Confucian Ethics

• Main Author: TAN, Sor-hoon
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2023
• Subjects: Confucianism; ethics; virtues; relationality; filiality; humaneness; ritual practice; wisdom; trustworthiness; Asian History; Asian Studies
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3906
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Confucian ethics is a relational ethics in which both virtues and roles are important factors in how one lives well through one’s relations with others, but it also employs rules to guide behaviour and pays attention to consequences of actions. Confucius taught his students about the ethical conduct of exemplary persons and the cultivation of virtues of filiality/family reverence (xiao 孝), humaneness (ren 仁), ritual practice (li 礼), appropriateness (yi 义), wisdom (zhi 知), and trustworthiness (xin 信).Filiality remains a key virtue in East Asian societies with a Confucian legacy. We learn self-restraint, care, and respect for another in fulfilling one’s filial responsibility, and these attitudes and capacities form the basis of one’s humaneness extended beyond the family. A humane person is sensitive to the sufferings of others and does not put her own needs and desires above those of others. A humane government is one that cares for the people as parents would care for their children.Often considered constitutive or instrumental to humaneness, ritual practice is sometimes understood as rules of conduct, but the Confucian understanding of its ethical dimension requires a more nuanced appreciation of the aesthetics of its performance and the ethical import of the emotions and attitudes ritual performances embody and cultivate. Confucian ritual practice should not be confused with rigid rules, especially if they are coercively enforced. Confucians emphasise voluntary compliance in ritual practice in contrast to the coercive control of behaviour through threats of punishment. Confucian rituals are flexible in responding to changes over time or different circumstances, as they aim for the promotion of harmonious human relations as their goal.Appropriateness guides judgements of whether variations or more permanent changes to ritual forms are justified in specific situations. While ritual practice is important in providing a stable ethical framework, which is especially useful in ethical education, the inevitability of change and diversity of experience make appropriateness indispensable to ethical life. Often contrasted with the desire for personal gain, the Confucian concept of appropriateness resembles the concept of justice as giving people their due; but instead of focusing on distributive principles that emphasise the separateness of individuals, the Confucian ethical approach to distributive problems shifts the focus from ‘Who should get what and how much?’ to the impact of any distributive action on human relationships.As a Confucian virtue, wisdom is a kind of ethical know-how found in actions, closely associated with humaneness and the love of learning. Trustworthiness is closely related to appropriateness and a key virtue in relating to others. It is particularly important for those in political office, as no polity can endure if the people do not trust its government.In Confucian ethics, one becomes an exemplary person in interaction with others, beginning with family members, and then extending to the wider community. Personal cultivation and flourishing of community are mutually enhancing. Ethics is central to the Confucian way of life and influences Confucian understanding of political life as well as Confucian pursuit of spirituality.