Abstract
This article is an examination of a debate between Confucians and Zhuangists surrounding the notion of moral personhood as understood in the early Confucian tradition. This debate takes place across texts—most importantly in the Confucian challenge of Analects 18.5-7 and the Zhuangist response of the Renjianshi chapter of the Zhuangzi. In better understanding the disagreement between these two schools, we can come to a clearer picture of the notion of personhood at stake. The Zhuangist reaction to the Confucian position on personhood helps to demonstrate that the Confucians held a conception of the person as communally constructed. Such a view, I argue, can be of great use in contemporary debates surrounding agency, moral responsibility, and moral development. After offering an outline of the Confucian position, I consider various Zhuangist objections both in the Analects and Renjianshi chapter, before considering what I take to be convincing Confucian responses to the Zhuangist objections.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bratman, Michael. 1992. “Shared Cooperative Activity.” Philosophical Review 101.2: 327–341.
Brooks, Bruce and Brooks, Taeko. 1998. The Original Analects. New York: Columbia University Press.
Coutinho, Steve. 2004. Zhuangzi and Early Chinese Philosophy: Vagueness, Transformation, and Paradox. London: Ashgate Publishers.
Doris, John. 2002. Lack of Character: Personality and Moral Behavior. Cambridge University Press.
Fraser, Chris. 1997. “Review of Liu, Classifying the Zhuangzi Chapters.” Asian Philosophy 7.2: 155–159.
Harman, Gilbert. 1999. “Moral Philosophy Meets Social Psychology: Virtue Ethics and the Fundamental Attribution Error.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 100: 223–226.
Huang, Yong. 2010. “The Ethics of Difference in the Zhuangzi.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 78.1: 65–99.
Ivanhoe, Philip J. 1993. “Zhuangzi on Skepticism, Skill, and the Dao.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 61.4: 639–54
Kupperman, Joel. 2004. “Tradition and Community in the Formation of Character and the Self.” In Confucian Ethics: A Study of Self, Autonomy, and Community. Edited by Shun Kwong-loi and David Wong. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Liu, Xiaogan. 1994. Classifying the Zhuangzi Chapters. Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan.
Schwartz, Benjamin I. 1985. The World of Thought in Ancient China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Slingerland, Edward. 2007. Effortless Action: Wu-wei as Conceptual Metaphor and Spiritual Ideal in Early China. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Strassberg, Richard E., ed. 2002. A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures From the Guideways Through Mountains and Seas. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Van Norden, Bryan. 2007. Virtue Ethics and Consequentialism in Early Chinese Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Waley, Arthur. 1938. The Analects of Confucius. London: George, Allen, & Unwin.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
McLeod, A. In the World of Persons: The Personhood Debate in the Analects and Zhuangzi . Dao 11, 437–457 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-012-9291-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-012-9291-0