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Mastery, Dependence, and the Ethics of Authority (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R3,293
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Mastery, Dependence, and the Ethics of Authority (Hardcover)
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Over the last few decades, skepticism about political and moral
experts has grown into a serious social problem, undermining the
functioning of liberal democratic regimes. Indeed, meritocracy-that
is, government by hard working, public-spirited people with high
levels of relevant expertise-has never looked so promising as an
alternative to the dangers of know-nothing populism. One cultural
tradition has devoted sustained attention to the idea of
meritocracy, as well as to the cultivation of true expertise or
mastery: Confucianism. Mastery, Dependence, and the Ethics of
Authority presents a compelling analysis of expertise and
authority, and examines classical Confucian conceptions of mastery,
dependence, and human relationships in order to suggest new
approaches to these issues in ethics and political theory.
Contemporary Westerners are heirs to multiple traditions that are
suspicious of authority, especially coercive political authority.
We are also increasingly wary of dependence, which now often seems
to signify weakness, neediness, and pathology. Analysts commonly
presume that both authority and dependence threaten human autonomy,
and are thus intrinsically problematic. But these judgments are
mistaken. Our capacity for autonomy needs to be cultivated over
time through deliberate practices of training, in which we depend
on the guidance of virtuous and skilled teachers. Confucian thought
provides a subtle and powerful analysis of one version of this
training process, and of the social supports such an education in
autonomy requires-as well as the social value of having virtuous
and skilled leaders. Early Confucians also argue that human life is
marked by numerous interacting forms of dependence, which are not
only ineradicable, but in many ways good. On a Confucian view, it
is natural, healthy, and good for people to be deeply dependent on
others in a variety of ways across the full human lifespan. They
teach us that individual autonomy only develops within a social
matrix, structured by relationships of mutual dependence that can
either help or hinder it, including a variety of authority
relations.
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