How do people acquire modesty? A simple answer is: if people see that modesty is a worthy trait, they will incorporate it into their character. However, sometimes the knowledge that one is modest would undermine one's modesty. So, Driver claims that the modest person must not know his merits. If we are to accept Driver's claim, it would be…

Today, teaching literature has an established place within the school and university curricula in Western and East Asian countries. This seems so natural that we take the educational role of literature for granted. However, history teaches us that elevating literature to an academic subject required a defense of literature against the critical…

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…

This conceptual study draws from social work, education, psychology, and moral philosophy (i.e., virtue and Confucian ethics) to inform our conceptual definition of "intercultural" humility (ICH) with five interrelated features. Starting with cultural humility in the context of the Educational Policies and Accreditation Standards (EPAS)…

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 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…

Here the author takes "ren"-humanity to be, as Confucius says, an underlying, ineffable, potentially universal human quality, and draws a distinction between three different types of moral capacity in the "Lunyu": the man of "ren's" capacity for "li"-proper interactions, his capacity for total…

Confucianism, long regarded as the key philosophy on personal character-building and interpersonal relations in Chinese society, used to be pivotal to citizenship education in Taiwan, but that has changed in the last 20 years. In the wake of democratization in the late 1980s, growing liberalism and pluralism in Taiwanese society prompted the…

This paper opens with a critical analysis of a paradox in contemporary educational research in and about Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC): the assumption that national boundaries coincide with those of a distinct and homogeneous culture, which consistently renders a rather homogenous set of educational phenomena, and collides against a more widely…

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,…

Implicit in most comparative ethical studies is the assumption that cultural and religious differences between countries are the major reasons behind the variations in ethical beliefs and business practice across nations. This article examines research on the international ethical issues and the common moral concerns that permeate differing…

Describes essential characteristics of Chinese philosophical tradition; Discusses Western perspectives on value leadership in education, particularly moral leadership. Discuses moral leadership from a Chinese philosophical perspective, especially Confucianism. Draws implications for using Chinese cultural and philosophical traditions to develop…

Confucius (551-479 B.C.) believed in the power of language to regulate society. Concerned about civil war and the moral and social decay of his time, he advocated a peaceful society with a mild and moderate form of law and order and with an emphasis on the well-being of individuals through compassion, kindness, and justice. This form of law…