Extend Your Benevolence: Kindness and Generosity in the Family and Beyond

Abstract

The revival of virtue theory in Western philosophical ethics has been a great benefit to the discipline, as even virtue’s detractors seem to acknowledge. As a main alternative to deontology and consequentialism, it has broadened and enlivened ethical dialogue, and it has reminded us of philosophical debates and traditions that had been too-abruptly set aside and forgotten. Virtue theory’s reappearance also has made for fruitful connections to non-Western theories and traditions, many of which are themselves virtue-based. Further, the study of virtue ethics has helped to foster connections between philosophy and other disciplines such as psychology and education, particularly in the growing interdisciplinary subfield of moral education.

Among babes in arms there are none that do not know to love their parents… Treating one’s parents as parents is benevolence. Revering one’s elders is righteousness. There is nothing else to do but extend these to the world.

(Mengzi 7A15¹)