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Essay on On Virtue: Comparing the views of Confucius and Aristotle
Most Greek philosophers agreed that virtue is a form of knowledge. They generally thought that self-examination leads to self-knowledge which in turn leads to the good life. For the moral virtues Aristotle found this knowledge in a mean that is relative to us and is shown to us by phron‘sis, a concept that has instructive parallels with Confucian yi. The Analects state that a junzi "does not have things that he invariably does or does not do, but rather is committed to yi" (Barnes, 1995, pg. 54). Roger Ames and David Hall have given the most intelligible reading of this passage so that the personalism and contextualism of yi comes forth. Just as phron‘sis is Aristotle’s guide to a personal mean so is yi for the Confucian dao. "The junzi considers yi as the most important," says Confucius and then goes on to argue that one achieves only semblances of the virtues without yi. One could, for example, be physically brave but lack true courage, or one could be clever without being very wise (Barnes, 1995, pg. 54).
Confucius also claims that yi is our "raw stuff" that allows us to put the rules of propriety (li) into practice. Without yi Confucian morality would a mere moralism based on strict conformity to li. Therefore, for a contemporary virtue ethics of self-creation, one could formalize the Confucian position as ren + yi + li = ren*. In Aristotle’s terms we can see an equivalence between li and ethos as social custom, and with the aid of phron‘sis and moral cultivation, this ethos becomes particularized as unique character traits (‘thos) and the moral virtues (ethik‘ aret‘).
Jiyuan Yu acknowledges Ames and Hall’s work on yi and wonders why they did not turn to Aristotle after they "open[ed] the door for an Aristotelian practical wisdom" (Yu, 1998, pg. 12).....................
