Xunzi's Ritual Model and Modern Moral Education
While the early Confucians were largely content to maintain the rituals of ancient kings as the core of moral education in their time, it is not obvious that contemporary humans could, or should, draw from the particulars of such a tradition. Indeed, even if one takes ritual seriously as a tool for...
| Subtitles: | "Special Issue - Ritual, Confucianism and Asian Philosophy of Religion" |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
University of Innsbruck in cooperation with the John Hick Centre for Philosophy of Religion at the University of Birmingham
2021
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| In: |
European journal for philosophy of religion
Year: 2021, Volume: 13, Issue: 2, Pages: 17-43 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Xunzi
/ Ritual
/ Theory
/ Moral education
/ The Modern
|
| RelBib Classification: | AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism AG Religious life; material religion AH Religious education BM Chinese universism; Confucianism; Taoism NCC Social ethics |
| Further subjects: | B
Education
B Ritual B Confucianism B Moral Psychology |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (doi) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | While the early Confucians were largely content to maintain the rituals of ancient kings as the core of moral education in their time, it is not obvious that contemporary humans could, or should, draw from the particulars of such a tradition. Indeed, even if one takes ritual seriously as a tool for cultivation, there remains a question of how to design moral education programs incorporating ritual. This essay examines impediments faced by a ritualized approach to moral education, how they might be overcome, and how a ritual method could be developed in modernity. I contend that a Confucian notion of ritual, particularly as elaborated in the Xunzi, is both compatible with modern moral education and capable of making a distinct contribution to moral education in terms of how rituals can be used to structure and inculcate a shared climate of respect and humaneness both in- and outside the classroom. Specifically, the ritual education method includes emphases on inculcating moral fluency via symbolic practices and distinctions, training and appropriately associating promoral dispositions, enhancing moral imagination, and developing awareness of other minds. The model is thus a multifaceted approach to moral education through (meta)cognitive development. |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: European journal for philosophy of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.24204/ejpr.2021.3307 |