Mengzi and Hume on Extending Virtue

Philosophy East and West 66 (2):475-487 (2016)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The classical Chinese philosopher Mengzi shares the idea with David Hume that virtue and vice are dispositions of character that arise from original qualities of the mind. Mengzi is guardedly optimistic that these original qualities can be extended to become fully formed virtues, while Hume is guardedly skeptical about this same enterprise. Yet these two thinkers have something to share with each other. In this essay I will use illustrations from Mengzi to sketch out an interpretation of extending original moral qualities into the virtue of benevolence. I will chart two developmental stages on the pathway to fully developed benevolence, and I will attempt to superimpose Hume’s account of the passions and his double..

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 103,486

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Mengzian Sensitivity to Social Roles.Gina Lebkuecher - 2024 - Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 23 (2):191-222.
Virtuous actions in the Mengzi.Waldemar Brys - 2023 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 31 (1):2-22.
Hume and the second-quality analogy.John Corvino - 2008 - Journal of Scottish Philosophy 6 (2):157-173.
Hume on Virtue, Beauty, Composites, and Secondary Qualities.Donald L. M. Baxter - 1990 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 71 (2):103-118.
Extending Kindness: A Confucian Account.Waldemar Brys - 2023 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 104 (3):511-528.
Remedial Moral Cultivation: Reply to Hu.Howard J. Curzer - 2024 - Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 23 (4):603-607.
Hume and the Intellectual Virtues.Dan O'Brien - 2012 - Discipline Filosofiche 22 (2):153-172.

Analytics

Added to PP
2016-04-20

Downloads
31 (#763,697)

6 months
3 (#1,061,821)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Gordon B. Mower
Brigham Young University

Citations of this work

Mencius, Hume, and the Virtue of Humanity: Sources of Benevolent Moral Development.Jeremiah Carey & Rico Vitz - 2020 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 28 (4):693-713.
Moral Psychology of the Confucian Heart-Mind and Interpretations of Ceyinzhixin.Bongrae Seok - 2022 - Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 21 (1):37-59.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references