E-viri
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ROGER T. AMES
Confucian Role Ethics, 08/2011Book Chapter
Whatis a human “being”? This was the perennial Greek question asked in Plato’sPhaedoand in Aristotle’sDe Anima. And perhaps the most persistent answer from the time of Pythagoras was an ontological one: The “being” or essence of a human being is a permanent, ready-made, and self-sufficient soul. And “know thyself”—the signature exhortation of Socrates—is to know this soul. Each of us is a person, and from conception, has the integrity ofbeinga person. In what waydoes a personbecomeconsummately human? This was the perennial Confucian question asked explicitly in all of the
