David Wong | Confucian, Daoist, and Democratic Contributions to Harmony | Philosophy Speaker Series

Abstract: In this talk, I synthesize elements from the Confucian, Daoist and Western democratic traditions to address the contemporary challenge of achieving a reasonable degree of political and social harmony. I first specify what harmony means in these traditions. I discuss the value of epistemic humility, the method of discretion or weighing of values, and accommodation in Confucianism. I discuss Daoism’s skepticism about the wisdom of leadership elites and its urging to open ourselves to the viewpoints of others in the body politic. I discuss some surprising parallels within the democratic tradition to the Confucian and Daoist elements and end with a discussion of what a democracy might look like if it realized this synthesis.

David Wong is the Susan Fox Beischer and George D. Beischer Trinity College Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Duke University. His books include Moral Relativity (1984), Natural Moralities (2006), and Moral Relativism and Pluralism (2023). A book of critical essays on Natural Moralities was published in 2014, with responses by Wong to the essays.