The history of philosophy in China has always possessed some ethical and political roots since the time of its emergence and in the process of its evolution and development. One of the common features of all Chinese political philosophers, in spite of all their theoreti
More
The history of philosophy in China has always possessed some ethical and political roots since the time of its emergence and in the process of its evolution and development. One of the common features of all Chinese political philosophers, in spite of all their theoretical differences, is their belief in the dependence of the value of government and rulership on its moral and ethical status and prestige. In this way, they tried to access moral principles in order to obligate the Chinese to conform to an Ideal government. Accordingly, while acknowledging the linguistic and semantic ambiguities of authorities’ different theories, the present study investigated the problem of the nature of political ethics and its relationship with government in Chinese political philosophy (with an emphasis on ancient China) following a comparative method. Here, the author proposes the hypothesis that, despite some shared general viewpoints, there are various approaches to the whatness and quality of political ethics and its relationship with government and its duties and moral-political responsibilities. The differences between approaches can be studied in relation to ontology, epistemology, and anthropology, on the one hand, and in relation to the relationship between ethics and politics, nature of government, and legitimacy and duties of government, on the other hand. For example, regarding the problem of the nature of government, Laozi, Yang Zǐ, and Tsung Zǐ, who are Taoists, criticize the government and consider it a kind of unnecessary evil that has no function except for increasing the complexity and adversity of affairs. Therefore, they vote for a minority government, advocate the absence of a dominant central government, and prescribe a conformity between Man’s political conformity with a decentralized government. By contrast, Confucius, Mensius, Tung Chung-su, Han Fei Zǐ, and Chu His consider the government to be a necessary good with major ethical-political duties.
Manuscript profile
