{{Short description|Ethical theory based on family roles}} '''Role ethics''' is an ethical theory based on family roles.<ref name="Ames">{{cite book|author-link1=Roger T. Ames|author=Roger T. Ames|title=Confucian Role Ethics: A Vocabulary|date=30 April 2011|publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press|isbn=978-0-8248-3576-7}}</ref> Morality is derived from a person's relationship with their community.<ref name="Fraser"/> The ethics of Confucianism is an example of role ethics,<ref name="Ames"/> in particular the Three Fundamental Bonds and Five Constant Virtues ({{zh|c=三綱五常|poj=Sam-kòng Ngó͘-siông|j=Saam1 Gong1 Ng5 Soeng4|p=Sāngāng Wǔcháng}}).
==Confucianism== thumb|100px|Tang Dynasty depiction of Confucius Confucian role ethics centers around filial piety or ''xiao'', a respect for family members.<ref name="Chang">{{cite book|author1=Wonsuk Chang|author2=Leah Kalmanson|title=Confucianism in Context: Classic Philosophy and Contemporary Issues, East Asia and Beyond|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_UC1mvUKaU8C&pg=PA68|date=8 November 2010|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-1-4384-3191-8|page=68}}</ref> The concept is elaborated in the Confucian text ''Classic of Filial Piety'': "In serving his parents, a filial son reveres them in daily life; he makes them happy while he nourishes them; he takes anxious care of them in sickness; he shows great sorrow over their death; and he sacrifices to them with solemnity."<ref name="Ikels">{{cite book|editor=Charlotte Ikels|title=Filial Piety: Practice and Discourse in Contemporary East Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PpSpC15JHeoC&pg=PA3|access-date=21 November 2012|year=2004|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-4791-2|pages=3–5}}</ref> Filial duty requires the desire to be filial, and not just the act of filial piety.<ref name="Fraser">{{cite book|author1=Chris Fraser|author2=Dan Robins|author3=Timothy O'Leary|title=Ethics in Early China: An Anthology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2Qqf6ZXxh0C&pg=PA35|date=1 May 2011|publisher=Hong Kong University Press|isbn=978-988-8028-93-1|pages=17–35}}</ref> In Confucian societies, filial piety determines the "moral worth" of an individual in a community and acts as a form of social capital.<ref name="Ikels"/>
According to Roger T. Ames and Henry Rosemont, "Confucian normativity is defined by living one's family roles to maximum effect." In Confucian role ethics, morality is based on a person's fulfillment of a role, such as that of a parent or a child. These roles are established as relationships, and are not individualistic. Confucian roles are not rational, and originate through the ''xin'', or human emotions.<ref name="Fraser"/>
The concept of ''li'' or ritual propriety is crucial to Confucian roles. Propriety reinforces family relationships, and binds together the community. The performance of li expresses a person's moral commitment as a human being.<ref name="Fraser"/>
In Japan, modern Confucian scholars like Uno Tetsuto and Ichimura Sanjiro have attempted to mix Confucian role ethics with concepts such as democracy and human rights.<ref name="Leaman">{{cite book|author=Oliver Leaman|title=Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=snU6hyIVMawC&pg=PA191|year=2001|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-17281-3|page=191}}</ref>
== Stoicism == Epictetus developed and introduced role ethics into Stoicism, an approach to ethics based on taking seriously the different roles we all play in life. The roles are:
* the general role of a human being in society (the human cosmopolis) at large; * roles that we choose for ourselves, being a father, or friend; * roles that the circumstances assign to us, being a son or daughter.
Epictetus's role ethics was a development of a similar concept developed by Panaetius who was a philosopher of the middle Stoa.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Pigliucci|first=Massimo|title=The Stoic Guide to a Happy Life|publisher=|year=2020|isbn=|location=|pages=}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Ethics}}
Category:Virtue ethics Category:Confucian ethics Category:Filial piety Category:Corporatism