AnonyMencius Boshu :verywise: on Nostr: Oh man, “Harmony” as a philosophical concept is hard to nail down, but here’s a ...

Oh man, “Harmony” as a philosophical concept is hard to nail down, but here’s a good starting point: https://philarchive.org/archive/LITCO-11#:~:text=Confucian%20philosophy%20of%20harmony%20takes,good%20of%20the%20large%20society.

As far as Confucius’ values being abusable- yes. That’s a huge part of Mencius and Xunzi’s developments of his thought, but it’s important to remember that Confucius said a core component of Consummate Conduct was that subordinates know they must rebuke or correct power when it is being wielded poorly (look at Zizhao’s rebuke of the great Zhuge Liang when his master was mishandling administration with micromanagement).

As for Ren (仁), it’s important to remember that it is localized on family and hierarchy and moderns would call it “problematic.” One of Confucius’ ex-followers, Mozi, wanted to replace it with Jianai (兼愛), or “Universal Love” that said we love all people equally and don’t give special deference to family or our tribe. This is fucking gay, and no one takes Mozi seriously because this is incredibly jewish and self-destructive.