Suchergebnisse

This book is both a critique of the concept of the rights-holding, free, autonomous individual and attendant ideology dominant in the contemporary West, and an account of an alternative view, that of the role-bearing, interrelated responsible person of classical Confucianism, suitably modified for addressing the manifold problems of today.

The essays collected in this volume establish Confucian role ethics as a term of art in the contemporary ethical discourse. The holistic philosophy presented here is grounded in the primacy of relationality and a narrative understanding of person, and is a challenge to a foundational liberal individualism that has defined persons as discrete, autonomous, rational, free, and often self-interested agents. Confucian role ethics begins from a relationally constituted conception of person, takes family roles and relations as the entry point for developing moral competence, invokes moral imagination and the growth in relations that it can inspire as the substance of human morality, and entails a human-centered, atheistic religiousness that stands in sharp contrast to the Abrahamic religions.

1. Why Study This Text? -- 2. Historical and Textual Background -- 2.1 Synopsis of the Work -- 2.2 Confucius -- 2.3 Master Zeng -- 2.4 The Text and Its Historical Context -- 3. Philosophical and Religious Background -- 3.1 Xiao in Classical Confucianism -- 3.2 The Socio-Political Dimensions of xiao -- 3.3 The Ethical Dimensions of xiao -- 3.4 Xiao and Human-centered Religiousness -- 4. The Chinese Lexicon of Key Philosophical Terms -- 5. The Classic of Family Reverence (Xiaojing) -- 5.1 Setting the Theme and Illuminating Its Meaning -- 5.2 The Emperor as Son of "tian" -- 5.3 The Hereditary Lords -- 5.4 The Ministers and High Officials -- 5.5 The Lower Officials -- 5.6 The Common People -- 5.7 The Three Powers and Resources -- 5.8 Governing through Family Reverence -- 5.9 Sagely Governing -- 5.10 A Narrative of Family Reverence in Practice -- 5.11 The Five Punishments -- 5.12 Elaborating upon "the Vital Way" -- 5.13 Elaborating upon "Consummate Character" -- 5.14 Elaborating upon "Raising One's Name High for Posterity" -- 5.15 On Remonstrance -- 5.16 Resonance -- 5.17 Serving One's Lord -- 5.18 Mourning for Parents -- 6. Notes to the Classic of Family Reverence