Abstract

An engaging book if for no other reason than that it deliberately attempts to be refreshingly different from the mine-run of present-day books on ethics. It is also in many ways a persuasive book, although one suspects that the persuasiveness may be a function of a number of apparently novel distinctions and concepts, which upon reflection turn out to be somewhat uncritical. Still a third feature of the book is that, by way of illustrating the decisive role in ethics of what Cua terms "the paradigmatic individual," two chapters are devoted to an examination of Confucius and Confucian ethics. Needless to say, this third feature is one which most contemporary writers on ethics would not have the competence thus to feature in their books, and which unhappily, this present reviewer does not have the competence even to comment on in his review!