Abstract

Internet technology brings exciting benefits as well as alarming dangers to our everyday life. The way Internet technology affects our relationship with our own self and with our fellow human beings is a pressing concern. Hence, there is a need for an ethical reflection and analysis on problems confronting the online community and the relationships established and maintained therein. Considering the alarming dangers, addressing ethical concerns becomes urgent. And since these dangers confront the online community every day, we might as well turn to a philosopher, whose wisdom was attuned to the everyday concrete ethical concerns of his time: Confucius. In this paper, I shall argue that a Confucian ethics of humane online relations/interactions in the online community can be formulated. Such an ethics can aid in addressing the present malaise of the online community especially problems confronting human relations/interactions established therein. I shall argue for such claim in three steps. First, I shall establish that indeed the online world/online realm can be treated or viewed as a community, hence, an online community. Second, I shall establish that as a community it has certain problems that need to be addressed. Third, I shall establish that these problems may be addressed or seen in a different light by formulating a Confucian ethics of humane online relations/interactions.