Chinese Studies public talk
November 16, 12:00pm - 1:30pm
Mānoa Campus, Moore 417 (Tokioka Room)
This event is also being presented as part of MÄ€NOA International Education Week.
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
12:00-1:30 pm, Tokioka Room, Moore Hall 319
Agent and Deed in Early Confucian Thought
George Tsai,
Assistant Professor, UHM Dept. of Philosophy
Some contemporary commentators (e.g., Fingarette, Rosemont) claim that the early Confucians did not have the notions of agent, action, and choice. Others disagree (e.g., Nivision, Schwartz), arguing that not only did the early Confucians have such notions, aspects of their conceptions of agency are in fact similar to contemporary causal conceptions of agency. In the face of this interpretative divide, I offer an “intermediate†account of the early Confucian conception of agency, focusing on the relationship between agent and deed. On this picture, the relationship between agent and deed is one of expression (or actualization). My interpretation is defended on the basis of a careful reading of sections 2.13 and 6.12 of The Analects. Finally, I consider the moral psychological implications of the Confucian developed, implications, specifically, for our understanding of three phenomena: weakness of will, self-deception, and moral regret.
TO SEE ALL EVENTS for MÄ€NOA International Education Week, visit http://www.manoa.hawaii.edu/international/international_education_week
Event Sponsor
Center for Chinese Studies, Mānoa Campus
More Information
956-8891
