Episode 19: Zhu Xi on the Unity of the Virtues

Today's topic is really about two things. First, it's about the claim that many instantiations of one virtue necessarily come packaged with other virtues. For example, you can't have great humaneness or benevolence in your charitable giving to other people unless you also show a certain amount of ritual respect to them. Second, it's about the view that one virtue in particular -- the virtue of humaneness or good caring (ren 仁) -- is more central or fundamental than the others.  The Neo-Confucian philosopher Zhu Xi (1130-1200) proposes that we can understand both the unity of virtues and the central importance of humaneness (ren) by thinking about the unity of the seasons and the central importance of the spring for the other seasons. We attempt to unpack these ideas (and some of the relevant seasonal associations) as they are presented by one of the Confucian tradition's most subtle and complicated philosophers.

Many thanks to The Hong Kong Ethics Lab for sponsoring this podcast series.

Want to continue the discussion? Need links to some of the sources mentioned? Go to the support page for this episode on Warp, Weft, and Way.

We thank Lena Li (LI La 李拉 ) for her expert editing and sound engineering. We also thank the blog Warp, Weft & Way for hosting the discussion for this episode.

Co-hosts:
Richard Kim's website
Justin Tiwald's website

Want to skip to the episode's primary philosophical issue? Go to
- 15:44: part II

Chapters

• 0:00 Part I -- Introduction
• 0:22 • 1st preface to today's topic: Zhu Xi and Neo-Confucianism
• 5:52 • 2nd preface to today's topic: the unity of the virtues
• 15:44 Part II -- Zhu Xi on the Unity of the Virtues
• 15:45 • Unity as co-instantiation
• 20:15 • Asymmetrical dependence: other virtues depend on humaneness more than the reverse
• 26:05 • humaneness (ren) and that springtime feeling
• 28:10 • First passage: the unity of the four seasons
• 39:20 • How Zhu Xi's arguments for unity differ from Aristotle's
• 47:44 • All the virtues depend on each other, so why is humaneness more "central" than the others?
• 49:38 • Second passage: natural outgrowths of humaneness (ren)
• 58:28 • Can virtuous care interfere with the other virtues?
• 1:08:44 • Total vs. partial dependence
• 1:12:03 • Richard presses Justin on the care-centeredness of virtue
• 1:22:14 • Closing thoughts