Abstract

This comparative study of virtues in Xunzi's thought examines two modern Western categories of analysis--"virtue" and a "development model" of attaining virtue--and their applicability to Xunzi's ethical outlook. The study then makes use of these categories in discussing Xunzi's use of the word de (often translated as "virtue"), his description of specific virtues in three different passages, and his account of why people fail to be virtuous. The comparative project helps us to see and understand aspects of his outlook that we would otherwise find less clear, and it requires us to re-examine our modern categories of analysis.