Greater self, lesser self: Dimensions of self-interest in Chinese filial piety

Journal article

Barbalet, Jack. (2014). Greater self, lesser self: Dimensions of self-interest in Chinese filial piety. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour. 44(2), pp. 186 - 205. https://doi.org/10.1111/jtsb.12037
AuthorsBarbalet, Jack
Abstract

While self-interest is depreciated in Confucian ethics the processes of family relations in traditional China are animated by the self-interested actions of family members. The paper outlines the Confucian ideology of filial piety which is commensurate with the governance of family life organized hierarchically and through the senior male's management of the joint-family's collective property. The structure, operations and principles of membership in traditional Chinese families are indicated, highlighting the tensions within them between consanguinity and conjugality and their material bases. The differential operation of self-interested actions by husbands and wives is also presented. A non-Confucian model of the relational-self is outlined in which both the collective context of Chinese families and the self-interested actions of individual family members within them is explicated.

KeywordsConfucianism; filial piety; self-interested action; relational-self; greater- and lesser-self
Year2014
JournalJournal for the Theory of Social Behaviour
Journal citation44 (2), pp. 186 - 205
PublisherBlackwell Publishing Ltd
ISSN0021-8308
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1111/jtsb.12037
Scopus EID2-s2.0-84900395430
Page range186 - 205
Research GroupInstitute for Religion, Politics, and Society
Publisher's version
File Access Level
Controlled
Place of publicationUnited Kingdom
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