TITLE:
On the Interpretive Significance and Limitation of the Confucian Concept of Virtuous Dignity
AUTHORS:
Guolei Wang
KEYWORDS:
Moral Dignity, Universal Dignity, Human Dignity, Acquired Dignity, Theory of the Goodness of Nature, Freedom
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.11 No.2,
February
22,
2023
ABSTRACT: Modern
Confucian scholars generally use the view of “virtuous dignity” in the modern
interpretation of the idea of dignity. This view emphasizes that human dignity
comes from the realization of human moral potential. The human nature thought
of the theory of good nature is the value basis of this view. Due to the
excessive attention to human dignity, the Confucian concept of moral dignity
does not pay enough attention to “universal dignity”. I think the Confucian
theory of moral dignity should take freedom rather than the realization of
moral potential as the basis of dignity, so as to recognize the equality of
human dignity in the sense of legal rights and the inequality in the sense of
moral virtue.