Mencius and Aquinas: Theories of Virtue and Conceptions of Courage PDF
Preview Mencius and Aquinas: Theories of Virtue and Conceptions of Courage
Page iii Mencius and Aquinas Page iv SUNY Series, Toward a Comparative Philosophy of Religions Frank E. Reynolds and David Tracy, editors Page v Mencius and Aquinas Theories of Virtue and Conceptions of Courage Lee H. Yearley State University of New York Press Page vi Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 1990 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address State University of New York Press, State University Plaza, Albany, N.Y., 12246 Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Yearley, Lee H. Mencius and Aquinas: theories of virtue and conceptions of courage / Lee H. Yearley. p. cm. — (SUNY series, toward a comparative philosophy of religions) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0791404315 (alk. paper). — ISBN 0791404323 (pbk.: alk. paper). 1. Virtue. 2. Virtues. 3. Courage. 4. Mencius — Ethics. 5. Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?1274 — Ethics. 6. Ethics, Comparative. I. Title. II. Series. BJ 1531.Y42 1990 170'.92'—dc20 8977407 CIP Page vii To My Wife Sally Jeanne Gressens Page viii Contents Foreword: xi Frank Reynolds Acknowledgments xiii Chapter One: The Comparative Philosophy of Religions and the Study of Virtue I. Introduction: The Importance of the Comparative Philosophy of Religious 1 Flourishings II. General Differences and Similarities Between Mencius and Aquinas 4 III. The Comparative Philosophy of Religions and the Three Realms of 6 Ethics IV. The General Conception of Virtue 13 V. Expansions and Semblances of Virtue 17 Chapter Two: The Context for Mencius and Aquinas's Ideas of Virtue I. Issues in the Interpretation of Mencius and Aquinas 25 II. Aquinas's List of Virtues 29 III. The Two Notions Underlying Aquinas's Construction and Analysis of His 32 List of Virtues IV. Mencius's List of Virtues 36 V. A Comparison of Mencius and Aquinas's Lists of Virtues 40 VI. The Relationship of the Realms of Injunctions and Ways of Life in 44 Mencius and Aquinas Page ix Chapter Three: Mencius and Aquinas's Theories of Virtue I. Mencius and Aquinas: The General Conception of Virtue 53 II. Mencius: Human Nature's Fundamental Inclinations as a Basis of Virtue 58 III. Mencius: True Virtue as a Product of Ethical Reasoning's Use of 62 Extension, Attention, and the Understanding of Resemblances IV. Mencius: Virtues, Their Semblances, and the Role of Intelligent 67 Awareness V. Aquinas: Reason and Nature 72 VI. Aquinas: Reason's Relationship to Inclinations and Emotions and the 79 Resulting Understanding of the Semblances of Virtue VII. The Understanding of Human Failures to Be Virtuous in Mencius and 84 Aquinas VIII. The Picture of the Self Underlying This Type of Virtue Theory: 95 Practical Reason, Emotions, and Dispositions IX. The Picture of the Self Underlying This Type of Virtue Theory: The 102 Formation of Emotions and the Character of Dispositions Chapter Four: Mencius and Aquinas's Conceptions of Courage I. Introduction: The Distinguishing Marks of the Virtue of Courage 113 II. Aquinas's Analysis of Ordinary Courage, Especially the Roles in It of 118 Fear and Confidence III. Aquinas's Differentiation of True Courage From Semblances of 124 Courage IV. Aquinas's Expansion of Courage and the Place of Endurance and the 129 Willingness to Die Page x V. Aquinas on Courage's Specifically Religious Dimension, the Virtue of 136 Patience, and the Highest Religious Dimension, the Gift of Courage VI. Mencius's General Conception of Courage and the Importance of 144 Proper SelfRespect VII. Mencius's Understanding of Perfected Courage: The Specific Features 150 of His Analysis VIII. Mencius's Understanding of Perfected Courage: A Theoretical 156 Account and Brief Examination of the Resemblance to the Gift of Courage IX. Mencius's Expansion of Courage: The Appropriate Attitude to Fate and 159 Heaven and a Brief Examination of the Resemblance to Aquinas's Patience Chapter Five: Conclusion I. Dissimilarities and Thin Resemblances between Mencius and Aquinas 170 II. Real Resemblances in Mencius and Aquinas's Understanding of Virtue 173 III. Primary, Practical, and Secondary Theories in the Comparative 175 Philosophy of Religious Flourishings IV. Problems and Possibilities in Aquinas's Model for Comparing 182 Apparently Different Ideas of Virtue V. Analogical Expression, Focal and Secondary Terms, and the 188 Comparative Philosophy of Human Excellences VI. The Analogical Imagination and the Comparative Philosophy of 196 Religions Notes 205 Chinese Terms 239 Selected Bibliography 245 Index of Names 267 Index of Subjects 271 Page xi Foreword Since 1981 Lee Yearley has been a major contributor to the ongoing discussions at the University of Chicago Divinity School that have generated the Toward a Comparative Philosophy of Religions series. He was a central participant in three conferences on "Cosmogony and Ethical Order" held between 1981 and 1984; and he contributed two essays — one on Mencius and one on Freud — to a related volume (Robin W. Lovin and Frank E. Reynolds, eds., Cosmogony and Ethical Order: New Essays in Comparative Ethics published in Chicago by the University of Chicago Press, 1985). Between 1986 and 1989 he participated in the six conferences on "Religion(s) in Culture and History" that generated the first volume in this present series — a collection of essays that I edited with David Tracy entitled Myth and Philosophy (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990). It is, therefore, quite appropriate that the major book that he has been writing during this period now appears as Volume II in our new series. In his study of Mencius and Aquinas, Yearley makes two important and original contributions to the development of a new kind of comparative philosophy of religions that is global in its perspective and in tune with contemporary philosophical developments and issues. The first is to bring into the comparative orbit the very lively concern of contemporary ethical philosophers with the ethics of virtue. Despite the fact that very important progress has occurred in comparative studies on the one hand, and in explorations of the ethics of virtue on the other (see, for example, Yearley's own "Recent Work on Virtue" in the January, 1990 issue of Religious Studies Review), previous scholars have been either unwilling or unable to break the barriers that have separated the two kinds of interest.
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