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Essay On Confucian Virtue Ethics

1377 Words6 Pages

In this essay, I will be discussing the ongoing argument in ethics, of if we should pay more love and care to those who are, for example, immediate family, and not so much, if any, to strangers. I will be examining and evaluating the two contrasting Chinese ethical systems, Mohism, which is a consequentialist position, and Confucian virtue ethics, with my focus being on Mengzi. Each have a completely different view and argument on this ethical discussion of impartial love. However, neither argue that we should be impartial on our altruism, they both agree that there must be a degree of love and care for those close and those that aren’t so close. With this in mind, I will be arguing that it is simply too demanding to expect individuals to …show more content…

Humans can do what is morally good by following the guidance of the four seeds (Kim.M, 2008) The reason behind these four seeds, is Mengzi’s importance placed on feelings and emotions and how they motivate us to care for others. And by caring for immediate family first is how we can extend to caring for everyone. ‘Serving parents’ is the primary meaning for humaneness, and ‘Respecting elders’, and not just family, is the primary meaning of rightness (Chen.L, 2015). The most basic manifestation of humaneness is to love and serve one’s parents. For Mengzi, humaneness in practice that was extended to non-family members was a moral priority that society prescribed for the good person (Chen.L, 2015). In summary, Mengzi is saying that you must love those close to you first, and from this you will extend and learn to love those who are non-family members, and because we are innately and inherently good, this way of loving and caring is morally and ethically good. A support of Mengzi and an argument put forward by himself, is that differential care is more psychologically realistic and is more likely to achieve general

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