In Defense of Ritual Propriety

Confucians think ritual propriety is extremely important, but this commitment perplexes many Western readers. This essay outlines the early Confucian Xúnzi’s defense of ritual, then offers a modified defense of ritual propriety as a real virtue, of value to human beings in all times and places, albe...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Stalnaker, Aaron (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: University of Innsbruck in cooperation with the John Hick Centre for Philosophy of Religion at the University of Birmingham [2016]
In: European journal for philosophy of religion
Year: 2016, Volume: 8, Issue: 1, Pages: 117-141
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Xunzi / Ritual / Correctness
IxTheo Classification:BM Chinese universism; Confucianism; Taoism
Online Access: Volltext (doi)
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Summary:Confucians think ritual propriety is extremely important, but this commitment perplexes many Western readers. This essay outlines the early Confucian Xúnzi’s defense of ritual, then offers a modified defense of ritual propriety as a real virtue, of value to human beings in all times and places, albeit one that is inescapably indexed to prevailing social norms in a non-objectionable way. The paper addresses five likely objections to this thesis, drawing on but going beyond recent Kantian defenses of courtesy and civility. The objections concern cultural relativity, insincerity, separating style from substance, elitism, and possible incoherence in the virtue itself.
Contains:Enthalten in: European journal for philosophy of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.24204/ejpr.v8i1.72