Rethinking Virtue Ethics and Social Justice with Aristotle and Confucius

Asian Philosophy 20 (2):195-213 (2010)
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Abstract

Comparing Aristotle's and Confucius' ethics, where each represents an ethics of virtue, I show that they are not susceptible to some of the frequent charges against them when compared to non-virtue ethical theories like utilitarianism and deontology. These charges are that virtue ethics: (1) lack universal laws; they cannot (a) provide content for actions, and (b) they do not consider actions in the evaluation of morality. (2) Virtue ethics cannot provide the resources for dealing with social justice and human rights practices. Contrary to these charges, I show how these thinkers' ethics can account for the first generation civil and political rights, and the second generation economic, social and cultural rights

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May Sim
College of the Holy Cross

Citations of this work

De and Virtue in Early Confucian Texts: Introduction.Xinzhong Yao - 2021 - Journal of Chinese Philosophy 48 (1):5-12.

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References found in this work

Utilitarianism.John Stuart Mill - 1867 - Cleveland,: World Pub. Co.. Edited by Steven M. Cahn.
Utilitarianism.John Stuart Mill - 2000 - In Steven M. Cahn, Exploring Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology. New York, NY, United States of America: Oxford University Press USA.
Virtues and Vices.Philippa Foot - 1983 - Noûs 17 (1):117-121.
Virtues and vices.Philippa Foot - 1997 - In Daniel Statman, Virtue Ethics: A Critical Reader. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 163--177.

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