - 1986 - Ethics 96 (3):652-654.
The Man of Reason: "Male" and "Female" in Western Philosophy.Genevieve Lloyd & Prudence Allen - 1986 - Philosophy 61 (237):414-418.
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Citations of this work BETA
Equality and Inequality in Confucianism.Chenyang Li - 2012 - Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 11 (3):295-313.
Confucianism, Globalisation and the Idea of Universalism.A. T. Nuyen - 2003 - Asian Philosophy 13 (2 & 3):75 – 86.
Filiality, Compassion, and Confucian Democracy.Sungmoon Kim - 2008 - Asian Philosophy 18 (3):279 – 298.
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