Confucius, Gandhi and the Aesthetics of Virtue

Gier, N. F. (2001). Confucius, Gandhi and the Aesthetics of Virtue. Asian Philosophy, 11 (1): 41-54.

 Abstract: Both Confucius and Gandhi were fervent political reformers and this paper argues that their views of human nature and the self-society-world relationship are instructively similar. Gandhi never accepted Shankara's doctrine of maya and the Gandhian self never dissolves into the Atman-Brahman. Gandhi's view has been best described as an organic holism in which, much like the Confucian view, individuals preserve their integrity within the interdependent web of society. Both of them also balance a belief in human dignity and integrity with a belief in divine providence. I will also demonstrate that both have their own method of experiments in truth. On the fundamental issue of the unity of truth, goodness and beauty they are in profound agreement. On the basis of this fusion of fact and value I will suggest that they both share an aesthetics of virtue that prizes inner moral beauty, which is manifest in elegant behaviour rather than a beautifully formed body.

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