Abstract

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Are you an Authentic Animal?
Reconstructing the Early Confucian Theory of the Self

Jenny Hung

There have been heated discussions in recent years regarding the Confucian conception of personhood. Contemporary scholars, such as Kupperman (2004), Stalnaker (2020), Wong (2004), Ames (2011), and McLeod (2012), believe that persons are constituted by their communities and social roles. However, objectors, including Ramsey (2016), point out that it is difficult to draw a clear line between crucial relationships that define a person and more contingent relationships, thus making it challenging to determine the persistence conditions of a person. Similarly, Wang (2023) argues that the constitution view may lead to difficulties in appropriating moral attitudes towards numerically distinct persons.

In this essay, I argue that the claim that persons are constituted by social roles is theoretically deficient in that it either fails to answer the question of what we are or fails to answer the question of how we persist. I then suggest that we should avoid using the conception of constitution and personhood to characterize early Confucianism. Instead, I argue that, according to early Confucianism, particularly in the Analects and Mencius, I am a human animal, a living physical organism that essentially possesses (1) a physical body, (2) social roles and relationships, and (3) the capacity to be moral. Moreover, my persistence is determined by the continuity of my physical organization, not the sameness or continuation of my social roles and relationships.

Next, I discuss the path to attain the authentic self in Confucianism. I define "the authentic self" as a stage in which we fully understand our nature and efficiently exhibit it. According to early Confucianism, our fundamental nature encompasses benevolence, care, and fulfilling our social and familial duties. I argue that the Confucian path of self-cultivation is a journey towards manifesting the authentic self. Furthermore, when the authentic self is manifested, we enter a stage of comfort (安).