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- Title
Ethical Advance and Ethical Risk - A Mengzian Reflection.
- Authors
Law, L. K. Gustin
- Abstract
On one view of ethical development, someone not yet virtuous can reliably progress by engaging in what meaningfully resembles virtuous conduct. However, if the well-intended conduct is psychologically demanding, one's character, precisely because one is not yet virtuous, may worsen rather than improve. This risk of degradation casts doubt on the developmental view. I counter the doubt through one interpretation and one application of the Mengzi 孟子. In passage 2A2, invoking the image of a farmer who "helped" the crop grow by pulling the sprouts, Meng Ke 孟軻 cautions, "do not help it grow." I defend a novel interpretation: do not advance with a naïve negligence about your psychophysiological constitution. I also show how to advance with realistic care by pointing out an overlooked application of a much-discussed cultivation technique illustrated in Mengzi 1A7: ethical reflection can conciliate one with one's ongoing or past advanced action, lowering the action's risk of degradation.
- Subjects
MORAL development; VIRTUE ethics; CORRUPTION; NIVISON, David; SPROUTS
- Publication
Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy, 2020, Vol 19, Issue 4, p535
- ISSN
1540-3009
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s11712-020-09746-9