20 Ethics Bowl Case: Confucius and Politeness Norms
Table of Contents
Confucius and Politeness Norms
Is it morally bad to be rude? Etiquette manuals tell us that it is wrong to chew with our mouth open, to neglect to say “please” or “thank you”, and to dress inappropriately for certain occasions, such as wearing white at someone else’s wedding. Yet these norms of ordinary social interaction seem peripheral to contemporary ethics, whose focus is often on the moral status of actions like murder, lying, assault, and thievery. Ever since ancient times, great thinkers of the Western canon have been concerned about the cultivation of virtues like courage, wisdom, and justice. From this standpoint, the moral status of actions — like using the wrong fork for our entrée or refusing to shake someone’s hand — seem either trivial or outside the scope of ethics altogether. After all, these minor violations do not cause any serious harms, nor do they suggest any character vice.
Confucianism, however, considers the virtue of politeness as the core of ethical life. According to the Confucians, ritual propriety (li) encodes the totality of morally acceptable action. On this view, fundamental moral virtues are developed through adherence to etiquette in our interpersonal interactions — failures to observe ritual are serious moral faults. Even our humanity is constituted by etiquette in some way: we begin our lives by studying ritual through observation of others around us, and only become moral agents through adherence to the rules of civil interaction. Respecting the demands of ritual, then, is tantamount to respecting each other as human beings.
Insisting on politeness, however, can seem superficial and perhaps even restrictive of human agency. The Confucians were famously strict on behaviour relating to posture, attire, and ceremony — and were criticized on grounds of inauthenticity. The Daoists, for example, thought Confucian rituals inhibited authenticity and reduced human beings to their social roles. While the Confucians argued that ideal action within ritual propriety was both spontaneous and harmonious with the natural order (much like the improvisation of a skilled musician), they also generally valued conformity to a hierarchically organized social system. Giving a central place to etiquette in ethics, then, is broadly at odds with western conceptions of ethics, where values like liberty and autonomy are at the core of moral life. Yet politeness norms seem to saturate our ordinary experiences. We morally judge those who treat us rudely, such as by interrupting us when we speak, addressing us by the wrong names, or routinely showing up late to meetings — in short, we take rudeness to be an expression of moral disrespect.
Discussion Questions
- Do rules of etiquette infringe on moral agents’ autonomy?
- Is it possible to be a good person without being polite?
- Is there something snobby or exclusionary about politeness as a virtue? Does etiquette intrinsically codify
certain social differences, such as class or gender differences? - Is it morally justified to judge a person (especially their character) for their violations of politeness norms?
- Is it possible to think about the ethics of politeness without reference to arbitrary cultural differences?
Further Reading
- “How to Set Yourself Free With Ritual” by Alan Jay Levinovitz (2022)
- “We Need Highly Formal Rituals in Order to Make Life More Democratic” by Antone Martinho-Truswell (2020)
- “Why I Never Want to Dress Up in Black Tie Again.” by Julian Baggini (2015)
Bibliography
Baggini, Julian. 2015. “Why I Never Want to Dress Up in Black Tie Again.” Aeon, December 23, 2015. https://aeon.co/ideas/why-i-never-want-to-dress-up-in-black-tie-again.
Lavinovitz, Alan Jay. 2022. “How to Set Yourself Free With Ritual.” Psyche, June 8, 2022. https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-live-free-and-in-harmonious-ease-with-confucian-ritual.
Luo, Helen Han Wei. 2023. “Case 3: Confucius and Politeness Norms.” In Ethics Bowl Canada 2023-2024 Regional Case Set, edited by Ethics Bowl Canada Case Development Committee. n.p.: Ethics Bowl Canada. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mY2bsD2RqhrVnPrLWO_RZxvgZ-X2ddIS/view.
Martinho-Truswell, Antone. 2020. “We Need Highly Formal Rituals in Order to Make Life More Democratic.” Aeon, April 29, 2020. https://aeon.co/ideas/we-need-highly-formal-rituals-in-order-to-make-life-more-democratic.
Attribution
Unless otherwise noted, “Confucius and Politeness Norms” by Helen Han Wei Luo (2023) [and the Ethics Bowl Canada Case Development Committee], via Ethics Bowl Canada, is used and adapted under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
The Ethics Bowl Canada Case Development committee gives permission to third parties to use the Case Sets it has developed between September 2021 and March 2024 under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. The Committee also asks that users notify Ethics Bowl Canada of their use of the case sets, especially if they are adapting or remixing it. This can be done by sending an email to contact@ethicsbowl.ca.
