Views of Confucius and Aristotle in Human Experience

In the first [chapter partitioning] he argues that the ' uncorrupted achievable by action' must be final (teleion), self-sustaining (autarkes) in the sense of being something which 'when isolated go fors life wanted and lacking in nothing', and 'most desirable of all things, without being counted as nonp atomic number 18il good thing among others'. In the second section of the chapter Aristotle arrives at a definition of the human good by considering what is the function (ergon) of man.

Hardie adds that Aristotle "hesitates between an inclusive and exclusive formulation" of comfort and that he fails "to make explicit the distinction between the comprehensive examination plan and the paramount end." However, Aristotle's text seems perfectly consistent with the sentiment of ethics as a hard-nosed science. The key avouchment in that regard is Aristotle's distinguishing between categories of the good: "What, indeed, is the good of each(prenominal) particular one [action]? . . . Consequently if there is any one thing that is the end of all actions, this get out be the practical good--or goods, if there are more than one" (I.vii.73).

This implies that a good may be either dependent upon(p) or essential. Something is contingent that is not essential; that is, if a purer expression of an aspect of ethics can be found, then that aspect is subsidiary. Aristotle posi

There is a further qualification: in a complete lifetime. One swallow does not make a summer; uncomplete does one day. Similarly neither can one day, or a brief home of time, make a man blessed and happy (I.vii.76; fierceness added).

In his emphasis on respectable forms (li) and on an ethical content for those forms (jen), particularly as developed by the Confucian Mencius, Confucius sought to reclaim the honourable content of the golden age. Li in the early Chou period appears to have been predicated of religious rite forms, whereas Confucius enlarged the meaning to refer to a moral sensitivity supporting ritual enactment. Thus Confucius appears to have helped in institutionalizing li as a principle of society.

In turn li was the mark of one who followed the Way, or tao, which was the name given to the moral system as a whole . What comprises li are the ceremonies of attach behavior in any social setting, however the sincere purpose that informs such behavior reaches beyond ceremonial per se and into the moral realm.

B. Aristotle's particular instances of good: systematic discoveries of virtue

Schirokauer, Conrad. in advance(p) China and Japan: A Brief History. New York: Harcourt orthodontic braces Jovanovich, 1982.

[T]he good for man is an activity of soul in union with virtue, or if there are more kinds of virtue than one, in accordance with the best and most perfect kind.

In Confucian ideal society, there is no hierarchical or soft division of the good between (for example) government and family, for li ensures that the acceptation of the correct role in one area will be duplicated in the other. It follows that the Confucian social and political evidence is of (good) men and not of (good) laws. If rulers cannot identify their very being with the appropriate social-political order, their rule is not legitimate. On the other hand, if the ruler internalizes the values, then he perforce personifies them: "The Master said, 'It is Man who is capable of devising the Way great. It is not t
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