Confucianism

Publication Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

12-2025

Abstract

Central to Confucianism is an ethics focused on personal cultivation of ethical excellences within interpersonal relationships: humaneness, relational appropriateness, ritual propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness. Confucian ethics emphasizes the value of harmony as the basis of social order, beginning with the relationships between the government and the governed, parent and child, marital partners, elder and younger siblings, and between friends. Confucianism’s approach to ethical problems is practice-centered and it has displayed impressive ability to adapt itself to new circumstances. Its ancient teachings have provided philosophical resources for fresh insights and alternative perspectives on various contemporary applied ethics issues.

Keywords

Confucian excellences/virtues, relational ethics, personal cultivation, harmony, humaneness, relational appropriateness, ritual propriety, wisdom, trustworthiness, paternalism, guanxi

Discipline

Ethics and Political Philosophy | Philosophy

Publication

Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics, 3rd ed.

Editor

CHADWICK, Ruth

Identifier

10.1016/B978-0-443-15715-8.00036-4

Publisher

Elsevier

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-15715-8.00036-4

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS