Confucian Meritocracy is a specific form of political meritocracy proposed by scholars of Chinese political philosophy. Proponents of Confucian Meritocracy aim to establish a system that selects and promotes Confucian Moral Exemplars (Junzi) to positions of political power. In this paper, I formulate three arguments against Confucian Meritocracy using conceptual resources in the Legalist (Fa Jia) text, Hanfeizi, especially from parts of the text that were presented, overtly or otherwise, as polemic against Confucianism. First, Hanfeizi argues that we ought to be suspicious of claims that governance and political leadership require moral virtues; I call this The Moral Cynic Argument. Second, Hanfeizi argues that a political system designed to rely heavily on the virtues and competency of individuals is both unreliable and unsustainable; I call this The Stump-Watcher Argument. Finally, Hanfeizi argues that those skilled in rhetoric and persuasion can easily game any system that attempts to select and promote government officials on the basis of merit or virtue; I call this The Skilled Persuader Argument.

Graduate Seminar Series.
Date: Tuesday, 5 Apr 2016
Time: 2 pm – 3.30 pm
Venue: Philosophy Meeting Room (AS3 #05-23)
Speaker: Jeremy Huang
Moderator: Lee Wilson

About the Speaker:

Jeremy has left his BA in History behind and is now pursuing his MA in Philosophy. His primary research interest is Pre-Qin Chinese Philosophy, but he is also interested in Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism, Modern Chinese Philosophy and History of Philosophy.