Ethical Individualism and the Prospect of Confucian Political Theory

Abstract

Abstract In his recent book, Shaun O’Dwyer defends liberal democracy as the only legitimate mode of political system in the East Asian context by critiquing various proposals of Confucian democracy and meritocracy. Underlying O’Dwyer’s critique of Confucian political theory is the seamless connection between ethical individualism (à la Kant), pragmatic democracy (à la Dewey), and political liberalism (à la Rawls), which in his view cannot be adequately accommodated by any version of Confucian political theory, unless it abandons its Confucian essence. This paper argues that the relation between these three philosophical components are far more complex than is rendered by O’Dwyer and that Confucian democracy can be justified on ethical, pragmatic, and progressive grounds.