A Moral Argument for the Priority of the Right Over the Good: A Case Study of the Confucian Ethics

摘要

The paradox of Confucian ethics in prioritizing filial piety over humane love can show that only the good of right, which is encapsulated in an age-old precept "harm no one and benefit fellow humans" as well as in a modern principle "respect the deserved rights and interests of every human being," is the ultimate good and should trump any other goods in human life. In cases of the conflict between the good of right and other goods, therefore, one should give up other goods for the good of right. Otherwise, the result will be an ultimate evil: doing substantive harm to human beings or infringing upon the deserved rights and interests of human beings.