Moral Self-Cultivation plays an important, even a central role, in the Confucian philosophical tradition, but philosophers in the West, most notably Aristotle and Kant, also hold that moral self-cultivation or self-shaping is possible and morally imperative. This paper argues that these traditions are psychologically unrealistic in what they say…

In 2001, China's moral education curriculum reform called for a "returning to life" as a radical shift from its previous empty sermonic pedagogy, hoping to cultivate its twenty-first century children into ethical humans. Accordingly, a notion of "human ecology" appeared in the post-2001 textbook design, which became…

The purpose of this study is to examine the relevance between religion and happiness in the aspect of Korean higher education. To review this paper logically, three research questions are addressed. First, is religion able to provide happiness for people? Second, what is the relevance between religion and happiness in the aspect of Korean higher…

The recent revival of Confucianism in the PRC raises questions regarding the legitimacy of cultivating Confucian virtues such as "ren" ([Chinese characters omitted] benevolence), "li" ([Chinese characters omitted] propriety) and "xiao" ([Chinese characters omitted] "filial piety" or "family…

This study uses mainly Confucian classic Lunyu to explore Confucius' insightful thinking about humans' strong innate nature of irrationality out of their physical needs. Irrationality causes interpersonal disturbances and chaos, and as such moral education is indispensable. Confucius advocated humanity, the principles of conscientiousness and…

In this paper I shall first examine an apparent paradox in Confucius' view on whether everyone is perfectible through education: on the one hand, he states that education should be provided to all, on the other hand, he says that common people cannot be made to know things. To understand this apparent paradox, I shall argue that education for…

The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand an unknown educational approach in Korean Confucianism's ethical education characterized as moral internalization, based on the study participants. A prevailed understanding of moral internalization of Confucianism is a strong imposed learning process, which is a well known Asian learning…

This study examines early Chinese moral education--its curriculum, objectives and the philosophical assumptions underlying them--in its classical Confucian expression. It analyzes early Confucian debates on moral psychology, the Confucian moral curriculum consisting of model emulation, cultural practices and canonical instruction, and the methods…

This study is the first attempt to conduct a critical analysis of the research on Ikeda's educational philosophy published in mainland China and Taiwan. The study employed a combination of archival research and responses to an online questionnaire by professors and doctorate students studying Ikeda's educational philosophy. The study analyzed the…

This article explores Vygotsky's concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) in the Malaysian context to support local reform of the Moral Education (ME) classroom. Small groups of students in three different types of school were involved in a participant action research (PAR) project. Such classrooms in Malaysia bring together students from…

This article examines the "back to tradition" movement in Chinese schools and its political nature. It focuses on the launch of the "education in Chinese traditional virtues" project in the 1980s and various new developments at the present time, which continue a revival of Confucianism in Chinese society and education. The…

This is a critical response to the papers by Shusterman, Sartwell, and Stroud. I claim that Shusterman has missed the inter-human moral aesthetics of Confucianism, that Sartwell has misunderstood Taoism's idea of "receptivity," confusing it with anarchist "passivity," and Stroud has not overcome the "Gita's" injunction to sacrifice the self,…

The formation and implementation of U.S. moral/political educational policy is highly problematic, due to certain long-held beliefs and embedded understandings that affect the policy-making process. China's situation has been less problematic. This discussion explores three areas of contrast between the societies involving morality/religion,…

A comparison is made between the educational philosophies of Confucius and John Dewey. The comparison is limited to four aspects of education: democracy, instruction, learning, and scientific attitude. Confucianism emphasizes the necessity of self-examination, of the cultivation of virtue, and of education as the means of producing the kind of…

Hong Kong's 150 years of colonisation by the British is a classic example of how globalisation comes into direct contact with a local Chinese culture and creates cultural hybridities. The paper presents a framework for developing a hybrid guidance curriculum, drawing together western traditions of developmental contextualism in guidance and…