The Notion of the Self and the Fulfillment of Humanity in the Confucian Ethics

Abstract

There is a common misunderstanding about the Confucian ethics as such that Confucianism does not have the notion of selfhood, but it is completely altruistic. This research, however, explores of the meaning of the selfhood in the Confucian ethics as it concentrates on the notion of the self and the way for the fulfillment of humanity, related to the issue of moral agency. This paper focuses on the classical Confucianism in order to develop this argument. To begin with, this research examines the possibility of the formulation of the selfhood, that is, the conception of the relationalself in order to deal with the notion of the self. Furthermore, this paper delves into the way to fulfill humanity based on the idea of self-cultivation. Thus, this research studies the meaning of the selfhood in the Confucian ethics.