Confucian vs Kantian Duty Ethics: Two Ethics of Duty

Question

How do Confucian and Kantian ethics compare? The two are the great ethics of duty of the East and the West, and their comparison reveals the deepest question of the moral life: what is the ground of the duty — the roles of the community or the law of the reason?

Quick Answer

Confucian ethics and Kantian ethics are both ethics of duty: both hold that the moral life is the life of obligation. But they ground the duty differently. The Confucian duty is the duty of the role: the person is the child, the parent, the friend, the ruler, the subject, and the duty is the obligation of the role — the filial piety of the child, the benevolence of the parent, the loyalty of the subject, the wisdom of the ruler. The ground of the duty is the community: the roles are the structure of the human relations, and the virtue — ren, the humaneness — is the perfection of the roles, the disposition that fulfills each relation as it should be fulfilled. The Kantian duty is the duty of the reason: the person is the rational being, and the duty is the obligation of the categorical imperative — act only on the maxim that could be willed as universal law, and treat humanity always as an end, never merely as a means. The ground of the duty is the reason: the moral law is the law of the rational nature, the same for all persons, whatever their roles, their culture, or their circumstances. The two agree that the moral life is the life of the obligation; they differ on the ground: the roles of the community or the law of the reason.

Historical Wisdom

The two traditions developed independently and arrived at a remarkable convergence. The Confucian ethics, developing in China from the teaching of Confucius in the sixth century BCE, made the roles the structure of the moral life: the five relations — the ruler and the subject, the parent and the child, the husband and the wife, the elder and the younger, the friend and the friend — are the school of the virtue, and the duty of each role is the training of the person. The Kantian ethics, developing in Germany in the eighteenth century, made the reason the structure of the moral life: the categorical imperative is the law that the rational being gives to itself, and the duty is the obligation that follows from the rational nature alone. The comparison of the two has become a central topic of the comparative ethics, and the modern scholarship has shown both the parallels — both are deontological, both make the duty the center — and the differences: the Confucian duty is the duty of the concrete relation; the Kantian duty is the duty of the universal law.

Philosophical Perspectives

The comparison has three dimensions. First, the ground of the duty: the Confucian duty is grounded in the role — the obligation follows from the position in the community, the relation to the other; the Kantian duty is grounded in the reason — the obligation follows from the rational nature alone, independently of the roles and the relations. Second, the content of the duty: the Confucian content is the perfection of the role — the filial piety, the benevolence, the loyalty, the wisdom that fulfill the relations; the Kantian content is the form of the law — the maxim that can be universalized, the humanity treated as the end. Third, the method: the Confucian method is the cultivation — the practice of the roles, the learning of the rites, the formation of the character through the concrete relations; the Kantian method is the test — the examination of the maxim by the categorical imperative, the universalization that reveals the contradiction.

The two traditions answer differently the question "why be moral?" The Confucian answer: because the roles are your life — the relations constitute the person, and the perfection of the relations is the perfection of the self; the duty is the obligation of the relation, and the relation is the substance of the life. The Kantian answer: because the reason is your nature — the moral law is the law of the rational being, and the obedience to the law is the autonomy, the freedom of the rational will. The Confucian duty is the duty of the heart of the community; the Kantian duty is the duty of the heart of the reason.

Lessons From Thinkers

From Confucius: the roles are the school — "let the ruler be a ruler, the subject a subject, the father a father, the son a son." From Kant: the reason is the law — "act only on that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law." And from the comparison: the two ethics of duty agree that the moral life is the life of the obligation; they differ on the ground — the roles of the community or the law of the reason.

Practical Application

The comparison has practical value. For the person in the Confucian tradition: the Kantian lens adds the universal — the duty is not only the duty of the role but the duty of the humanity, and the relation must not be fulfilled at the cost of the dignity of the other. For the person in the Kantian tradition: the Confucian lens adds the concrete — the duty is lived in the relations, and the universal law is fulfilled in the particular roles of the family, the work, and the community. For the integrated practice: the two traditions converge on the central insight — the moral life is the life of the obligation, and the obligation is fulfilled by the person who is formed by the practice: the character cultivated in the relations (Confucian) and the will governed by the law (Kantian). The two ethics of duty are the two paths to the same goal: the person of the duty, the life of the obligation.

Quotes

Confucius states the roles: "Let the ruler be a ruler, the subject a subject, the father a father, the son a son." Kant states the law: "Act only on that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law." And the comparison is summarized: "The Confucian duty is the duty of the role within the community; the Kantian duty is the duty of the reason within the person — two ethics of obligation, two grounds of the moral life."

Related Questions

• What Is Confucianism? — the Eastern ethics of the roles.
• What Is Kantian Ethics? — the Western ethics of the law.
• What Is Deontology? — the theory of the duty.
• What Is Humaneness? — the Confucian virtue of the roles.