RT Article
T1 Preferences and Consensus in the Philosophy of Xunzi
JF Religions
VO 13
IS 10
A1 Yao, Yurui
LA English
PB MDPI
YR 2022
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/181984465X
AB To understand Confucian ethics as a “hierarchical mode of association” is to think that it is incapable of dealing with a society of strangers or to understand Confucian ethics as “authoritarian” or “collectivist”, and to criticize that it ignores human characteristics and freedoms is to mistake one part of Confucianism for the whole. The Confucian theory of the individual and community actually has a tightly woven structure wherein its recognition of the plurality of diverse individuals and its appeal the unity of a common consensus are combined. From an exploration into the relationship between Xunzi’s concepts of “preference” (teyi 特意) and “consensus” (gongshi 共予) and from the way he uses such concepts as “similarity and difference” (tongyi 同異), “one and ten thousand” (yiwan 一萬), and “unity and division” (tongfen 統分), I show how Xunzi included the diversity of individuals within a pluralist society in a unified community with a collective consensus where this community at the same time guarantees the freedoms and preferences of each individual member that belongs to it.
K1 theory of individual and community
K1 Consensus
K1 preferences
K1 Xunzi
K1 Confucianism
DO 10.3390/rel13100978