Confucian Justification of Limited Government: Comments on Joseph Chan’s Confucian Perfectionism

Abstract

It is argued here that (1) distinguishing an independent political authority from traditional Confucianism’s monistic (ethical) authority is more difficult than Joseph Chan currently allows; (2) the contribution of sociopolitical participation toward individual ethical development is more critical than Chan has so far acknowledged; and (3) this tie between participation and development, in turn, leads to the need for “self-restriction,” which then provides a satisfactory basis for the independence of political from ethical authority.