The Confucian Filial Obligation and Care For Aged Parents

Notes (1) For example, Norman Daniels told us that "In 1983 we spent $217 billion or $7,700 per elderly person" (Daniels, 1988, p.5).

(2) In his"Obedience and Illusion," Michael Slote expresses a similar idea. According to Slote, it is "difficult to believe that one has a duty to show gratitude for benefits one has not requested" in O'Neill & Ruddick (1979), p.[^320]:

(3) See Jane English,"What Do Grown Children Owe Their Parents?" in Sommers and Sommers (1993), p.[^763]:

(4) For example, Daniels says:"Children did not ask to be brought into existence" (Daniels, p.29), and calls the traditional filial relation "not self-imposed." Because of that, "we remain without compelling foundations for filial obligations, ..." (Daniels, p.34). English, though criticizing the traditional understanding of the nature of filial relation as being "reciprocal," defines filial relation as a relation of friendship. According to her, a filial relation without a friendship, which assumes mutual consent, does not endow any moral obligation. In English's words, "The relationship between children and their parents should be one of friendship characterized by mutuality rather than one of reciprocal favors" (Sommers and Sommers, p.762), and "After a friendship ends, the duties of friendship end" (Sommers and Sommers, p.761).

(5) This idea can be traced back to Aristotle. According to Aristotle, a moral praise or blame should be based on whether an individual moral agent behaves "voluntarily or "involuntarily." "Being voluntary," Aristotle held, means that (1) an individual is internally motivated rather than externally compelled to act; (2) the action may not be not a result of ignorance or deceit. See Aristotle, 1110a5 - 1114b[^15]:

(6) Ironically, a similar example of a good swimmer can be also found in Daniels. However, Daniels calls it "supererogatory" rather than "obligatory" (Daniels, p.33).

(7) The words "existential" and "factical" should be distinguished from those of "intentional" and "factual." I use them in Heidegger's sense, which is based on his theory of Dasein as "being-in-the-world-with-others." As for Heidegger's concepts of "existence" and "facticity," see Heidegger, (1962), pp.78-86; 235-[^241]:

(8) In hisA Theory of Justice , John Rawls makes a careful distinction between "obligation" and "natural duty." According to Rawls, both "obligations" and "natural duties" are moral requirements. Their main distinction consists in the following three aspects: (1) obligations "arise as a result of our voluntary acts" while natural duties "apply to us without regard to our voluntary acts"; (2) "the content of obligations is always defined by an institution or practice the rules of which specify what it is that one is required to do" while natural duties "have no necessary connection with institutions or social practices; their content is not, in general, defined by the rules of these arrangements"; (3) "obligations are normally owed to definite individuals, namely, those who are cooperating together to maintain the arrangement in question" while natural duties "hold between persons irrespective of their institutional relationships; they obtain between all as equal moral persons" (Rawls, p.113; p.115). On the one hand, I agree with Rawls in saying that one moral requirement arises from voluntary acts while the other does not, although I don't want to use the word "obligation" exclusively for those moral requirements based on voluntary acts. In many cases, as we know, "obligation" and "duty" mean the same in our ordinary use of English. For example, we see this in sentences such as "Citizens have an obligation to observe the laws of their country;" or "Mentally gifted people are under an obligation to develop their capacities." Therefore, I use "moral responsibility" for those moral requirements cause by voluntary acts, "moral duty" for those which are not connected with the voluntary acts, and "moral obligation" for both. On the other hand, I don't agree with Rawls when he says that the content of duties has "no necessary connection with institutions or social practice." Maybe he thinks that all social institutions, by their nature, have a voluntary or contractarian grounds. But we know that not all institutions or social practices, e.g., the family, are based on contractarian grounding. They are naturalistic social institutions. Because of that, at least some of our moral duties arise from the status we have or roles we play in a naturalistic social institution. It should also be noticed that Norman Daniels, following Rawls, mentions the distinction between the "natural duties" and the "moral obligations" (Daniels, p.29). However, it seems to me that

he then quickly claims without a justification that a parental duty to children and an adult child's duty to parents belong to the category of "moral obligation," or in my term, "moral responsibility," rather than to that of "moral duty."

(9) In hisPunishment and Responsibility , H.L.A. Hart distinguishes four senses of responsibility, which are (1) Role-Responsibility; (2) Causal-Responsibility; (3) Liability-Responsibility; and (4) Capacity-Responsibility. However, Hart's discussion of the moral sense of all the four types of responsibility and his distinction between legal responsibility and moral responsibility in his discussion indicate that the intentional and voluntary consent of individuals should be the sole moral basis of all the four types of responsibility. See Hart, (1968), pp.210-[^230]:

(10) As for English translations of the Analects, see Lau, D.C. (1979) or Waley, A. (1989).

(11) The Chinese Marriage Law, Section 3, Article [^15]: I use the translation of Li Chenyang.

(12) See Dong Zhong Shu,Chun Qiu Fan Lu , 8/8b; I use Hall and Ames' translation here. See Hall and Ames (1987), p.[^92]:

(13) My understanding of the dialectical interplay between "yi" and "yi*" benefits from Hall and Ames' insightful interpretation. This interplay, according to Hall and Ames, can be seen in that "whereas yi denotes appropriateness to one's own person, yi* refers to appropriateness to one's context. Yi is the active and contributory integrating of self with circumstances, where the self originates unique activity and construes itself on its own term in a naval and creative way. The character yi, on the other hand, denotes the yielding or giving up of oneself and 'appropriating' meaning from the context or circumstances" (See Hall & Ames, 1987, p.98 and pp.348-349, no.51).

(14) For example, Mencius said,"The felling of shame and dislike is the beginning of righteousness" (Mencius , 3A:5).

(15) Here it is nothing to do with "owing" or "paying debts," as we found in Jane English (Sommers and Sommers, 1993). According to Confucians, life should be seen as a flux. My parents may be seen as my life in the past and my children my life in the future. Just like it would be ridiculous to say that my hands, in providing food to my stomach, are "paying debts" to the latter because it helped to keep the hands alive, it is misleading to talk about "owing debts" between parents and children. Therefore, the difference between English and a Confucian on filial obligation does not consist in the "owing/non-owing" relation, but in that the former understands the filial obligation as a causal relation while the latter understands it as an existential relation.

(16) There is an ancient Chinese story which is very popular among Chinese. Once upon a time, there was a family of a grandfather, a father, and a son. The father did not take a good care of the Grandpa. When the Grandpa died, the father was so stingy that he took the Grandpa's dead body out with a broken basket. When the young boy saw it, he told his father:" Dad, please don't forget to bring the basket back. It is still useful." The stingy father was very happy to hear what his little son said. Then he asked his son what he would use it for. His son answered:"I will re-use it when you die."

(17) For example, we can read in the Analects 1:2 that "Few of those who are filial sons and respectful brothers will show disrespect to superiors, and there has never been a man who is not disrespectful to superiors and yet creates disorder. A superior man is devoted to the fundamentals (the root). When the root is firmly established, the dao will grow. Filial piety and brotherly respect are the root of humanity(ren) .

(18)Da Tong /Li Yun; also see Mencius , 1B:5