Confucian Role Ethics for Women: A Response to Roger Ames

TL;DRAbstract

In his book, Confucian Role Ethics: A Vocabulary, Roger T. Ames defined the dynamics of Confucian virtues and their portrayal of societal roles people must hold. In this book, Ames provided a description of Confucian ethics without gendering the elements of Confucian philosophy. Simultaneously, he used the male-dominant passages of the Analects to define the virtues and characteristics within the tradition. This use of non-gendered terms, paired with male-dominant examples, ignored women and the place they held in Confucianism as subjects to male power within the defined roles. Confucian Role Ethics does not contain gender-biased wording, however it lacks the female perspective in Confucian concepts and, by exclusion, silences their experience and discounts their specific ethical duties. Just as the Analects had done with exclusion and belittling comparison, so too has Confucian Role Ethics promoted a female subordinate role.

Chat with Paper

AI Agents for this Paper