Two Aspects of a Good Life in Virtue Ethics: With a Focus on the Confucian View on Rightness and Benefits

There has been a long lasting debates on the proper relationship between moral rightness and external benefits among different Chinese philosophical schools. It’s a consensus that Confucianism gives priority to rightness over benefits. There is disagreement, however, on whether this is because Confucianism regards rightness as an intrinsic value independent of, even though not necessarily in conflict with, benefits or because it sees rightness as the best instrument to produce benefits. The former takes Confucianism as a deontological theory, while the latter a consequentialist or even utilitarian one. In contrast, this essay argues that it is a virtue ethical theory, concerned with a good or flourishing human life, consisting of both external wellbeing and internal wellbeing. While benefits are indispensable to the former, rightness the latter. Although these two aspects, each of which has its own intrinsic value, are mutually instrumental, conflicts between the two may arise, and when they do, Confucianism puts rightness ahead of benefits, as it is what makes human life different from other forms of life.