How Should One Live? How Should One Live? Comparing Ethics in Ancient China and Greco-Roman Antiquity Edited by R.A.H. King and Dennis Schilling De Gruyter ISBN 978-3-11-025287-3 e-ISBN 978-3-11-025289-7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data How should one live? : comparing ethics in ancient China and Greco-Roman antiquity / edited by R.A.H. King and Dennis Schilling. p. cm. “The papers published here were among those discussed in the Münchner Kompetenzzentrum Ethik, Philosophy Department, Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich and the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Stiftung Munich on October 1st-3rd, 2007”—Acknowledgements. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-3-11-025287-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Ethics, Comparative. 2. Ethics, Ancient. 3. Ethics—China. 4. Ethics—Greece. 5. Ethics—Rome. I. King, R. A. H. II. Schilling, Dennis R. BJ69.H69 2011 170.931—dc22 2010049853 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografi e; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. © 2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston Typesetting: Refi neCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk Printing: Hubert & Co. GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen (cid:2) Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Acknowledgements The papers published here were among those discussed in the Münchner Kompetenzzentrum Ethik, Philosophy Department, Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich and the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Stiftung Munich on October 1st–3rd, 2007. The symposium was funded by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung für Wissenschaftsförderung and the Trebuth-Stiftung zur Nachwuchsförderung in der Philosophie. Theres Lehn and Kathrin Messing took minutes of the discussions. This volume has been printed with fi nancial support from the Trebuth- Stiftung zur Nachwuchsförderung in der Philosophie. Rebecca Ehrenwirth made the General Index and the Chinese Index Locorum, David Meiβner the Greco-Roman Index Locorum. The editors would also like to thank Wilhelm Vossenkuhl, Hans van Ess and Heinrich Meier for their support in organising the event, Gertrud Gruenkorn at DeGruyter for her work bringing the book to press. R.A.H. King, Dennis Schilling August, 2010, Glasgow, Taoyuan Contents Part I Methods 1 Rudimentary remarks on comparing ancient Chinese and Greco-Roman ethics .............................................................................3 R.A.H. King 2 Comparative ethics: some methodological considerations ..................18 G.E.R. Lloyd Part II Ethical theory 3 Two kinds of moral relativism ............................................................25 Gerhard Ernst Part III China 4 Harmony as a contested metaphor and conceptions of rightness (yi) in early Confucian ethics. .............................................................37 Alan K. L. Chan 5 Why Mozi is included in the Daoist Canon – or, why there is more to Mohism than utilitarian ethics .......................................................63 Paul R. Goldin 6 Coming to terms with dé (cid:5515): the deconstruction of ‘virtue’ and an exercise in scientifi c morality .........................................................92 Robert H. Gassmann 7 Virtue ethics in ancient China: light shed and shadows cast .............126 Lee H. Yearley viii Contents Part IV Greece and Rome 8 Parrhesy and irony: Plato’s Socrates and the Epicurean tradition .........................................................................................155 Michael Erler 9 The knowledge about human well-being in Plato’s Laches .............170 Jörg Hardy 10 Aristotle: ethics without morality? .................................................191 Johannes Hübner 11 Aristotle on friendship as the paradigmatic form of relationship ....208 Jan Szaif Part V Comparisons 12 The Greeks and Chinese on the emotions and the problem of cross-cultural universals and cultural relativism .........................241 G.E.R. Lloyd 13 Complexity and simplicity in Aristotle and early Daoist thought ..........................................................................................259 David B. Wong 14 The ethics of prediction ..................................................................278 Lisa Raphals 15 Being and unity in the metaphysics and ethics of Aristotle and Liezi ...............................................................................................304 May Sim General index ........................................................................................323 Index of names ......................................................................................334 Index locorum - Chinese authors ...........................................................336 Index locorum - Greek and Roman authors ...........................................339 Part I Methods