The Common Good: Chinese and American Perspectives

This book addresses the Confucian philosophy of common good and deals with the comparative philosophy on eastern and western understandings of common good.   The common good is an essentially contested concept in contemporary moral and political discussions.  Although the notion of the common good has a slightly antique air, especially in the North Atlantic discussion, it has figured prominently in both the sophisticated theoretical accounts of moral and political theory in recent years and also in the popular arguments brought for particular political policies and for more general orientations toward policy. It has been at home both in the political arsenal of the left and the right and has had special significance in ethical and political debates in modern and modernizing cultures.   This text will be of interest to philosophers interested in Chinese philosophy and issues related to individualism and communitarianism, ethicists and political philosophers, comparative philosophers, and those in religious studies working on Chinese religion.

An Introduction; Ping-cheung Lo and David Solomon.- Part I; The Philosophical Background for the Common Good.- 1. Beyond the Common Good: The Priority of Persons; H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr..- 2. Attacks on the Family East and West: Evidence for the Erosion of a Common Good; Stephen A. Erickson.- 3. The Fragility of the Common Good: Why Modern Moral Philosophers are Skeptical; David Solomon.- Part II; Chinese Philosophical Reflections on the Common Good.- 4. The Concept of “Datong” in Chinese Philosophy as an Expression of the Idea of the Common Good; Albert Chen.- 5. The Common Good in Moism: A Reconstruction of Mozi’s Ethics of “Inclusive Care” and “Reciprocal Well-Being”; Ellen Zhang.-6. The Common Good and Filial Piety: A Confucian Perspective; Wang Jue.- 7. Common Good and the Ethics of Global Poverty: A Confucian Perspective; Jonathan Chan.- 8. Between the Family and the State: The Common Good and Confucian Habits of the Heart; Ping-cheung Lo.- 9. A Confucian Notion of the Common Good for Contemporary China; Ruiping Fan.- Part III; The Common Good and Aristotelian/Thomistic Philosophy.- 10. The Common Good and the Virtuous Political Leader; Karen Chan.- 11. Why Justice is Not Enough: Mercy, Love-Caritas, and the Common Good; Mary M. Keys.- 12. Who is Responsible for the Common Good? Catholic Social Teaching and the Praxis of Subsidiarity; Dennis P. McCann.- Notes on Contributors.- Index