Harvard International Review Joining East and West: A Confucian Perspective on Human Rights Author(s): TU WEIMING Source: Harvard International Review, Vol. 20, No. 3 (SUMMER 1998), pp. 44-49 Published by: Harvard International Review Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/42764005 Accessed: 09-05-2019 07:56 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Harvard International Review is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Harvard International Review This content downloaded from 115.27.201.28 on Thu, 09 May 2019 07:56:38 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms HUMAN RIGHTS Joining East and West A Confucian Perspective on Human Rights tradition, duty-consciousness is more pronounced than rights-consciousness - to the Human tradition, extent rights extent that that duty-consciousness the Confiician tradition theunderscores are Confiician self-cultivation inseparable , family cohesiveness, tradition from is more human underscores pronounced responsibilities. self-cultivation than rights-consciousness Although family in the cohesiveness, Confucian - to the economic well-being, social order, political justice, and cultural flourishing - it is a valuable spring of wisdom for an understanding of human rights broadly conceived. The argument that Confiician BY TU W E I M I N G humanism is incompatible with emergedhu- through a long and arduous for growth, development, and, man rights needs to be carefully process ex- beginning with the Enlight- unfortunately, exploitation. The amined. enment movement in the modern unleashed juggernaut blatantly exhib- Human rights as "the common West in the eighteenth century. The ited unbridled aggressiveness toward language of humanity," to borrow Enlightenment mentality is the most humanity, nature, and itself. This from former United Nations dynamic and transformative ideology unprecedented destructive engine Secretary-General Boutros Boutros- in human history. Indebted to the has for the first time in human Ghali, is a defining characteristic Enlightenment of mentality are the history brought into question the vi- the spirit of our time. For the past values half- that underlie the rise of the ability of the human species. Mainly century - since the ratification ofmodern the West: liberty; equality; because of our own avidya (the Universal Declaration of Human progress; the dignity of the individual; Buddhist concept of ignorance), we Rights in 1948 - an unprecedented respectin- for privacy; government have joined the list of endangered ternational effort has been made to for,in- by, and of the people; and due species. scribe not only on paper but on hu-process of law. We have been so Human rights discourse may be man conscience the bold vision of a seasoned in the Enlightenment men- conceived as the contemporary new world order rooted in respect for tality that we assume the reasonable- embodiment of the Enlightenment human dignity as the central value for ness of its general spiritual thrust. We spirit. While it does not directly ad- political action. find the values it embodies dress the question of human survival, self-evident. it specifies the minimum requirements The Enlightenment's Effect However, we must be acutely and basic conditions for human In an historical and comparative aware of the destructive power flourishing. of the It is a powerful, if not the cultural perspective, this vision Enlightenment mentality, as well. most As persuasive, universal moral the Western nations assumed the discourse role in the international arena. This article is based on an expanded version of innovators, executors, and judges It may veryof well be the most effective, of Professor Tu's "Epilogue" in Confucianism the international rules of the game mid Human Rights, edited by William T. de if not the only, "instrument" by which Bary and Tu Weiming (Columbia University defined in terms of competition states' forordinary standards of behavior Press, 1998). wealth and power, the stage canwas be set judged by outsiders without TU WEIMING is Professor of Chinese History and Philosophy at Harvard University. [m] HARVARD INTERNATIONAL REVIEW • Summer 1998 This content downloaded from 115.27.201.28 on Thu, 09 May 2019 07:56:38 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms infringing the prerogatives of versal Declaration of Human Rights velopment, and concrete political situ- sovereignty. reflects both the pragmatic idealism ation, they cannot be universally ap- and optimistic aspirations of the preciated as values and aspirations for The Evolving Discourse post- World War II mentality at its the global community. However, this The universality of human rights most generous and future-oriented does not call into question the under- broadly conceived in the 1948 Decla- moment. It may not be farfetched to lying assumptions of Confucian "core ration is a source of inspiration for the characterize it as a manifestation of the values": the perception of the person human community. The moral and American spirit in its most as a center of relationships rather than legal imperative that any civilized state broad-minded internationalist incar- simply as an isolated individual, the treat its citizens in accordance with the nation. All three generations of human idea of society as a community of trust political rights guaranteed by its own rights as an evolving moral discourse rather than merely a system of constitution is still a compelling argu- are accounted for: (1) political rights, adversarial relationships, and the be- ment. The desirability of democracy (2) economic, social and cultural lief that human beings are duty-bound as providing to this day the most ef- rights, and (3) group rights. Implicit to respect their family, society, and fective framework in which human in such a document is the idea of a nation. Indeed, these values are not rights are safeguarded seems good society, the value of a humane only compatible with the implemen- self-evident. However, human rights form of life for all members of the tation of human rights; they can, in a movement as a dynamic process rather human community, and the ethic of sophisticated way, enhance the univer- than a static structure requires that the responsibility of all "civilized" govern- sal appeal of human rights. The pos- human rights discourse be dialogical, ments to work toward a common goal sible contribution of an in-depth dis- communicative and, hopefully, mutu- of universal peace. With this back- cussion on Asian values to a sophisti- ally beneficial. ground understanding in mind, al- cated cultural appreciation of the hu- The gradual evolution of the hu- though the situation in the 1990s pre- man rights discourse must be fully ex- man rights agenda in the United States sents new challenges unanticipated plored. illustrates the dynamism of the pro- and perhaps unimaginable nearly 50 Actually there is virtual consen- cess. While the framers of the US years ago, it also affirms the prescient sus that since respect for rights and Constitution were profoundly serious goodwill of the original drafters of this exercise of responsibility are evidence about political rights, they were not unprecedented historical document. of human dignity, individual rights and particularly concerned about either The recognition of interdepen- responsibility are inseparable in all civil or economic rights. It was not dence between democracy, develop- domains of human flourishing: until the late nineteenth century that ment, and human rights led to the co- self-cultivation, regulation of family, socialists, indeed communist thinkers, operation of international organiza- order in society, governance of state, addressed the maldistribution of tions and national agencies in broad- peace throughout the world, and har- wealth and income, the concentration ening the concept of human rights to mony with nature. In any concrete of capital, and the exploitation of la- include the right to develop- experience of human encounter, rights bor as central political issues. It was ment. While this confluence of social and responsibility form an interactive in the late 1960s that the civil rights and economic concerns may have un- mutual relationship signifying a nec- movement made substantial progress dermined the effectiveness of some essary continuum for human in solving the problem of racism in the national and international instru- well-being. The danger of using Con- United States, which to this day re- ments focusing on well-defined po- fucian values as a cover for authori- mains a serious threat to the vitality litical rights, it has engendered new tarian practices notwithstanding, the of the American body politic. This mechanisms for the promotion of hu- authentic possibility of dialogue, com- clearly indicates that a sophisticated man rights. munication, and mutually beneficial understanding of human rights as an exchange must be fully explored. The evolving enterprise in the West itself The Confucian Challenge perceived Confucian preference for requires historical consciousness, geo- This renewed awareness of