Abstract

In recent decades a small wave of scholars has argued that classical Confucian moral teachings are characterized by the lack of a concept of free will. Li Zehou, in contrast, places free will at the center of his reading of classical Confucian ethics. Is this too interpretive? Does it do violence to the concept of free will, or to classical Confucian morality? Could it even be un-Confucian?Li Zehou puts forth his systematic ethics as part of “a world philosophy that incorporates Kant’s philosophy with Confucius’”, in which a revised Kantian conception of free will plays a central role. He asserts that his revision of the Kantian conception of the will is based in classical Confucianism, and...