This essay examines the classical Confucian perspective on the topic of happiness through the lens of three Western theories: hedonism, desire satisfaction theory, and objective list theory. My analysis of the two classical texts—the Analects and the Mencius —reveals that three salient aspects of the Confucian conception of happiness, namely ethical pleasure, ethical desire, and moral innocence, play the fundamental role in the guidance and evaluation of an individual’s life. According to Confucius and Mencius, happiness consists primarily not in pleasure, (...) but in ethical pleasure; the good life is not a life in which all or most of one’s desires are fulfilled, but a life in which the satisfaction of prudential desires is subject to the constraint of ethical desire; the source of the greatest happiness lies not in the attainment of the greatest political power, but rather in the cognizance of one’s moral innocence. For classical Confucian thinkers, the relationship between happiness and the good life is that happiness is a critically important constituent of the good life. However, happiness—defined in terms of pleasure, desire satisfaction, or a list of goods—needs to be tempered by moral constraints. In light of their views on happiness and the good life, I conclude that Confucius and Mencius each lived a good life that exemplified the three salient features of happiness, and to that extent they were happy. (shrink)

: This essay breaks new ground in defending the view that contemporary care-based ethics and early Confucian ethics share some important common ground. Luo also introduces the notion of relational virtue in an attempt to bridge a conceptual gap between relational caring ethics and agent-based virtue ethics, and to make the connections between the ethics of care and Confucian ethics philosophically clearer and more defensible.

This essay breaks new ground in defending the view that contemporary care-based ethics and early Confucian ethics share some important common ground. Luo also introduces the notion of relational virtue in an attempt to bridge a conceptual gap between relational caring ethics and agent-based virtue ethics, and to make the connections between the ethics of care and Confucian ethics philosophically clearer and more defensible.

This essay calls attention to an aspect of Confucius's notion of ren that has often been overlooked or even denied in much recent discussion of the topic. While the egalitarian aspect of ren, i.e., the idea that every human being has the potential to become a ren person, is frequently asserted, the leadership dimension of ren has for the most part been given short shrift. I argue that for Confucius, ren is the leadership virtue. This conclusion is mainly based on (...) a careful and systematic analysis of what may be called ?the definitional ren passages? and some ?elucidative ren passages? in the Analects. (shrink)

This essay breaks new ground in defending the view that contemporary care-based ethics and early Confucian ethics share some important common ground. Luo also introduces the notion of relational virtue in an attempt to bridge a conceptual gap between relational caring ethics and agent-based virtue ethics, and to make the connections between the ethics of care and Confucian ethics philosophically clearer and more defensible.

In this dissertation, the author compares early Confucian ethics with some forms of moral sentimentalism. The ethical views of two Confucian moralists, Kongzi and Mengzi are compared with Michael Slote's agent-based moral sentimentalist virtue ethics and Nel Noddings' feminine relational ethics of caring; the Confucian ethicist Xunzi's theory is compared with David Hume's classical version of moral sentimentalism. Through argumentation and theoretical reconstruction, the author attempts to establish that Kongzi and Mengzi's ethical accounts are agent-based while Xunzi's is agent-prior; Kongzi's (...) notion of shu, Mengzi's concept of ceyin zhi xin, and Xunzi's idea of "inner constitution" represent different forms of empathy. The author proposes the notion of relational virtue to reconcile the virtue ethical conception of caring with the relational ethical conception of caring. Through these comparisons and the reconciliation the author emphasizes the common ground Confucian ethics shares with the moral sentimentalist tradition. This work as the whole, therefore, represents a radical departure from traditional comparative studies that tend to emphasize the affinity between early Confucian ethics and the ancient Greek tradition. (shrink)

What is the relationship between moral virtue and happiness? Does having moral virtues make their possessors happy? Can one be happy without them? Philosophers provide diverging answers to these questions due to their different understandings of the concept of happiness which has multifarious meanings and senses. In this essay, I compare the representative Western theories of happiness with what may be called “a classical Confucian view” informed by recent scholarship on classical Confucianism. I argue that for classical Confucian philosophers, especially (...) Confucius and Mencius, there are two kinds of happiness: exclusive and inclusive happiness. I conclude that moral virtue is necessary for inclusive happiness shared by the virtuous and the recipients of their virtuous actions and/or policies. (shrink)

In Doing Philosophy Comparatively Tim Connolly has accomplished an admirable feat: the first comprehensive and systematic introduction to comparative philosophy, written in a lucid and accessible style. Although it is designed to be used as a text-book for an introduction to a comparative philosophy course, this excellent volume will prove extremely helpful to anyone who is interested in this area of philosophic pursuit. As a practitioner of comparative philosophy, I benefited from reading this book because it gives a panoramic view (...) of the field, provides answers to some of my questions, and piques my interest. I have been informed and enlightened.The volume is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on... (shrink)

In this thesis, I have explored, explicated and argued for some specific areas of commonalities between the philosophy of John Dewey and the teaching of Confucius. Both theories start with the same fundamental assumption that there is no such thing as immutable human nature, and their shared emphasis on education is based on this supposition. John Dewey and Confucius agree that the self mainly consists of habits and that the transformation of the self implies growth, i.e., the acquisition of new (...) and intelligent habits. The Deweyan conception of growth overlaps the Confucian doctrine of self-cultivation in that both concepts focus on the obtainment of inner moral qualities that are of great communal import. Dewey's construal of freedom seems to parallel jen, the Confucian ideal, because both thinkers maintain that human perfection is the ultimate goal for which we should strive unceasingly. (shrink)

Abstract Comparative studies involving early Confucian ethics often appear to assume that it is a unified approach to morality. This essay challenges that assumption by arguing that Confucius had a significantly different conception of ren , commonly viewed as central to Confucian ethics, from that of Mencius. It is generally accepted that ren has two senses: in a narrow sense, it is the virtue of benevolence (or compassion); in a broad sense, it is the all-encompassing ethical ideal. Both senses fail (...) to capture Confucius’ conception of ren , for the narrow sense fits only Mencius’ understanding of ren , while the broad sense lacks emphasis and precision. I propose a third sense of ren , that is, ren as an integral, higher-order virtue with respect as its most salient component. This sense of ren is more in keeping with the textual evidence in the Analects . It played a key role in Confucius’ political-moral thinking and made his doctrine diverge considerably from that of Mencius, who understood ren primarily as compassion. (shrink)

This essay argues that there is a political dimension to Confucius’s idea of ren. This thesis is based on a careful analysis of what may be called the definitional passages in the Analects. The author contends that contrary to what may be called the unqualified egalitarian claim, ren is not applicable to every human being because its political aspect requires some degree of constraint in its application.

Our fourteenth year of publication begins with an exceptional expansion of our sense of philosophy’s powers and resources. In our special featured article, Brian Schroeder’s groundbreaking essay, “...

v. 1. Li ze xue -- v. 2. Yu zhou lun xin li xue -- v. 3 Xing shang xue.

勞思光、牟宗三、葛瑞漢、華靄仁、安樂哲， 探究當代孟學家學術理解之差異， 透過思想省察及文獻分析等方式，重釋及廓清《孟子》研究的爭議性課題。 中國儒家經典《孟子》，向來被研究得最廣泛、透澈卻又似乎未能獲致研究者共同認定的一致性成果。由於研究者的學養背景相異，援引的哲學路數不同，使得《孟子》研究呈現出理解上的莫衷一是及多元歧見的情況。 本書針對當代學者有關《孟子》研究的爭議性課題，試圖透過思想史的省察及文獻分析等方式予以廓清與重釋。首先，作者立基於《孟子》的歷史發展脈絡，並掌握經典文獻語義及架構價值。其次，藉由學術研究成績斐然的勞思 光先生與當代新儒家的重要代表人物牟宗三先生，對於《孟子》詮釋的差異性作比較與省思，深刻觸及了儒家哲學的內在問題。接著，探究葛瑞漢、華靄仁以及安樂哲三位漢學家，何以因為迥異的思維而產生不同的學術理解。最 後，疏理傳統與當代及西方詮釋孟學所引發的爭議。全書既省察當代孟學詮釋，並對比其論述脈絡，是一本孟學及儒學研究者必備專書。.

本书探讨了元代儒学学派与诗文流派之间的互动关系。全书分为上下两编，上编为总论部分，对南宋金元时期学术变迁与派别分化、学术与诗文的联动、理学门派传承与诗文流派的生成加以宏观性论述；同时重点考察了许衡与元 代中州文派、刘因与元代北方文派、许谦与元代金华文派、李齐贤与元代高丽文派等的儒学承传和文学创作。下编为考证部分，汇辑了元代高丽士人李齐贤研究资料，并考撰了“元代中朝（韩）越日间文学活动编年”。.

This paper provides an analysis of the complex global reproduction networks driving the rapidly expanding cross-border surrogacy industry in Asia’s reproductive bioeconomy. It sheds light on the unique features of informal surrogacy networks, notable for their flexible business ties and non-standardized surrogate mother recruitment. These factors contribute to heightened vulnerability for surrogate mothers operating within these networks. While previous literature has underscored the merits of labor law in regulating the surrogacy industry, its application in informal cross-border surrogacy remains under-examined. To (...) address this gap, this research delves into innovative labor law strategies with potential to better regulate the surrogacy sector. Drawing inspiration from progressive labor regulations and supply chain strategies in Bulgaria and Australia, the proposed model aims to redefine the traditional employment relationship. This shift is aimed at bolstering protection for surrogate mothers and enforcing accountability throughout the surrogacy business network. The model further advocates for a collective framework that fosters collaboration and mandates the documentation and registration of surrogacy contracts. Moreover, it underscores the critical significance of international collaboration in bridging regulatory gaps and distributing accountability across consumer and supply states. (shrink)

This paper explores Zha Changping’s humanistic criticism of pioneering Chinese art as a new paradigm in art criticism after the postmodern disintegration of traditional art history with its linear art history writing. It introduces the “seven forming factors” at the heart of Zha’s “world relational aesthetics,” which, on one hand, gauges the pulse of the time, while on the other hand seeking to uncover the underlying relational logic informing this generation of pioneering artists’ intellectual outlook and artistic output.

Computer vision is widely used in manufacturing, sports, medical diagnosis, and other fields. In this article, a multifeature fusion error action expression method based on silhouette and optical flow information is proposed to overcome the shortcomings in the effectiveness of a single error action expression method based on the fusion of features for human body error action recognition. We analyse and discuss the human error action recognition method based on the idea of template matching to analyse the key issues that (...) affect the overall expression of the error action sequences, and then, we propose a motion energy model based on the direct motion energy decomposition of the video clips of human error actions in the 3 Deron action sequence space through the filter group. The method can avoid preprocessing operations such as target localization and segmentation; then, we use MET features and combine with SVM to test the human body error database and compare the experimental results obtained by using different feature reduction and classification methods, and the results show that the method has the obvious comparative advantage in the recognition rate and is suitable for other dynamic scenes. (shrink)

本書從思想史脈絡的溯源，立足在孟學發展史上之歷史關鍵點，以宋／清孟學發展轉折切入，以朱熹／戴震做為研究對象，探究二家思想的關聯性，並從西方詮釋學的新視野研究兩家詮釋殊異之因；透過朱熹與戴震二位理學大家 ，釐清由宋至清的孟學系譜，勾勒出孟學何以能從宋明理學「向內體證理路」轉而趨向清代義理「向外道德實踐」的不同蘊趣。【秀威資訊科技股份有限公司製作】.