Governance in Asia Research Centre City University of Hong Kong

presents a Public Seminar on

Limiting Meritocracy in Confucian Democracy

by

Dr. Sor-hoon TAN

Head and Associate Professor

Philosophy Department, National University of Singapore

Date: March 6, 2008 (Thursday)

Time: 4:30pm – 6:00pm

Venue: Room G7619, FHS Conference Room, 7/F., Green Zone, Academic Building (lift no.3)
City University of Hong Kong

Abstract

Attempts to render Confucianism compatible with democracy usually focus on removing the obstacle of the former's perceived authoritarian legacy which challenges the democratic value of liberty. Less attention has been paid to the democratic value of equality, partly because even in Western philosophical and political discourse, as Ronald Dworkin puts it, "Equality is the endangered species of political ideals." Those who have written on Confucianism and equality have generally accepted that Confucianism does not particularly value equality, but justifies inequality on the basis of moral merit. Critics and supporters alike have little trouble moving from the "rule of virtue" and "promoting the worthy and capable" advocated by Confucius and his followers to a justification of inequality of power and rewards in a meritocratic form. This paper shall argue that, as far as the pre-Qin texts are concerned, the Confucian position is one of inequality of power that places responsibility on the shoulders of the virtuous and capable without corresponding rewards. In conceding too easily to meritocratic tendencies in Confucianism and being too sanguine about its bias in favor of inequality, we may overlook valuable resources in Confucianism for taking a more critical look at the global inequalities that are rapidly taking shape around us.

Bio-sketch

Dr Sor-hoon Tan is Associate Professor of Philosophy, and currently heads the Philosophy Department at the National University of Singapore. She has authored Confucian Democracy: A Deweyan Reconstruction (2004). She edited Challenging Citizenship: Group Membership and Cultural Identity in a Global Age (2005); and is co-editor of The Moral Circle and the Self: Chinese and Western Approaches (2003), Filial Piety in Chinese Thought and History (2004), and Democracy as Culture: Deweyan Pragmatism in a Globalizing World (2008, forthcoming). Her works have appeared in Philosophy East and West, International Philosophical Quarterly, Journal of Chinese Philosophy, and Asian Philosophy, among others, and edited volumes on Chinese Philosophy and Comparative Philosophy, including Conceptions of Virtue East and West, edited by Kim-Chong Chong and Yuli Liu (2006) and Confucius Now: Contemporary Encounters with the Analects, edited by David Jones (2008).

Language: English

For Enquires/Reservation, please call Ms Lo Oi-yu at 3442-6578, or

e-mail:lo.oi@cityu.edu.hk, website: www.cityu.edu.hk/garc

All are Welcome