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Aesthetic Education in Confucius, Xunzi, and Kant

  • Christian Helmut Wenzel EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: May 28, 2019
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Yearbook for Eastern and Western Philosophy
From the journal Yearbook for Eastern and Western Philosophy Volume 2018 Issue 3

Abstract

This essay introduces ideas from Confucius, Xunzi, the Six Dynasties, and Kant about beauty, music, morality, and what we might today call “aesthetic education.” It asks how beauty and morality are related and how they ideally should be related to each other. We know that beauty and morality can drift apart, and we may wonder how aesthetic education might work best. Should the arts be a means for developing morality? Or should it be the other way around? These questions are still relevant today. But our world has changed, not only since Confucius, but also since Kant. We may ask what to make of their ideas in our present time. I argue that there are good reasons for keeping morality and aesthetics apart, somewhat in the spirit of Kant, and in opposition to the idea of “fusing” the two.

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Published Online: 2019-05-28
Published in Print: 2019-05-27

© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  3. Aesthetics and Life-World in German-Chinese Dialogue
  4. I: Kantian Aesthetics as a Starting Point – 从康德美学出发
  5. Symbolizing an Infinite World – Kant’s Analytic of Aesthetic Judgment, its Transcultural Dimension, and Jullien’s Critique of its Limits
  6. Aesthetic Cognition
  7. Aesthetic Ideality Versus Ontological Temporality
  8. Aesthetic Education in Confucius, Xunzi, and Kant
  9. Light is Space
  10. II: Aesthetics and Everyday Life – 美学和日常生活
  11. The Love of Beauty for the Good Life
  12. Art and Technology
  13. There Are More Things in (Life) World…
  14. The Rhythm of Action
  15. III: Living Aesthetics and Art – 生活美学和艺术
  16. Thinking and Poetry
  17. The Standard of Taste in David Hume’s Philosophy
  18. An Intercultural Interpretation on Heidegger’s Poet
  19. A Dreamed Form of Being
  20. Die Fadheit als Lebenskonzept in der chinesischen Kultur
  21. Information, Communication and Art
  22. IV: Aesthetics as Philosophy of Arts – 作为艺术哲学的美学
  23. Techné, Life-world, and Art
  24. Aesthetic Judgments and Their Cultural Grounding
  25. From Cézanne’s Doubt to Ai Weiwei’s Subversive Engagement
  26. Das Bild als Phänomen
  27. V: Varia and Miscellaneous – 杂文拾翠
  28. Perpetual Thriving
  29. Biobibliography
  30. Biobibliography
https://doi.org/10.1515/yewph-2018-0006

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  3. Aesthetics and Life-World in German-Chinese Dialogue
  4. I: Kantian Aesthetics as a Starting Point – 从康德美学出发
  5. Symbolizing an Infinite World – Kant’s Analytic of Aesthetic Judgment, its Transcultural Dimension, and Jullien’s Critique of its Limits
  6. Aesthetic Cognition
  7. Aesthetic Ideality Versus Ontological Temporality
  8. Aesthetic Education in Confucius, Xunzi, and Kant
  9. Light is Space
  10. II: Aesthetics and Everyday Life – 美学和日常生活
  11. The Love of Beauty for the Good Life
  12. Art and Technology
  13. There Are More Things in (Life) World…
  14. The Rhythm of Action
  15. III: Living Aesthetics and Art – 生活美学和艺术
  16. Thinking and Poetry
  17. The Standard of Taste in David Hume’s Philosophy
  18. An Intercultural Interpretation on Heidegger’s Poet
  19. A Dreamed Form of Being
  20. Die Fadheit als Lebenskonzept in der chinesischen Kultur
  21. Information, Communication and Art
  22. IV: Aesthetics as Philosophy of Arts – 作为艺术哲学的美学
  23. Techné, Life-world, and Art
  24. Aesthetic Judgments and Their Cultural Grounding
  25. From Cézanne’s Doubt to Ai Weiwei’s Subversive Engagement
  26. Das Bild als Phänomen
  27. V: Varia and Miscellaneous – 杂文拾翠
  28. Perpetual Thriving
  29. Biobibliography
  30. Biobibliography
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