Confucianism’s similarities to virtue ethics Essay

Confucianism, the ancient social philosophy of China, would have had no ethical analog in the West as little as 30 old age ago. in that respect are some small similarities that it holds with utilitarian ethics and deontology. There is very little in ethical egoism or relativism that lines up with Confucianism. I believe that virtue ethics, however, as laid out in Alasdair MacIntyres book After Virtue bears a striking relation to Confucianism. One important feature of Confucianism, according to John Koller, is that it is an essentially humanitarian philosophy in other words, human beings are the ultimate source of values.This is in apposition to Super naive realismwhich claims that values ultimately come from God, and naturalismwhich believes that values come from nature. Thus, Confucianism, answers the question of How can goodness and harmony be achieved? by looking for exemplars and principles in humanity itself. This is strikingly similar to the project that Alasdair MacInty re paints of the world. According to MacIntyre, most of the ethical language and arguments that are thrown roughly between ethicists and even everyday good deal is fundamentally incomprehensible or incoherent.Ethical prescriptions used to be based on a rough-cut belief in God and the ways in which He has tell the universe. In todays world, however, we no longer share that normal belief, however we have kept the structures and language of our old ethical systems without the stem stones on which they were originally built. To remedy this ailment, MacIntyre proposes going back to a sweet of virtue ethics, an essentially humanist philosophy that defines virtuous behaviour as what a good man would do. Like Confucianism, virtue ethics looks to incomplete God nor nature, but instead humanity to find the principles by which to live.Furthermore, both Confucianism and virtue ethics focus less on the rightness of actions themselves, but rather on the development of virtuous people. Koller, notes The Confucian idea that virtue, rather than law, should be the basis of government . Similarly, virtue ethics sees ethical behavior as ultimately driven by character, not by rules (deontology) or consequences (utilitarianism). Both Confucianism and virtue ethics are interested in cultivating people skillful in doing good as the basis of a steadfast society.