Abstract
Abstract In this article we examine Classical Confucian political thinking through the lens of paternalism. We situate Confucianism amid contemporary models of paternalism to show that Confucianism can be understood as a soft form of paternalism regarding its method. Confucianism stresses cultivation of the people by moral exemplars to guide the people to act in ways that are in their own best interests. This is in contrast to use of law and punishment as a deterrent of unwanted behaviours of the people. We demonstrate that Confucian paternalism does not advocate for a static top-down structure of governance that is incapable of reform, underscoring its non-authoritarian ideal. We do this by stressing the vital upward momentum constituted in general cultivation of the wider population utilizing li (rituals). The picture that emerges from an examination of Confucian political thought through the lens of paternalism is what we name “exemplary paternalism.”
Highlights
In this article, we consider how examining Classical Confucian political thinking through the lens of paternalism can offer valuable interpretive and comparative insights into the nature of Confucian philosophy
The picture that emerges from an examination of Confucian political thought through the lens of paternalism is what we name “exemplary paternalism.”
A definition of paternalism that focuses on the substitution of judgment instead of use of force allows for a fruitful exploration of Confucianism through the lens of paternalism
Summary
We consider how examining Classical Confucian political thinking through the lens of paternalism can offer valuable interpretive and comparative insights into the nature of Confucian philosophy. The attempt to “control” popular behavior is enacted through a long-term system of virtue cultivation, in which Confucianism, instead of forcing people to behave in a manner deemed best by leaders, encourages the general moral cultivation of the people such that they should want to behave in a manner that coheres with general social harmony and their own best interests In this sense the Confucian brand of paternalism is designed as a corrective to the first principle of paternalist thinking: that if people are left to their own devices they have tendencies not to know what is in their own best interests and are not likely to act in their own best interests. This further allows for Confucianism to contribute towards projects that seek to utilize paternalism in addressing issues of contemporary politics in positive ways that are not dismissed as excessively authoritarian
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