Confucian Ethics Research Articles

An experimental study on psychosocial Interventions for Chinese bank employees during the COVID-19: a cognitive-behavioral therapy based on Confucian cultivation ethics

An experimental study on psychosocial Interventions for Chinese bank employees during the COVID-19: a cognitive-behavioral therapy based on Confucian cultivation ethics

Does culture matter for household carbon emissions? Evidence from “confucian” households in China

ABSTRACT Exploring cultural factors in household carbon emissions is of positive significance in promoting low carbon life. This research uses China Household Financial Survey 2015 (CHFS 2015) to investigate how Confucian culture impacts carbon emission of Chinese household. We found that Confucian households have significant lower level of carbon emissions due to the ‘inhibited’ consumption level and the service-oriented consumption structure; Specifically speaking, larger household sizes, stronger propensity to save, and stronger housing preferences lead to Confucian households’ lower consumption level, and an expenditure arrangement favouring education and medical care shapes a service-oriented consumption structure, which is also a low-carbon emissions consumption structure. Furthermore, Confucian ecological ethics did not notably enhance households’ subjective environmental attitudes, but strengthen adaptive behaviours in response to ecological deterioration, thereby reducing household carbon emission levels. Our research contributes fresh evidence and findings to the study of the environmental implications of Confucian culture.

동학 주술에 내포된 유교 윤리적 요소

This study examined the Confucian ethics connoted in Donghak magic. Donghak magic had the characteristics of religious practice, elements of military force, and politicality of community. Donghak magic and Confucian ethics had similarities in these three aspects.
 This paper examined the relationship between Donghak magic and Confucian ethics during the Period of the Donghak missionary, during the Period of the movement vindicating the innocence of the founder of Donghak, during the Period of the Donghak Peasant War. Through this paper, it can be seen that each period had a relationship in the three aspects mentioned above.

Can an AI-carebot be filial? Reflections from Confucian ethics.

This article discusses the application of artificially intelligent robots within eldercare and explores a series of ethical considerations, including the challenges that AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology poses to traditional Chinese Confucian filial piety. From the perspective of Confucian ethics, the paper argues that robots cannot adequately fulfill duties of care. Due to their detachment from personal relationships and interactions, the "emotions" of AI robots are merely performative reactions in different situations, rather than actual emotional abilities. No matter how "humanized" robots become, it is difficult to establish genuine empathy and a meaningful relationship with them for this reason. Even so, we acknowledge that AI robots are a significant tool in managing the demands of elder care and the growth of care poverty, and as such, we attempt to outline some parameters within which care robotics could be acceptable within a Confucian ethical system. Finally, the paper discusses the social impact and ethical considerations brought on by the interaction between humans and machines. It is observed that the relationship between humans and technology has always had both utopian and dystopian aspects, and robotic elder care is no exception. AI caregiver robots will likely become a part of elder care, and the transformation of these robots from "service providers" to "companions" seems inevitable. In light of this, the application of AI-augmented robotic elder care will also eventually change our understanding of interpersonal relationships and traditional requirements of filial piety.

The Legacy of Traditional Chinese Taiji Philosophy as a Factor in Harmonizing the Contradictions of Socio-cultural Reality (using the example of Chinese Neorealist Art)

The article is devoted to the analysis of the influence of the ancient Chinese philosophy of Taiji on artistic creativity and the development of the internal evolution of artistic culture. Taoist philosophy of nature and Confucian ethics synthesized the philosophical core of the traditional Chinese worldview with its emphasis on the simplicity and naturalness of the world order, and formed the fundamental principles of Taiji. Fundamental to Taiji, the concept of Yin and Yang emphasizes the dual nature of the existence of movement and variability as a balance of opposing forces of development. The Taiji philosophy of dialectical development is supplemented by the idea of ​​the genesis of renewal energy - Qi. The main research method is the method of revitalizing traditional systems on a new intellectual basis. The method of diachronic analysis of the social situation that influenced the development of Chinese neorealism in art was used. As a result of the study, the functional significance of the influence of the principles and philosophical ideas of taiji on the evolution of neorealism is described. Using the example of the work of Chinese neorealist artists Xin Dongwan and Zheng Yi, the authors come to the conclusion that there are three driving factors of artistic motivation for creativity: internal, external and subjective. The basic principles of Taiji philosophy and ethics, such as: the naturalness of change without the use of force (Wu Wei), change as the only constant in the existence of the world and its stability, gentleness - help develop the creative power of renewal. The idea is shown that in the ancient Chinese philosophical heritage, Confucianism and Taoism became two full-fledged directions, functionally complementing each other in explaining differences in cultural, political, philosophical and social environments.

The Logic of Tong (Togetherness) or Why Guanxi Works in Chinese Societies?

Abstract This article provides an analysis of the cultural meaning of guanxi (關係) in Chinese societies, specifically in the context of a workplace situation in Taiwan. Guanxi is a concept based on Confucian ethics, which was originally a positive concept connoting human closeness, has transformed into a manipulative and instrumentally used variant called “guanxi-practice”(關係學). The article argues that an effective way to understand the cultural meaning of guanxi is to examine the Chinese kinship system, which shares similarities with interpersonal relationships in Chinese culture. The guiding principle of Chinese familial ethics, tong (同), refers to members sharing the same breath who are expected to offer emotional and financial support in times of need. The study analyses the exchange of guanxi-work among men in Taiwanese society to clarify the logic of guanxi operation. The study aims to contribute to the broader discussion on the cultural meaning of guanxi in Chinese societies, explaining why guanxi can empower and entitle participants to seek favors and benefit from one another.

Reconciling China’s maritime discourses of nationalism and international engagement with left Confucian logic

China’s discursive combination of nationalism and international engagement with its maritime neighbours seems self-defeating. To explain why this narrative strategy has been deemed apt, previous studies have predominantly followed a realist approach and contended that China’s international engagement is pure statecraft to help its national rejuvenation efforts. As the merits of Confucianism increasingly affect contemporary Chinese socialism, this paper interprets the internarrativity of left Confucian ethics, Chinese nationalism and international engagement in East China Sea geopolitics. It argues that China tends to identify itself as a contributor to common material interest in the international community. With the notion of graded love, the contribution to the people of the world does not undermine the self-interests. China’s national defence is often allegedly conducted alongside the defence of the existing order enabling its contribution. China does not aim to challenge the order per se, but it challenges the US and its allies’ collective interpretations of it. This situation leads to antagonistic peace when the US-led alliance is unstable. However, if the US’s geopolitical alliance is strong enough to withstand the solipsistic interpretation of the order, the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation can be better realized.

Learning about Confucian ecological ethics to promote education for sustainable development in Chinese secondary chemistry education

Abstract Incorporating cultural aspects into science education has recently been stressed in many non-Western societies. However, Chinese traditional cultures are rarely discussed in Chinese science classrooms. Hence, a teaching intervention integrating Confucian ecological ethics and education for sustainable development in secondary chemistry classrooms was designed, implemented online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and analyzed. It focuses on discussing aspects of Confucian ecological ethics in the context of a lesson plan on the socio-scientific issue of plastic use. Sixty-five 10th-grade students from an urban key public high school in Beijing voluntarily attended this research. Based on the analysis of their feedback it is suggested that Confucian ecological ethics can improve students’ environmental awareness. Most students acknowledged that Confucian ecological ethics could promote Chinese sustainability-oriented chemistry education with a value-oriented approach.

Virtue Ethics, Confucian Tradition and the General Predicament of Modern Society

This paper discusses the nature of Confucian ethics and its tense relations with modernity through analysing the arguments contained in Chen Lai’s 陈来 Confucian Theory of Virtue. The author points out that Confucian ethical theory is a kind of virtue ethics and that the distinction between public virtue and private virtue in modern moral projects necessarily leads to the elimination of the latter by the former. This is a general predicament of virtue ethics faced by modern societies.

Can robot advisers encourage honesty?: Considering the impact of rule, identity, and role-based moral advice

A growing body of human–robot interaction literature is exploring whether and how social robots, by utilizing their physical presence or capacity for verbal and nonverbal behavior, can influence people’s moral behavior. In the current research, we aimed to examine to what extent a social robot can effectively encourage people to act honestly by offering them moral advice. The robot either offered no advice at all or proactively offered moral advice before participants made a choice between acting honestly and cheating, and the underlying ethical framework of the advice was grounded in either deontology (rule-focused), virtue ethics (identity-focused), or Confucian role ethics (role-focused). Across three studies (N=1,693), we did not find a robot’s moral advice to be effective in deterring cheating. These null results were held constant even when we introduced the robot as being equipped with moral capacity to foster common expectations about the robot among participants before receiving the advice from it. The current work led us to an unexpected discovery of the psychological reactance effect associated with participants’ perception of the robot’s moral capacity. Stronger perceptions of the robot’s moral capacity were linked to greater probabilities of cheating. These findings demonstrate how psychological reactance may impact human–robot interaction in moral domains and suggest potential strategies for framing a robot’s moral messages to avoid such reactance.

The Strategy of Interpreting the Daodejing through Confucianism in Park Se-dang’s Sinju Dodeokgyeong

This research study examines Park Se-dang’s Sinju Dodeokgyeong, which was the first complete exegesis of the Daodejing (DDJ) in Korea. This study investigates the theoretical strategies that Park used to interpret the DDJ from a Neo-Confucian perspective and also examines the logical missteps that Park took to force a unity between Neo-Confucianism and Daoism. The core method for interpreting the DDJ that Park utilized in his attempt to assert the compatibility of Neo-Confucianism and Daoism can be summarized as “interpreting Daoism through Neo-Confucian theory”. This research study breaks down Park’s strategy for reinterpreting the DDJ, dividing Park’s argumentation into four parts: (1.) clarifying the historical hereticalization of the DDJ; (2.) identifying the ethics and treasured virtues of Confucianism and Daoism; (3.) the study of the cosmologies of Confucianism and Daoism; and (4.) interpreting Daoist moral ethics through Neo-Confucian cosmological theory. Park Se-dang’s strategy for forcing unity between Neo-Confucianism and Daoism had its limits. Among other things, Park attempted but failed to narrow the gap between Confucian and Daoist ethics and cosmology by converting the concept of "heaven" in the DDJ into a humanized heaven. Eventually, even though Park’s strategy failed, his work inspired other Silhak scholars of Joseon up to the 19th century and had a clear impact on the many subsequent reinterpretations of the DDJ.

Vietnam Cult of the Mother Goddess and its Influence on Confucian Ethics in Vietnam

Vietnam is a country with many spiritual beliefs that reflect the values of its inhabitants, being an important component of their traditional culture. A special place is occupied by faith in the Mother Goddess. This kind of beliefs, which is completely unique for Vietnam, has a long history and emphasizes the feminine principle through the image of a woman with the power and ability to create, enrich and develop everything that exists. Faith in the Mother Goddess reflects the values and high human qualities of the Vietnamese, and it has been recognized by UNESCO as an object of representative intangible cultural heritage of humanity. Confucian ethics was adopted in Vietnam, but it was influenced by the Vietnamese belief in the Mother Goddess. The cult of the Mother Goddess also had a great influence on the ideas about the role of women in society. The study analyzes the origins, features and values of this cult and indicates its influence on the Vietnamese Confucian ethics. It is established that the activities of the worship of the Mother Goddess contribute to strengthening the sense of community of the Vietnamese nation. In connection with the development of Confucian ethics within the framework of Vietnamese culture, the attitude towards women has changed to a more humane and open one. In modern times, the cult of mother worship has acquired secular features and can be seen as a sign of gender equality.

The political identity for Megalia, Womand and Webtoon to counter Confucianism culture in South Korea

Referring to the wave of digital feminism in the modern era, this paper formulates the problem of South Korea's digital feminism strategy in reconstructing Confucianism culture with respect to morality. The study aims to analyze the development of digital feminist activist morality in South Korea against the background of a Confucian society and rapid economic growth. Of the numerous online feminist activist groups, Megalia and Womand have garnered attention from several feminist scholars. Moreover, later Webtoon comic artists incorporated feminist ideologies into their comic narratives. Based on Andrew Heywood's cultural conflict and identity politics perspective, as well as political morality in realism, the author has identified two crucial findings. First, the three of them operate from a realistic perspective that excludes Confucian morality as a factor in their decision making. Second, Megalia and Womand tend to exhibit radical behavior due to their exclusive focus on identity politics. This contrasts with Webtoon, which creates comics driven by economic interests, resulting in more moderate behavior and a preference for cultural distribution.

Research on the Impact of Cultural Values on Social Interaction in Chinese Education

Confucianism, a philosophy and belief system founded by Confucius in ancient China, emphasizes the importance of having a good moral character. Cultural values are deeply embedded in the daily interactions of Chinese people. Unfortunately, some Confucian ethics have been misinterpreted and become a tool of "mind control," which tends to control one's thoughts and insert unwanted thoughts in others. This study aims to highlight the issues in Chinese education concepts that are heavily influenced by cultural values and the psychological concept of mind control, as well as how they impact children's psychological development and behaviors. It also offers some recommendations on how to create a good learning environment. It can be concluded that cultural values significantly impact social interaction in China.

The metaphysics of personhood in Confucian role ethics

Inspired by early Confucian texts such as the Analects, Mencius, and Xunzi, defenders of Confucian role ethics argue that persons are constituted by their social roles and relationships. However, this has the puzzling implication that persons cannot survive changes in social roles and relationships. This paper proposes ways to understand this claim by appealing to the notions of essence, material constitution, and four-dimensionalism. In particular, it will be suggested that role ethicists should distinguish biological humans from persons and should say either that (i) persons are materially constituted by biological humans, or that (ii) persons are four-dimensional objects that merely overlap with biological humans. There has thus far not been much contact between early Chinese philosophy and contemporary metaphysics in this vein. A secondary goal of this paper is to demonstrate that views in early Chinese philosophy can be examined within frameworks from contemporary metaphysics, and furthermore, that the results include novel theses not yet recognized in contemporary metaphysics.

The Changing Landscape of Medieval Chinese Customs: Focusing on Sitting Positions

Abstract From the Wei-Jin through Tang-Song periods, social structures and customs in China underwent great change. In the case of sitting positions, these periods saw a shift from the “floor-sitting era” prior to the Qin to the “era of raised sitting” following the Tang and Song dynasties. In the interim, there was a period where the seated squat (juzuo 踞坐) made an appearance. This position is depicted in the “Man seated on foreign stool” detail of the scroll painting, Bei Qi jiaoshu tu 北齊校 書圖. During the Liu Song dynasty, monks at the Qihuan Temple ate in a seated squat and were vehemently lambasted by scholar-officials led by Fan Tai, instigating political debate around the sitting position. From a Confucian point of view, sitting positions are divided into two categories based on whether the calves or the bottoms of one’s feet touch the ground: the first includes kneeling, the sitting kneel, and the lotus positions, while the second includes squatting, sitting with legs outstretched, and the seated squat positions. Shifts in sitting positions reflect not only subtle changes taking place across various aspects of Chinese social customs and daily life, but also structural change on a systemic level. On the ideological front, obscure learning of the Wei and Jin dynasties exposed abuses of Confucian ethics. Compounded with the onslaught of foreign cultural influences such as Buddhism, it is no wonder, in this context of great historical upheaval, that efforts to preserve Confucianism would end in failure.

Research on the Mechanism of Dual Integration and Promotion of Confucian Moral Education Thought and College Students’ Civic Education Based on Data Fusion Model

Abstract This paper uses Data fusion technology to integrate Confucian moral education with Civic Education. Different information sources are detected, and their parameter states are estimated using a weighted estimation algorithm. Principal component analysis is used to linearly transform the original information and calculate the weight values of the main feature vectors. The trust function is established using the D-S combination theory to achieve the fusion of knowledge structures. The results show that the average access rate of the teaching platform constructed based on data fusion reached 89.2% per week, and the average number of platform hits was around 716 per week. It shows that the integration of Confucian moral education ideas has enriched the content of Civic Education for college students and realized the teaching mechanism of double integration and double promotion.

Doğu’dan Batı’ya Kolektiviteler Üzerinden Birey-Devlet İlişkisi: Konfüçyan, Hegelyan ve Komüniteryan Siyaset Felsefelerinde Toplumsal Birey Anlayışı

This study aims to analyze the nature of the individual-state relationship from a descriptive approach and a holistic perspective. The importance attributed to the sociality of the individual is embedded in both Eastern and Western political philosophies. The position of the individual vis-à-vis the state and other social structures depends on the philosophical understanding of the period and context. The emphasis on the sociality of the individual, which is put forward in the critique of classical liberalism’s perception of the individual is also observed in Confucian ethics and Hegel’s philosophical approach and thus implies a linear understanding. Especially since the last quarter of the 20th century, liberal communitarians have revived the debate by criticizing classical liberal conception of the individual. In contrast to classical liberalism’s understanding of transcendental individual who is free from social/collective features, liberal communitarians highlight the significance of social ties and structures. Recognizing the importance of the individual’s collective ties, this study examines the individual’s relationship with collective structures, especially the state, in Confucianism, Hegelian political thought, and communitarianism and argues that the relationship between the two has been a subject of constant debate from past to present.

P.C. Chang, Multicultural Confucian Philosopher and Human Rights Champion

This article presents some of the main contributions from the Chinese philosopher and diplomat P.C. Chang regarding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Chang was one of the key drafters and he influenced the document in crucial ways during the whole drafting process, such as its religious neutrality and its broad range of rights. He combined Western philosophy and Confucian ethics in his contributions. He became vice chair of the Human Rights Commission at the UN and worked closely with Eleanor Roosevelt, the chair of the commission. He emphasized the Eastern perspective and he was highly critical of the colonial legacy, especially from delegates such as the Frenchman René Cassin.

The Case of the Upright Man in the Analects

Abstract: In the Analects (13.18) we find a case that a son reported his sheep-stealing father to the authorities, and Confucius and the Duke of She disagreed whether the son was upright or not. This case reflects a conflict of strong and deep intuitions, and it continues to ignite heated debates. This essay first tries to clarify the nature of this conflict and Confucius' position, as it has many different interpretations. Next, a variety of arguments in support of Confucius' position are examined and articulated and classified into five different types. Of the five arguments, two of them are especially noteworthy: the argument from Goodness and the argument from Social Utility. Both arguments can find strong support in Confucian tradition, and many historical arguments are still relevant and insightful today. These arguments also demonstrate the value of Confucian ethics in contemporary society.