On the Interpretive Significance and Limitation of the Confucian Concept of Virtuous Dignity

Abstract

Modern Confucian scholars generally use the view of “virtuous dignity” in the modern interpretation of the idea of dignity. This view emphasizes that human dignity comes from the realization of human moral potential. The human nature thought of the theory of good nature is the value basis of this view. Due to the excessive attention to human dignity, the Confucian concept of moral dignity does not pay enough attention to “universal dignity”. I think the Confucian theory of moral dignity should take freedom rather than the realization of moral potential as the basis of dignity, so as to recognize the equality of human dignity in the sense of legal rights and the inequality in the sense of moral virtue.