Humility as an aspect of our humanity is an important concept in both Confucian and Western philosophy. In the modern world, whether Western or not, there seems to be a growing need to promote humility, especially intellectual humility, as a fundamental virtue among students. In this paper, I first compare and contrast the Confucian and Western…

This paper extends the dominant understandings of empathy -- as a trait, state, communication or relationship -- by conceptualising it as a virtue and as a tool to address anti-Asian hate crime. Drawing upon the writings of the Confucian philosopher Xunzi, this article interprets empathy as a personal quality that attests to one's moral…

This paper makes the case for including "critical harmony" as a complement to justice within civic education. The concept of harmony is significant for civic education because it acknowledges the crucial role that relationships play in society--an important moral, ethical, and social ideal in many cultures around the world. Harmony must…

Addressing a research gap on the relationship between mindfulness and morality, this paper draws insights from Confucius' notion of "jing." I explain how "jing" essentially refers to maintaining a full, respectful and humanity-centred attention towards others. To illustrate the application of Confucius' conception of…

Offering an ethical foundation for global citizenship education, this paper draws upon the ideas of neo-Confucian thinker Wang Yangming. Focussing on UNESCO's goal to help learners acquire a sense of belonging to a broader community and humanity, this paper elucidates Wang's concept of innate knowledge ("liangzhi"). The article explains…

In China as elsewhere in the world, human bodies and body parts have long been used for a wide range of medical and non-medical purposes. In recent decades, China has played a considerable role in some of the public exhibitions of plastinated bodies and body parts, and the commercial trade in organ donations. These contemporary developments have…

In this essay, I draw upon Ellen J. Langer's notions of mindlessness and mindfulness to identify and delineate Confucius' views on mindfulness. Langer's theory exemplifies a social-cognitive approach to mindfulness which is a prominent orientation in the extant research. I argue that Confucius, like Langer, rejects mindlessness that is…

Confucianism has been widely perceived as a major moral and cultural obstacle to the donation of bodies for anatomical purposes. The rationale for this is the Confucian stress on "xiao" (filial piety), whereby individuals' bodies are to be intact at death. In the view of many, the result is a prohibition on the donation of bodies to…

This study examines Chinese faculty ethical philosophy from a historical perspective. Historical perspective on Chinese faculty ethical philosophy embraces three major periods, including Chinese ancient faculty ethics, Chinese modern faculty ethics and Chinese contemporary faculty ethics. Different historical perspectives offer different…

Within the last few decades, scholars have uncovered remarkable similarities between Confucian and pragmatist philosophies. Given these resonances, how would a philosophy of music education founded on a synthesis of Confucian and pragmatist ideas look? How would such a philosophy compare with extant philosophies of music education? In this paper,…

In this article, I am suggesting that one effective strategy for revitalizing moral education consists in incorporating classical traditions of care ethics, East and West, which are very much alive in contemporary culture, into sentiments, insights and practices of contemporary care ethics. In so doing we might make moral education much more…

This article explores Mencius' extension of moral feelings and its potential to address a key challenge in cosmopolitan education: how to motivate students to expand their existing affection and obligations towards their family and community to the rest of the world. Rather than strong universalism, a Mencian orientation is aligned with rooted…

This article explores a Confucian perspective of self-cultivation in learning and its implications for self-directed learning. Focussing on two key Confucian texts, "Xueji" (Record of Learning) and "Xunzi," this essay expounds the purpose, content, process and essence of self-cultivation in learning. From a Confucian viewpoint,…

The purpose of this article is to pose and preliminarily answer the question, "Can the sense of shame be a virtue?" It offers a brief, empirically informed, affirmative answer to this question. After developing the context of this question, the article describes the emotion of shame and the shame system by situating them in their…

In Confucianism, the subject of learning is one of the most important concerns. For centuries, Confucian thinkers have been devoted to seeking answers to questions such as, how to be a morally noble and decent human being? (??), how to be a true and moral human being--a noble man? (junzi, ??) and how to learn to be a junzi? A "junzi" can…