BYU welcomed back Dr. Rico Vitz where he presented from March 27–29. The topics were on how ritual and culture, familial love, and cognitive sources are all a part of humanity.
PROVO, Utah (March 27, 2019)—Dr. Rico Vitz, Professor and Department Chair of Philosophy at Azusa Pacific University, came back this semester to finish his Philosophy lecture series comparing Classical Confucian philosophy with the philosophy of the 18th century Scottish philosopher, David Hume. Building upon his examination in his first lecture series of the Chinese virtue ren and Hume’s virtue humanity, he traced a number of similarities between Confucianism’s and Hume’s treatment of familial love, ritual and culture, and moral cognition.
Familial love
Confucius said that people are naturally disposed to love their parents. “Among babes in arms, there is none that do not know to [i.e., are not naturally disposed to] love their parents.” (Mengzi 7A15). Our natural filial piety and respect for elders constitutes the “root of goodness” (Analects 1.2); and is a primary social source—from which people can cultivate the virtue of benevolence or humanity.
Philosophers work with five theories of filial duty: debt theory, gratitude theory, friendship theory, special goods theory, and gratitude for special goods theory.
Debt theory is based around the idea that because parents have given essentially everything to their children, children in turn owe a certain debt to their parents. Similarly, the gratitude theory follows the same principle except that children will give back to their parents not because they feel a debt to them, but out of gratitude. Friendship theory says that due to the relationship parents have with their offspring, children have a friendlier sort of love with them. In special goods theory the role of the parent is different from being a friend or benefactor; parents are entitled to their children’s honor and respect because what they do for the children cannot be duplicated by others. The last theory is closely tied with the special goods theory; the only difference is the return is also from a sense of gratitude.
Hume’s approach to the parent-child relationship runs along similar lines. He says that the family is the first natural instance of a little society. The role of the family functions internally to train children how to function in the larger society. Parents have to fulfill their duty of having a natural care and affection for their children and to guide their children. Children are also expected to be grateful and have a “pious attachment” to and a “duteous care” of their parents.
Ritual and Culture
In regards to Confucian rituals, Dr. Vitz talked about the difference between our native substance (what is internal to us) and cultural refinement (what is external/social). One of the elements of cultural refinement is learning. Learning is done through reading classical texts that implement the correct way to proceed in life, and by observing the lives of ‘sages’ and ‘gentleman.’ Ritual is the second part of this. Rituals are either formal or causal such as marriage, funerals, offering sacrifices, drinking, etc. Minor rituals are more focused on manners and etiquette. Ritual becomes a secondary social source of humanity. Ritual can play many roles such as a means of nurture, a way of shaping your life, and a way of reinforcing certain values. A more modern example is how Boy Scouts recite The Scout Law – “a boy scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, etc.” By reciting the desired virtues in a social and scripted way, this ritual reinforces certain values.
Hume isn’t as detailed as classical Confucianism on these matters, but he does correlate to Confucian ritual and culture in his conception of customs and manners. For Hume, customs and manners are social practices. Hume also said that not only nations, but also races, professions, vocations, and ethnicities carry a set of social practices. Among the moral causes of character are the “customs and manners” of a people. Coming full circle, Hume suggested that such practices are “fitted to work on the mind” in a way that shapes character because of the principle of sympathy.
These three sources of Humanity, familial love, ritual and culture, and cognitive functions provided the outline for the class, providing discussions on the difference of Confucianism thinking versus Humean concepts as well as broadening out to the effects of political and human nature.
—Jessica Mellor (B.A. English ’19)
While this article gives only a brief sample of the actual lecture, this class is taught each year by different visiting professors. If interested, please join the Philosophy 449R class taught each semester.