The Moral Circle and the Self: Chinese and Western Perspectives

Kim-Chong Chong, Sor-hoon Tan, and C.L. Ten, eds.

If ethics encompasses not just a concern for self and family but also for a wider circle of others, what resources do Chinese and Western ethics offer to motivate and guide this expansion of concern? This question is the theme uniting all these essays by leading Chinese and Western philosophers. Topics discussed include: the Confician emphasis on hierarchy; the motivational basis driving concern for others; how Descartes and Mencius analyzed pity and compassion, how personal identities are formed in Chinese and Western cultures, the possibility of a Confucian civil society, and children's rights.