Moral Cultivation and Confucian Character: Engaging Joel Kupperman ed. by Chenyang Li and Peimin Ni (review)

This volume of insightful papers offers a significant contribution to the growing field of comparative and applied Confucian thought. Edited and authored by distinguished scholars within the field, it is a tribute to Joel Kupperman and his pioneering work bringing Confucian ethics to the attention of the Western academy. Each of the eleven authors addresses a particular facet of Confucian ethics—as extensions of Kupperman’s work—underscoring not only the sophistication of Confucian thought, but also its relevance to the now globalized world.

Chapter 1, written by Roger T. Ames and Henry Rosemont Jr., is appropriately subtitled “Putting Humpty Together Again.” In addressing the crucial role family plays in the formation of character and sense of justice the individual brings to bear into the world, Ames and Rosemont point out that the fundamental humanizing influence of family is overlooked, underestimated, or ignored by Western moral philosophy. As historical background, the authors cite Plato’s act of forbidding the guardians of the Republic to marry or have any family life due to his belief that close familial ties are “corrupting of their abilities to govern and protect the citizens” (p. 17). Further illustrating this cultural continuum of social dislocation with the familial other as some moral high ground, Ames and Rosemont outline by way of the predominant theological premise which views a worldly life as anathema to a holy life. Family intimacy takes one away from God. In putting Humpty together again, the authors wish to redress these philosophic misconceptions of a self morally distracted or diminished (as opposed to enhanced) by intimate social interconnection. Accordingly, the authors present a compelling critique of Confucian ethics—informed by the social embeddedness of self—through the lens of Susan Moller Okin and Joel Kupperman.

Chapter 2, a comparative study of Kongzi (Confucius) and Aristotle by Philip J. Ivanhoe, focuses on the notion of virtue ethics as interpreted by these two thinkers. Namely, the Aristotelian forms of virtue are presented in contrast with the Confucian emphasis on character, as in the ideal of the sage (junzi 君子), the former being traditionally formalized with distinct categories, the latter, more fluid and experiential. Ivanhoe succinctly captures—in the same vein as chapter 1—the contrasting cultural continuums of the objective (Western) and subjective (Chinese) approaches to being virtuous as expressed in the respective philosophies. This comparative theme of an objectified (read: dualistic and discrete) world in contrast to a subjective (read: interconnected and holistic) world is implicit in each article as a response to Western moral philosophy which, more often than not, tends to reject fluidity and flexibility for categorical criteria as to what is virtuous.

Of particular note is Karyn Lai’s article, “When Good Relationships Are Not Enough for Business: Understanding Character in Confucian Ethics” (chapter 10), which marries Confucian pragmatism with moral philosophy. This article can be read as a response to the current juggernaut of globalized neo-liberal market forces whereby material gain overwhelms any other human and/or environmental priority. Lai offers the perspective of positive business interaction as an aspect of character development: Confucian self-cultivation in empathetic connection with the other. Lai reiterates the Confucian dynamic whereby the goal of a win-win situation is far superior to a zero-sum game, the former being an approach which will attain growth and prosperity (in every sense of the word) for all parties involved in a given negotiation. Lai’s emphasis on Confucian character formation in business relationships is, to quote, “(a) the nature of [character] development as an on-going process, (b) the nurturing of meaningful relationships not for self-gain but as a manifestation of the exemplary person’s character and (c) the ethical stature of the exemplary person that seeks to maintain harmonious relationships but does not seek simply to...