Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x5gtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-14T15:47:33.591Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Intergenerational Ethics and Sustainability

A Confucian Relational Perspective

from Part II - Intergenerational Ethics in Dialogue with Confucianism and Daoism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2024

Hiroshi Abe
Affiliation:
Kyoto University
Matthias Fritsch
Affiliation:
Concordia University, Montréal
Mario Wenning
Affiliation:
Loyola University, Spain
Get access

Summary

This chapter argues that certain conventional discourses of sustainability, along with related frameworks for intergenerational ethics, create conceptual barriers to realizing the goals of genuine sustainability and intergenerational flourishing. Early Confucianism provides a model of intergenerational ethics that may better align with these goals. In particular, early Confucianism offers a relationally grounded ethics that conceptualizes community diachronically and emphasizes the importance of building and sustaining harmonious, flourishing human communities over time. These Confucian ideas resonate with relational and communitarian approaches to intergenerational ethics and sustainability, which can helpfully supplement existing frameworks for intergenerational ethics by emphasizing shared values and concerns, including commitments to common intergenerational projects.

Type
Chapter
Information
Intercultural Philosophy and Environmental Justice between Generations
Indigenous, African, Asian, and Western Perspectives
, pp. 115 - 130
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adam, Barbara and Groves, Chris. 2011. “Futures Tended: Care and Future-Oriented Responsibility.” Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society 31, no. 1: 1727.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ames, Roger T. 2011. Confucian Role Ethics: A Vocabulary. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ames, Roger T. and Rosemont, Henry Jr. 1998. The Analects: A Philosophical Translation. New York, NY: Ballantine Books.Google Scholar
Beckerman, Wilfred and Pasek, Joanna. 2001. Justice, Posterity, and the Environment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De-Shalit, Avner. 1995. Why Posterity Matters: Environmental Policies and Future Generations. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Fingarette, Henry. 1972. Confucius: The Secular as Sacred. New York, NY: Harper Torchbooks.Google Scholar
Hourdequin, Marion. 2004. “Tradition and Morality in the Analects: A Reply to Hansen.” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 31, no.4: 517533.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hourdequin, Marion. and Wong, David B.. 2021. “Confucianism and Intergenerational ethics.” In The Oxford Handbook of Intergenerational Ethics, edited by Gardiner, Stephen M.. Oxford: Oxford Academic. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190881931.013.16.Google Scholar
Hutton, Eric L. 2014. Xunzi: The Complete Text. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ihara, Craig K. 2004. “Are Individual Rights Necessary? A Confucian Perspective.” In Confucian Ethics: A Comparative Study of Self, Autonomy, and Community, edited by Shun, Kwong-loi and Wong, David B., 1130. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ivanhoe, Philip J. 2007. “Filial Piety as a Virtue.” In Working Virtue: Virtue Ethics and Contemporary Moral Problems, edited by Walker, R. L. and Ivanhoe, P J., 297312. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kimmerer, Robin W. 2013. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions.Google Scholar
Lau, D.C. 2003. Mencius. London: Penguin Classics.Google Scholar
Li, Chenyang. 2008. “The Philosophy of Harmony in Classical Confucianism.” Philosophy Compass 3, no. 3: 423435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Chenyang. 2014. The Confucian Philosophy of Harmony. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Meyer, Lukas. 2021. “Intergenerational Justice.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Summer 2021 ed, edited by Zalta, E. N.. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2021/entries/justice-intergenerational/.Google Scholar
Norton, Bryan G. 2005. Sustainability: A Philosophy of Adaptive Ecosystem Management. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olberding, Amy. 2019. The Wrong of Rudeness: Learning Modern Civility from Ancient Chinese Philosophy. New York, NY: Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RosemontJr., Henry. 1991. “Rights-Bearing Individuals and Role-Bearing Persons.” In Rites, Rituals, and Responsibility, edited by Bockover, M., 71101. LaSalle, IL: Opencourt.Google Scholar
RosemontJr., Henry. 2006. “Two Loci of Authority: Autonomous Individuals and Related Persons.” In Confucian Cultures of Authority, edited by Hershock, P. D. and Ames, R. T., 120. Albany, NY: SUNY.Google Scholar
Thompson, Janna. 2017. “The Ethics of Intergenerational Relationships.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 47 no. 2–3: 313326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tu, Weiming. 2001. “The Ecological Turn in New Confucian Humanism: Implications for China and the World.” Daedalus 130 no. 4: 243264.Google Scholar
Tu, Weiming. 2012. “Ecological Implications of Confucian Humanism.” In Exploring Synergies between Faith Values and Education for Sustainable Development, edited by Clugston, R. and Holt, S., 7881. San José, Costa Rica: Earth Charter International and Earth Charter Center for Education for Sustainable Development at UPEACE.Google Scholar
Wee, Cecilia. 2009. “Mencius and the Natural Environment.” Environmental Ethics 31 no. 4: 359374.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whyte, Kyle. 2018. “What Do Indigenous Knowledges Do for Indigenous Peoples?” In Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Learning from Indigenous Practices for Environmental Sustainability, edited by Nelson, M. and Shilling, D., 5782. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wong, David. 2020. “Soup, Harmony, and Disagreement.” Journal of the American Philosophical Association 6 no. 2: 139155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wong, Pak-Hang. 2012. “Dao, Harmony and Personhood: Towards a Confucian Ethics of Technology.” Philosophy of Technology 25: 6786.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). 1987. Our Common Future [English version]. United Nations. https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/139811?ln=enGoogle Scholar
Zhang, Zai. (2014). “The Western Inscription,” translated by B. W. Van Norden and J. Tiwald. In Readings in Later Chinese Philosophy: Han Dynasty to the 20th Century, edited by Tiwald, J. and Van Norden, B. W., 134136. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×