Analects: a collection of Confucius's
statements, or of his most immediate disciples, made within a hundred
years of his death.
Central questions:
How should I live?
How should a ruler govern?
Central question of all early Chinese philosophy:
What is human nature?
Confucius -->
Humans are malleable by nature (see 17.2, more a presupposition than a theme)
Seven Important
Confucian themes:
1. Change of ethos:
Internalization of customs and mores in the spirit of jen (humanity, fellow-feeling, "benevolence": 4.1*ff)
a. jen as natural law or the touchstone of ethical values
b. rites (li) charged with expression of jen: 8.8, 2.2, 2.4, 3.15, 8.2, etc. (cf. playing scales vs. excellence in jazz)
*4.1 (Huang translation, 1997): The Master siad: "To live among humane men is beautiful. Not to reside among humane men--how can one be considered wise?" (emphasis added)
2. Learning, thinking, and knowing: 2.14, 2.15, 2.17
3. Character ethics
a. leads to better ability to make ethical judgments : 4.3, 2.4
b. resolve as fundamental ("One whose mind is set on jen will not practice wickedness": 4:4)
c. need for self-discipline, self-control, making oneself, 2.4, 4.2, etc., including self-examination or examination of one's habits and thoughts: 2.2, 2:10
d. training required including associating with the right people and having no friends not equal to oneself in virtue: 1:8; cf. 1:1
e. follow rules of propriety (li): 1.12
f. appropriateness and propriety (aesthetics): following rules with heart.
4. Ethical particularism (13.18, 1.1).
5. The Golden Rule and the "single thread": 4.15,
15.24
a. the negative (?) formulation:12.2 and 15.24
b. "likening to oneself": 4.15
c. being true to the principles of our character and to exercise them benevolently toward others
*6. Ruling by example: 2.1, 2.3, 2.19, 2.20, 13.6 (FDR, Jimmy Carter)
*7. Rectification of names: 13.3.
*Important to Confucius's political philosophy
Some terms of ethical analysis and the Confucian
response:
Moral push (self-regardingly, why be moral?): becoming a superior person.
Moral pull (with regard to others, why be moral?): the value of self, family, friends, and society