Virtue In East Asia

Both St. Augustine’s Confessions and Confucius’s Analects are influential teachings that have a vast influence on people around the world in the ancient time and currently. Both doctrines discuss ethical values of society back during the time they were written and leads us to find some similarities between the two. There are substantial distinctions between Confucius and St. Augustine’s experiences and beliefs since they are living in different environments and time periods. Their insightful differences are the influences that contributed to mold the distinct philosophies and traditions between the West and the East today. I

In the Analects, the virtue of humanity centers around reverence, generosity, diligence, honesty, and kindness towards others. In seeking to attain each of these virtues, the goal is to become a true junzi, a gentleman (Confucius, Analects, 2). Men are thoroughly instructed upon how to deal with other people. They are treat everyone with kindness and righteousness (Confucius, Analects, 1). Reverence is to be shown to superiors, and harmony maintained with those not on his “level”. The dignity of a gentleman's actions are what gain him respect (Confucius, Analects, 1-2). He is to “expect” no more that what one is capable of in service, but to be “pleased” by nothing less than true following of “the Way” (Confucius, Analects,

The debate on human nature between Mencius and Xunzi has been one that is longstanding - both views have compelling claims to support either statement. In this essay, we will discover the main aims of their philosophy of morality to determine what deductions the two philosophers have gathered about humans, and later, their implications on society. For starters, we see that Mencius advocates that human nature is has the inborn capacity for goodness. However, it can be easily misconstrued as human nature is innately good, this false claim which easily contradicts with many examples of heinous acts we see in the past and today. By assuming that we have this inborn tendency for goodness, Mencius claims that we have spontaneous feelings of compassion when we see someone in need of help (Mencius 6A6), and that what follows is altruism that stems from natural obligation. In addition to that, he contends that cultivation of our innate goodness, otherwise known as the four sprouts (ren, li, yi, zhi – benevolence, propriety, righteousness and

One of the oldest philosophies in Chinese history is Confucianism. At the time of the warring states, Confucius wandered throughout China seeking a ruler who accepted the Confucian way. Since then, his ideas grew and are still relevant today. Throughout time other philosophers, Mengzi and Xunzi, have interpreted Confucius’ teachings and have long debated whether human nature is good or bad. I argue that human nature is not, as Mengzi believes, inherently good, instead, completely self-interested.

Confucius made detailed rules on how behavior should be. This behavior system showed mutual respect, generosity, honor. Strong family bonds, a deep sense of personal duty to society, and worshipping their ancestors. The belief system also supported the idea that superior rulers, fathers, brothers, and other men were naturally worthy of respect. As it turns out Confucianism was much more about rules for the government much rather than religion.

How is Mencius’ concerns of human nature and the civilization he lived in relevant to our class and money? This was a question I was struggling to find an answer too at first, and then further on reading I understood that Mencius believed that money is an outside force that can corrupt one’s natural ability to be good. He demonstrates that people are ultimately good by showing examples of people having the desire to help others when in distressful situations. Mencius displayed that society can corrupt one’s inner good with other outside forces such as money. Money can make people show their worse side, when they are more worried about making it than acting humanely (ren) and righteousness (jen), and their character will suffer for this. It

In the 18th century, China was influenced by various teachings of philosophers and beliefs that the society had placed emphasis on. Filial piety (xiao) was a major practice around this period when it was strongly carried inside and outside the household. Filial piety is not only the guiding principle of Chinese ethics but it also played an affirmative role in determining the Chinese lifestyle; it was practiced daily in the family and in other areas such as education, religion and government. It was the central root of Chinese morals and the society was constructed upon the principles of xiao, which certainly became the premises of Chinese culture and the society. In Confucianism, the approach of respect, fidelity, and care toward one’s

From the Analects, the viewpoints and values of Confucianism towards human nature mentioned prior are made clear. Confucius urged ethical and virtuous behavior, and believed a responsible government was a moral obligation of mankind. Such values are readily observed in the Analects, such as in the quote, “The Master said, ‘If a minister makes his own conduct correct, what difficulty will he have in assisting in government? If he cannot rectify himself, what has he to do with rectifying others?’” (Analects 13:13). Another excerpt from the Analects that exemplifies Confucius’s perspective of moral conduct driving humanity is as follows: “The Master said, ‘Guide them with policies and align them with punishments and the people will evade them and have no shame. Guide them with virtue and align them with li and the people will have a sense of shame and fulfill their roles’” (Analects 2:3). This first part of this quote will be important when we analyze the main beliefs of Legalism. Lastly, there is no better example of the universality of Confucius’s attitude towards human nature than in the “golden” rule. When Confucius is asked if there is a concept that can be taken as a guide for the

Similarly, Confucius thought that the ruler would only be a convincing one to his civilians if he possessed integrity and high moral standards. He discussed the importance of virtue for a ruler using a simile: a moral ruler would naturally attract support form civilians, like the north pole star would have all the stars turn towards it. In his view, a ruler without morality would never win over the people, no matter how outstanding he could be in other aspects. The concept of benevolence and gentle behaviour had permeated into every corner of the society and even men at the top of the social pyramid were constrained by it. Mercifulness was the most valuable quality expected of a ruler and for ordinary people ‘a true gentleman’ was the highest praise one could get. As a result, corruption had rarely existed since Confucianism became popular, which is seen as Confucius’ greatest contribution to

According to Dictionary.com virtue “is the conformity of one’s life and conduct to moral and ethical principles”. Aristotle 's define virtue in the Nicomachaen Ethics (NE) (The Golden Mean) as a form of knowledge that is “relative to us” and is shown to us by phron’sis a concept that has instructive parallel with Confucian yi; hence, Confucius definition or comment of virtue were scattered all over the Analects, due to the fact that it was not presented as a formal catalog. Confucius had four to five central virtues supported in the beliefs of Confucianism; these are courage, justice, humanity, temperance, wisdom and transcendence. The research showed that Aristotle and Confucius shared similarity with four core virtues: First, Courage according to Aristotle is “not exactly the same for each person, because the mean is relative to the individual”, therefore one person courage might be slightly more towards rashness, and for the another it might lie slightly in the other direction, while

Confucius and Aristotle are some of the greatest thinkers in the history of mankind. While Confucius was born in China and spearheaded a new way of perceiving morality, Aristotle was born in Macedon/Greece and also immersed his philosophical work to addressing moral thinking.Both philosophers have addressed similar subjects with major points of divergence and convergence. On virtue, these two authors have almost similar opinions. However, it is their points of convergence or agreement that have had a huge impact on the modern world’s thinking and understanding of virtue and moral behavior.

The term seems to have a more ethical meaning. Some have argued that it is better translated as ‘goodness’10 or ‘love,’11 but these terms fail to capture the ‘completeness’ of Confucius’s meaning.12

The righteousness and ethical values that Confucius suggests are defined by the quality that makes someone outstanding and fills their heart with goodness. The goodness is obtained through the virtue ethics—elements of behaving well. Confucius said:

This essay discusses the main differences between traditional Confucian values and modern values. Confucian society seems backwards compared with modern society. In the traditional Confucian society, wives must obey every man in the family before she makes any decision on her own. She even obeys her sons. This would never happen in the modern world, especially in the West. Women and men cannot even talk to each other in a normal fashion unless they are already married, or being set up to be married. The author claims that a sister cannot even ask her brother-in-law a question. It is believed to be inappropriate for a woman and a man to speak, and there is even some mention of women covering their faces.

Confucius once said, “If you strive for virtue, you will be free of evil.” In the simplest of terms, it could be said that Confucianism ultimately strives for virtue and order. Confucius’ contemplative way of addressing virtuous living may establish Confucianism as more of a philosophy than a religion. Specifically, it is “a moral philosophy with ethics at its core.” It is based on hierarchical relationships, and it focuses on superiority or inferiority within said relationships. One major facet of its practice is its integration into Chinese government and culture. Because of the religion’s close ties to government and state identity, it is also closely tied to the guidance of human behavior. Improper human behavior is the greatest evil, in that it fails to promote order in society. Confucianism approaches evil in such a way that minimizes its roots and consequences while maximizing the role of sole human responsibility, that which is contrary to the Christian perspective.