Ethox/WEH Seminar - Reclaiming a Sense of Common Humanity: A Confucian Ethical Vision

Abstract

The idea of a common humanity constitutes a foundational ethical perception across the centuries and geographical boundaries. However, from the first half of twentieth century and in spite of sweeping globalization, such a moral sense has been substantially undermined -- at times totally shattered -- by a series of events of inhumanity, socio-political forces and intellectual movements including wartime medical atrocities, nationalism, postmodernism and multiculturalism. This talk aims to demonstrate how a sense of common humanity should and can be reclaimed, or in the Confucian term, cultivated through engaging with thought of Meng Zi (Mencius, c. 372-289 BCE), a founder of Confucianism, and traditional Chinese medical ethics on moral sentiments and universalism.