Abstract
Confucius’ ideas on economics are few, but through his ethics one may attain an idea of what kind of economics he would have found acceptable. Confucius’ ethics are based upon the natural goodness of human nature. In his mind, human beings are naturally kind to one another. One does not really need the Christian concept of benevolence for Confucius, because benevolence implies that one is going a step beyond what one would ordinarily do. The meaning of benevolence is to be greater than oneself, greater than the normal. For Confucius, kindness is intrinsic to human nature. His is the idea of natural kindness.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Literature
Allinson, R.E. 1985. “The Negative Formulation of the Golden Rule in Confucius.” Journal of Chinese Philosophy, Vol. 12, no. 3, September.
Allinson, R.E. 1998. “Complementarity as a Model for East-West Integrative Philosophy.” Journal of Chinese Philosophy, Vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 505–517.
Allinson, R.E. 2000. “An Overview of the Chinese Mind.” In Robert Elliott Allinson (ed.), Understanding the Chinese Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Zsolnai, L. 2002. “Future of Capitalism.” In Laszlo Zsolnai (ed.), Ethics in the Economy – Handbook of Business Ethics, pp.295–308. Oxford, Bern and Berlin: Peter Lang..
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2011 Robert Allinson
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Allinson, R. (2011). Confucianism and Taoism. In: Bouckaert, L., Zsolnai, L. (eds) Handbook of Spirituality and Business. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230321458_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230321458_12
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-31548-2
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-32145-8
eBook Packages: Palgrave Business & Management CollectionBusiness and Management (R0)