Dao, Harmony, and Personhood: Toward a Confucian Ethics of Technology

There are few systematic attempts to construct and articulate alternative accounts of ethics and technology based on non-Western philosophical traditions. In this chapter, the author takes up the task and introduces an account of ethics and technology based on Confucianism. More specifically, he expounds three basic normative concepts in Confucian ethics, namely dao, harmony, and Confucian personhood, and discusses how they can serve as the building blocks of a Confucian ethics of technology. The author argues that Confucian ethics of technology concerns equally with the good and the right (as opposed to prioritizing the right over the good in modern Western ethics and political philosophy) and views ethics as a continuous negotiation and adjustment but not as a one-off judgment. He also points to Confucian ethics of technology's emphasis on social roles and everyday practices. In short, this chapter aims to provide a review of Confucian ethics for philosophers and ethicists of technology who are unfamiliar with the tradition.