Assignment 5 Price
RELS 160/Assignment 5 Name: Jordan C. Price
Assignment 5: Based on your reading in Ch 9 in Kessler, the posted readings Morality Without Religion and Universality of Moral Law, the Socrates & St. Augustine power point, pgs. 24-39 in Nye, and the Popular Culture power point.
In all cases, support your answer by stating your reasoning. Be specific, provide detail, and use examples where appropriate in order to demonstrate your understanding of the material. IMPORTANT: Use your own words rather than those of the author. Merely quoting or paraphrasing the textbook does not demonstrate to me your understanding of the material, which is what you are being graded on.
1. In your own words, explain Confucian Virtue theory. Be sure to use and explain the terms ren, shu, and zhong in your explanation.
To Confucius, good people lived good lives, which in turn caused good societies to be formed from the deeds of these individuals. He believed that education should focus on shaping individuals into good people; people with “virtue and excellence”. One of his ideas, called ren, is directly translated into “human excellence”, “benevolence” and “love”. According to Confucius ren is not something that is inherent in every individual, however, humans are able obtain ren through cognitive thinking and effort. Confucius believes that every person has certain qualities inside of them that can make them good. For instance he believed that every individual possessed wisdom, kindness, respect and piety.
Confucius’s next principle is shu. Shu is the act of seeing the good in other individuals and relating things they do to things you do. Everyone else is like yourself. In a way it means do not do unto others what you would not want done unto yourself. You reciprocate good behavior towards individuals who are unlike you because you would expect them to do the same for you (or want them to do the same). Whatever you would not want someone to do to you, avoid in doing that same
Assignment 5: Based on your reading in Ch 9 in Kessler, the posted readings Morality Without Religion and Universality of Moral Law, the Socrates & St. Augustine power point, pgs. 24-39 in Nye, and the Popular Culture power point.
In all cases, support your answer by stating your reasoning. Be specific, provide detail, and use examples where appropriate in order to demonstrate your understanding of the material. IMPORTANT: Use your own words rather than those of the author. Merely quoting or paraphrasing the textbook does not demonstrate to me your understanding of the material, which is what you are being graded on.
1. In your own words, explain Confucian Virtue theory. Be sure to use and explain the terms ren, shu, and zhong in your explanation.
To Confucius, good people lived good lives, which in turn caused good societies to be formed from the deeds of these individuals. He believed that education should focus on shaping individuals into good people; people with “virtue and excellence”. One of his ideas, called ren, is directly translated into “human excellence”, “benevolence” and “love”. According to Confucius ren is not something that is inherent in every individual, however, humans are able obtain ren through cognitive thinking and effort. Confucius believes that every person has certain qualities inside of them that can make them good. For instance he believed that every individual possessed wisdom, kindness, respect and piety.
Confucius’s next principle is shu. Shu is the act of seeing the good in other individuals and relating things they do to things you do. Everyone else is like yourself. In a way it means do not do unto others what you would not want done unto yourself. You reciprocate good behavior towards individuals who are unlike you because you would expect them to do the same for you (or want them to do the same). Whatever you would not want someone to do to you, avoid in doing that same