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In " Early Confucian Philosophy and Development of Compassion, " David Wong carefully examines such metaphors as adorning, crafting, water flowing down, and growing sprouts used for moral cultivation in early Confucian texts, the Analects, Mencius, and Xunzi. While clearly with different meanings, Wong argues that, far from being competitive, such metaphors, working together, adequately reflect the complexity of moral cultivation, which in turn reflects the complexity of human nature. Central to this picture of moral cultivation is its emphasis on the relational and holistic aspects: cultivation of self with others and within social practices. Wong makes a strong case for this Confucian version by connecting it with some of the best of contemporary human sciences, including psychology, cognitive sciences, and neurosciences. Wong's essay seamlessly combines solid textual analysis with sophisticated philosophical argument. It exemplifies the type of scholarship that Dao aims to promote.
Metaphors of adorning, crafting, water flowing downwards, and growing sprouts appear in the Analects, the Mencius, and the Xunzi. They express and guide thinking about what there is in human nature to cultivate and how it is to be cultivated. The craft metaphor seems to imply that our nature is of the sort that must be disciplined and reshaped to achieve goodness, while the adorning, water, and sprout metaphors imply that human nature has an inbuilt directionality toward the ethical that should be protected or nurtured. I argue that all the metaphors capture different aspects of human nature and how one must work with these aspects. There is much in contemporary psychology and neuroscience to suggest that the early Confucians were on the right track. It is also argued that they point to a fruitful conception of ethical development that is relational and holistic.
In this chapter, I reflect on the implications of Mencius' conception of compassion for one of the most important problems that defines the Western philosophical tradition: the relationship between reason on the one hand and desire and emotion on the other, especially in the development of moral character. I articulate what philosophers working within the Western tradition could learn from the Mencius text, drawing from some contemporary scientific studies to support my suggestions that this text provides fruitful directions of thought. Western philosophers and many psychologists continue a tendency to construe reason, desire, and emotion in dichotomous and overgeneralized terms. I argue that we need to take a more particularized and discriminating approach to the phenomena covered by these terms. Finally, I discuss what I believe are some limitations in Mencius' approach and then show how the Analects and the Xunzi indicate ways the early Confucian tradition pointed beyond Mencius' limitations.
Buddhist Studies Review
Compassion in the Lotus Sutra and Benevolent Love in the Analects: A Reflection from the Confucian Perspective2012 •
This article is intended to examine and then compare ci bei (‘compassion’) in the Lotus S?tra and ren (‘benevolent love’) in the Analects of Confucius. Despite many similarities, compassion and benevolent love have shown a difference between Mah?y?na Buddhist ethics and the Confucian moral system. This difference is revealed in the content and meaning of compassion and benevolent love, but more importantly through the ways they are practised, followed and expanded. Through different ways or paths, compassion and benevolent love have nevertheless established two different and yet mutually supplementary ideals that guide the spiritual and moral world of China and other parts of East Asia.
2017 •
My dissertation aims to show that sympathy, when well-cultivated, is adequate to motivate and produce altruistic behavior in a consistent and reliable manner. I do so by creating a dialogue between the Chinese and Western philosophical traditions. I define sympathy as a four-dimensional emotion-including perceptive, visceral, motivational and cognitive aspects. I argue that sympathy in its mature stage is capable of motivating people in a consistent manner, and its role in morality cannot be replaced by other emotions. In addition, I argue that the leap from an unstable reaction to a mature, consistent and reliable emotion is made through proper cultivation. Cultivational methods such as ritual practice, rational persuasion, self-cultivation, etc. are discussed and evaluated. I also discuss the limitations of sympathy and its cultivation towards the end of the dissertation. v
The aim of this essay is to introduce scholars to recent discussions of early Confucian ethics that intersect with contemporary moral psychology. Given the early Confucian tradition’s intense focus on the cultivation of virtue, there are a number of ways in which early Confucian thinkers – as represented in the texts of the Analects, the Mencius, and the Xunzi – fruitfully engaged in a range of topics that are closely connected to live issues in moral psychology. Not only did they anticipate some contemporary debates (e.g. moral modularity, situationism) but explored them from a distinctively Confucian normative worldview, attending especially to the role of the family and ritual practice. This essay seeks to demonstrate that early Confucianism, by integrating a normative vision with empirically grounded observations of human behaviour, offers resources for constructively exploring a number of ongoing questions in moral psychology.
The standard criticisms of Confucian ethics (from a western philosophical perspective) appear contradictory. On the one hand, Confucian ethics is deemed overly rule-bound: it is obsolete because it advocates adherence to ancient Chinese norms of proper conduct. On the other hand, Confucian ethics is perceived as situational ethics—done on the run—and not properly grounded in fundamental principles or norms. I give reasons for these disparate views of Confucian ethics. I also sketch an account of Confucian morality that focuses on moral development.
The paper tentatively develops a genealogical interpretation of Early Confucian moral psychology by informing close readings of Early Confucian texts, in particular Mencius and Analects, with research in the mind sciences. This includes examinations of the discussions of emotions and their morality in Analects and Mencius. The paper first analyzes the relationship between Confucian filial piety, genetic kinship and moral emotions. Then the paper analyzes the relationship between Early Confucian ethical principles for interaction with non-kin, empathy, and reciprocal altruism. The paper frames those two issues around a description of the variance between the (high) usage and importance of emotions in the moral philosophy of Early Confucianism and the (low) usage and importance of emotions in the moral philosophy of competing Western moral theories.
Religions
Yi Ik on Compassion and Grief2023 •
This article examines the thought of Yi Ik 李瀷 (1681–1763), a prominent Confucian scholar in the late period of the Joseon 朝鮮 dynasty (1392–1910). In a broader context of the Confucian classics, as well as in the later development of neo-Confucian tradition in China and Korea, Yi Ik built an elaborate and comprehensive account of human psychology in his New Compilation of the Four–Seven Debate (Sachil sinpyeon 四七新編). He offers us a new perspective on the unresolved tension between the universal concern for others in general and the natural affection for the family by introducing the binary concepts of gong 公 and sa 私. In his system, successful moral agents do more than develop and strengthen their compassion with respect to the suffering of others, and they regard the suffering of others in the same way that they regard their own suffering. I believe that Yi Ik’s thought sheds new light on the Mencian program of cultivation and how to better lead our complex moral lives.
Testaceum I, Studi amphoraria Emilio Rodríguez Almeida dicata. Le anfore betiche Dressel 20: produzione e diffusione. Gradus, Rivista di Archeologia, 17.1, pp. 50-60.
Beyond the Baetis valley. The olive-oil amphorae of the southern coast of the Iberian Peninsula2022 •
2024 •
2018 •
Новое литературное обозрение
Символический язык Павла Кузнецова: материалы к словарю2023 •
Lettere Italiane, LXXV, 3, 2023, pp. 501-502
Loretta VANDI, Margherita de' Soderini (CISAM, Spoleto, 2023), reviewed by Silvia SERVENTI2023 •
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals)
Mulheres no tráfico de drogas: retratos da vitimização e do protagonismo feminino = Women in drug trafficking: pictures of female victimization and protagonism2016 •
Geophysical Research Letters
A temperature dependent kinetic study of the reaction of the hydroxyl radical with CH3Br1992 •
1996 •
Itinerarios inciertos: política económica, actores financieros y estrategias alternativas en la pospandemia
Itinerarios inciertos: política económica, actores financieros y estrategias alternativas en la pospandemia2024 •
Edu Cendikia: Jurnal Ilmiah Kependidikan
Sistem Pembelajaran Menulis dan Membaca bagi Pemula di Kelas Rendah Kategori Sekolah Dasar