Episode 23: Confucianism on the Assessment of Character

In this episode, Justin and Richard discuss how historical Confucian philosophers have proposed to recognize people of good moral character (virtue). How, exactly, did they think that we could tell the real virtues apart from the phony ones? And what did the historical Confucians think about the use of written examination essays to "test" for virtue? 

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.

Want to skip to the episode's primary philosophical issue? Go to

8:29 Part II -- Confucianism on character assessment

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

Chapters

• 0:00 Part I -- Introduction
• 8:29 Part II -- Confucians on the Assessment of Character
• 8:30 • Preview of our two featured passages
• 10:53 • Analects 2.9: assessing character through one's private behavior
• 19:14 • Analects 2.10: instructions for character assessment
• 29:26 • virtue and enjoyment
• 34:03 • objection to the virtue-enjoyment connection: aren't there some virtuous acts that are difficult to do?
• 40:15 • did the civil service exams successfully "test" for virtue?
• 58:20 • did the exam system have a pernicious effect on people's motives to learn?
• 1:03:10 • the influence of Analects 2.9 and 2.10 on later views about character assessment