Human Becomings: Theorizing Persons for Confucian Role Ethics

Offers an in-depth exposition of the Confucian conception of persons as the starting point of Confucian ethics. 2021 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title In Human Becomings, Roger T. Ames argues that the appropriateness of categorizing Confucian ethics as role ethics turns largely on the conception of person that is presupposed within the interpretive context of classical Chinese philosophy. By beginning with first self-consciously and critically theorizing the Confucian conception of persons as the starting point of Confucian ethics, Ames posits that the ultimate goal will be to take the Confucian tradition on its own terms and to let it speak with its own voice without overwriting it with cultural importances not its own. He argues that perhaps the most important contribution Confucian philosophy can make to contemporary ethical, social, and political discourse is the conception of focus-field, relationally constituted persons as a robust alternative to the ideology of individualism with single actors playing to win.\nHuman Becomings: Theorizing Persons for Confucian Role Ethics is written by Roger T. Ames and published by Suny Press. ISBNs for Human Becomings are 9781438480817, 1438480814 and the print ISBNs are 9781438480794, 1438480792. Additional ISBNs include 9781438480800.