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, "virtue," 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, 15.17 (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 and thinking: 2.14, 2.15
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)
f. appropriateness and propriety (aesthetics): following rules with heart (Does it matter where you start? Do you need to study the book of poetry?)
4. Ethical particularism (13.18, 1.1)
5. The Golden Rule and the "single thread" (4.15, 15.23)
a. the negative (?) formulation:12.2 and 15.23
b. "likening to oneself" -- cf. the Jaina argument for non-violence
c. being true to the principles of our character and to exercise them benevolently toward others: 4:15,15:2
*6. Ruling by example: 2.1, 2.3, 2.19, 2.20,13.6 (FDR, Emporer Ashoka, Chou)
*7. Rectification of names: 12.17 & 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