Aaron Stalnaker
Biographic Data
| ID | 5873487 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Aaron Stalnaker |
| GIVEN NAMES | Aaron |
| FAMILY NAME | Stalnaker |
| SIGNATURE | STALNAKER A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Indiana University Bloomington |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Religious Ethics and its Publics
Past discussions of the public role of religious ethics scholarship have tended to focus on the propriety of religious argumentation in the public square. Rather than critiquing or vindicating such public engagement by explicitly religious thinkers, this essay recommends broader public engagement by scholars of comparatively oriented religious ethics, exploring why this goal is worthwhile, some possible objections, and various models of how it mi…
Subject: Peng Yin, “Virtue and Hierarchy in Early Confucian Ethics” Journal of Religious Ethics 49.4 (December 2021)
Covid‐19 and Religious Ethics
The editors of the JRE solicited short essays on the COVID‐19 pandemic from a group of scholars of religious ethics that reflected on how the field might help them make sense of the complex religious, cultural, ethical, and political implications of the pandemic, and on how the pandemic might shape the future of religious ethics
Roles and Virtues
This chapter examines the current debate between interpretations of early Confucian ethics as a form of “role ethics”, or alternatively, a form of virtue ethics. It argues that the virtue ethical readings are more accurate, but still only partially recognise the significance of roles and role-specific obligations in early Confucian social ethics. This chapter explores the fundamental normative justification for early Confucian social ethics and p…
The Innocuous Legacy of Christian Ethics in Comparative Religious Ethics
I argue that even if the influence of Christian ethics on comparative religious ethics (CRE) is inevitable, it need not be problematic. The legacy would only be worrisome if it stacked the deck in favor of Christian ethics or predisposed comparative ethicists to conform to the methods or thematic concerns of Christian ethics. Following Gadamer, I suggest that the ideal of presuppositionless objectivity is an illusion that applies to not only thos…
Xunzi on Self-Cultivation
In Defense of Ritual Propriety
Confucians think ritual propriety is extremely important, but this commitment perplexes many Western readers. This essay outlines the early Confucian Xúnzǐ’s defense of ritual, then offers a modified defense of ritual propriety as a real virtue, of value to human beings in all times and places, albeit one that is inescapably indexed to prevailing social norms in a non-objectionable way. The paper addresses five likely objections to this thesis, d…
On Comparative Religious Ethics as a Field of Study
This essay is a critical engagement with recent assessments of comparative religious ethics by J ohn K elsay and J ung L ee. Contra K elsay's proposal to return to a neo‐Weberian sociology of religious norm elaboration and justification, the authors argue that comparative religious ethics is and should be practiced as a field of study in active conversation with other fields that consider human flourishing, employing a variety of methods that hav…
Xunzi
Xunzi (“Master Xun,” ca. 310–ca. 220 bce ) was the third great Confucian thinker of China's classical age, after Confucius and Mencius ( see Confucius; Mencius). Xunzi lived during the end of the Warring States period of Chinese history, as brutal interstate warfare accelerated in both frequency and ferocity. Xunzi participated in government at times but more frequently devoted himself to teaching and writing. He wrote unified essays expounding a…
Confucianism, Democracy, and the Virtue of Deference
Xunzi's Moral Analysis of War and Some of Its Contemporary Implications
The early Ru or ‘Confucian’ figure Xunzi (‘Master Xun,’ c. 310–c. 220 BCE) gives a sophisticated analysis of war, which he develops on the basis of a larger social and political vision that he works out in considerable detail. This larger vision of human society is thoroughly normative in the sense that Xunzi both argues for the value of his ideal conception of society, and relates these moral arguments for the Confucian Dao or Way to what I take…
Mastery, Authority, and Hierarchy in the “Inner Chapters” of the Zhuāngzǐ
Modern Western convictions that freedom, equality, and personal autonomy are all crucial human goods structure both our thinking and our practice in deep and pervasive ways. Even when these values do not thoroughly shape our politics, we tend to judge this as a failing. While there is much to celebrate about these ideals and even their imperfect realization in various spheres of modern life, they also cast long shadows that confuse our self-under…
Virtue as Mastery in Early Confucianism
This essay explores the interrelation of skills and virtues. I first trace one line of analysis from Aristotle to Alasdair MacIntyre, which argues that there is a categorical difference between skills and virtues, in their ends and intrinsic character. This familiar distinction is fine in certain respects but still importantly misleading. Virtue in general, and also some particular virtues such as ritual propriety and practical wisdom, are not ju…
The Mencius-Xunzi Debate in Early Confucian Ethics
This chapter outlines the disagreement between Mencius and Xunzi and the deeper ethical issues these thinkers confront under this organizing principle, as they help articulate some of the most powerful and influential visions of personal formation ever produced. The essay closes with a discussion of how Mencian and Xunzian material lends itself especially well to teaching courses on Chinese or Confucian thought, East Asian culture and society, re…
Judging Others: History, Ethics, and the Purposes of Comparison
The most interesting and perilous issue at present in comparative religious ethics is comparative ethical judgment—when and how to judge others, if at all. There are understandable historical and conceptual reasons for the current tendency to prefer descriptive over normative work in comparative religious ethics. However, judging those we study is inescapable—it can be suppressed or marginalized but not eliminated. Therefore, the real question is…
Overcoming Our Evil: Human Nature and Spiritual Exercises in Xunzi and Augustine
Comparative Religious Ethics and the Problem of “Human Nature”
Comparative religious ethics is a complicated scholarly endeavor, striving to harmonize intellectual goals that are frequently conceived as quite different, or even intrinsically opposed. Against commonly voiced suspicions of comparative work, this essay argues that descriptive, comparative, and normative interests may support rather than conflict with each other, depending on the comparison in question, and how it is pursued. On the basis of a b…
Anthropos and Ethics Categories of Inquiry and Procedures of Comparison
Building on influential work in virtue ethics, this collection of essays examines the categories of self, person, and anthropology as foci for comparative analysis. The papers unite reflections on theory and method with descriptive work that addresses thinkers from the modern West, Christian and Jewish Late Antiquity, early China, and other settings. The introduction sets out central methodological issues that are subsequently taken up in each es…
Aspects of Xunzi's Engagement with Early Daoism
Xunzi borrows several significant ideas originating in the Zhuangzi and the ''Neiye'' chapter of the Guanzi, adapting them to solve problems in his own theories of mind and self-cultivation. This reworking occurs in three main areas. First, he uses some of the psycho-physical terminology of the ''Neiye'' but alters its cosmological background and thus its implications for selfcultivation. Second, largely for rhetorical effect he adopts the langua…
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Aspects of Xunzi's Engagement with Early Daoism
Xunzi borrows several significant ideas originating in the Zhuangzi and the ''Neiye'' chapter of the Guanzi, adapting them to solve problems in his own theories of mind and self-cultivation. This reworking occurs in three main areas. First, he uses some of the psycho-physical terminology of the ''Neiye'' but alters its cosmological background and thus its implications for selfcultivation. Second, largely for rhetorical effect he adopts the langua…
Comparative Religious Ethics and the Problem of “Human Nature”
Comparative religious ethics is a complicated scholarly endeavor, striving to harmonize intellectual goals that are frequently conceived as quite different, or even intrinsically opposed. Against commonly voiced suspicions of comparative work, this essay argues that descriptive, comparative, and normative interests may support rather than conflict with each other, depending on the comparison in question, and how it is pursued. On the basis of a b…
Anthropos and Ethics Categories of Inquiry and Procedures of Comparison
Building on influential work in virtue ethics, this collection of essays examines the categories of self, person, and anthropology as foci for comparative analysis. The papers unite reflections on theory and method with descriptive work that addresses thinkers from the modern West, Christian and Jewish Late Antiquity, early China, and other settings. The introduction sets out central methodological issues that are subsequently taken up in each es…
Overcoming Our Evil: Human Nature and Spiritual Exercises in Xunzi and Augustine
The Mencius-Xunzi Debate in Early Confucian Ethics
This chapter outlines the disagreement between Mencius and Xunzi and the deeper ethical issues these thinkers confront under this organizing principle, as they help articulate some of the most powerful and influential visions of personal formation ever produced. The essay closes with a discussion of how Mencian and Xunzian material lends itself especially well to teaching courses on Chinese or Confucian thought, East Asian culture and society, re…
Judging Others: History, Ethics, and the Purposes of Comparison
The most interesting and perilous issue at present in comparative religious ethics is comparative ethical judgment—when and how to judge others, if at all. There are understandable historical and conceptual reasons for the current tendency to prefer descriptive over normative work in comparative religious ethics. However, judging those we study is inescapable—it can be suppressed or marginalized but not eliminated. Therefore, the real question is…
Virtue as Mastery in Early Confucianism
This essay explores the interrelation of skills and virtues. I first trace one line of analysis from Aristotle to Alasdair MacIntyre, which argues that there is a categorical difference between skills and virtues, in their ends and intrinsic character. This familiar distinction is fine in certain respects but still importantly misleading. Virtue in general, and also some particular virtues such as ritual propriety and practical wisdom, are not ju…
Xunzi's Moral Analysis of War and Some of Its Contemporary Implications
The early Ru or ‘Confucian’ figure Xunzi (‘Master Xun,’ c. 310–c. 220 BCE) gives a sophisticated analysis of war, which he develops on the basis of a larger social and political vision that he works out in considerable detail. This larger vision of human society is thoroughly normative in the sense that Xunzi both argues for the value of his ideal conception of society, and relates these moral arguments for the Confucian Dao or Way to what I take…
Mastery, Authority, and Hierarchy in the “Inner Chapters” of the Zhuāngzǐ
Modern Western convictions that freedom, equality, and personal autonomy are all crucial human goods structure both our thinking and our practice in deep and pervasive ways. Even when these values do not thoroughly shape our politics, we tend to judge this as a failing. While there is much to celebrate about these ideals and even their imperfect realization in various spheres of modern life, they also cast long shadows that confuse our self-under…
Xunzi
Xunzi (“Master Xun,” ca. 310–ca. 220 bce ) was the third great Confucian thinker of China's classical age, after Confucius and Mencius ( see Confucius; Mencius). Xunzi lived during the end of the Warring States period of Chinese history, as brutal interstate warfare accelerated in both frequency and ferocity. Xunzi participated in government at times but more frequently devoted himself to teaching and writing. He wrote unified essays expounding a…
Confucianism, Democracy, and the Virtue of Deference
On Comparative Religious Ethics as a Field of Study
This essay is a critical engagement with recent assessments of comparative religious ethics by J ohn K elsay and J ung L ee. Contra K elsay's proposal to return to a neo‐Weberian sociology of religious norm elaboration and justification, the authors argue that comparative religious ethics is and should be practiced as a field of study in active conversation with other fields that consider human flourishing, employing a variety of methods that hav…
Xunzi on Self-Cultivation
In Defense of Ritual Propriety
Confucians think ritual propriety is extremely important, but this commitment perplexes many Western readers. This essay outlines the early Confucian Xúnzǐ’s defense of ritual, then offers a modified defense of ritual propriety as a real virtue, of value to human beings in all times and places, albeit one that is inescapably indexed to prevailing social norms in a non-objectionable way. The paper addresses five likely objections to this thesis, d…
Roles and Virtues
This chapter examines the current debate between interpretations of early Confucian ethics as a form of “role ethics”, or alternatively, a form of virtue ethics. It argues that the virtue ethical readings are more accurate, but still only partially recognise the significance of roles and role-specific obligations in early Confucian social ethics. This chapter explores the fundamental normative justification for early Confucian social ethics and p…
The Innocuous Legacy of Christian Ethics in Comparative Religious Ethics
I argue that even if the influence of Christian ethics on comparative religious ethics (CRE) is inevitable, it need not be problematic. The legacy would only be worrisome if it stacked the deck in favor of Christian ethics or predisposed comparative ethicists to conform to the methods or thematic concerns of Christian ethics. Following Gadamer, I suggest that the ideal of presuppositionless objectivity is an illusion that applies to not only thos…
Covid‐19 and Religious Ethics
The editors of the JRE solicited short essays on the COVID‐19 pandemic from a group of scholars of religious ethics that reflected on how the field might help them make sense of the complex religious, cultural, ethical, and political implications of the pandemic, and on how the pandemic might shape the future of religious ethics
Subject: Peng Yin, “Virtue and Hierarchy in Early Confucian Ethics” Journal of Religious Ethics 49.4 (December 2021)
Religious Ethics and its Publics
Past discussions of the public role of religious ethics scholarship have tended to focus on the propriety of religious argumentation in the public square. Rather than critiquing or vindicating such public engagement by explicitly religious thinkers, this essay recommends broader public engagement by scholars of comparatively oriented religious ethics, exploring why this goal is worthwhile, some possible objections, and various models of how it mi…
Philosophy (19 works) · Epistemology (17 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Chinese history and philosophy (14 works) · Law (13 works) · Political science (13 works) · Environmental ethics (10 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Virtue (9 works) · Psychology (7 works)