Confucius And Consequentialism
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The general explanation for Consequentialism is “the view that morality is all about producing the right kinds of overall consequences” (Chase, 2016). Mozi’s social ethics is consequentialist as he suggested the basic standard to judge whether a superior fulfill righteousness is whether he can bring benefits to people (Zhang, 2016) and he suggested people should practice all-embracing love so as to reach harmonious social performance. Likewise, Confucius’s social ethics is as consequentialist as is Mozi’s as he pursued the best consequences to the society. For instance, Confucius mentioned if people was led by laws and bound by punishments, although they would not commit crime, they would not shame; when people was led by morality and bound by rituals, they would not only know shame but go on the right path (Analects, 2.3). Both punishments and rituals can restrict people’s behavior and lead to social harmony but guiding people by rituals can lead to a better consequence. He wanted people to know rituals so that they would consciously perform morally as they understand what is right or wrong. In contrast, restrict people’s behavior by punishments can only make them avoid doing things that lead them to penalty but cannot make them understand the judgments. There is a possibility that people would violate laws no matter how harsh the punishments are. But if people know rituals, they may become law-abiding (Analects, 6.27) and the possibility for them to break the laws would