Confucius meets cognition: new answers to old questions
Early Chinese Confucian virtue ethics saw effortless harmony with the "Way" as essential for ethical life, but raised the problem of how one can, through effort, reach a state of effortless perfection. We decompose this paradox into three sub-paradoxes and review evidence from cognitive ps...
| Authors: | ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge
2011
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| In: |
Religion, brain & behavior
Year: 2011, Volume: 1, Issue: 2, Pages: 135-145 |
| Further subjects: | B
Confucius
B effortless action B Spontaneity B Ritual B early Chinese thought B Cognition B Affect B processing fluency B Virtue Ethics |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Early Chinese Confucian virtue ethics saw effortless harmony with the "Way" as essential for ethical life, but raised the problem of how one can, through effort, reach a state of effortless perfection. We decompose this paradox into three sub-paradoxes and review evidence from cognitive psychology relevant to each of them. First, how can one attain spontaneity by expending effort? Second, how can one come to love what one does not already love? Third, why is a deed considered not virtuous if consciously done for the sake of attaining virtue? We discuss how the cognitive sciences can contribute to potential solutions to an ancient ethical tension, and what the humanities can contribute to problems psychologists have only recently begun to explore. |
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| ISSN: | 2153-5981 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion, brain & behavior
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/2153599X.2011.598329 |