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...
| Auteurs: | ; |
|---|---|
| Type de support: | Électronique Article |
| Langue: | Anglais |
| Vérifier la disponibilité: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Publié: |
2011
|
| Dans: |
Religion, brain & behavior
Année: 2011, Volume: 1, Numéro: 2, Pages: 135-145 |
| Sujets non-standardisés: | B
Confucius
B effortless action B Rituel B Spontaneity B early Chinese thought B Cognition B Affect B processing fluency B Virtue Ethics |
| Accès en ligne: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Résumé: | 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. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2153-5981 |
| Contient: | Enthalten in: Religion, brain & behavior
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/2153599X.2011.598329 |
