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Care Ethics and Confucianism: Caring through Li

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Kelly M. Epley
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Abstract

The role of li, or ritual, in Confucianism is a perceived impediment to interpreting Confucianism to share a similar ethical framework with care ethics because care ethics is a form of moral particularism. I argue that this perception is false. The form of moral particularism promoted by care ethicists does not entail the abandonment of social conventions such as li. On the contrary, providing good care often requires employing systems of readily recognizable norms in order to ensure that care is successfully communicated and completed through one's care‐giving practices. I argue that li performs this communicative function well and that the early Confucians recommend breaching li precisely when its efficacy in performing this function is compromised.

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Articles
Information
Hypatia , Volume 30 , Issue 4 , Fall 2015 , pp. 881 - 896
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 by Hypatia, Inc.

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