Roger T. Ames: Human becoming: theorizing “persons” for Confucian role ethics

Ouyang, Xiao (author)

Ames’ new book confronts the controversies aroused by role ethics, and expounds various aspects of its core notion, namely, Confucian relationally constituted, narrative, focus-field conception of persons or human becomings, which Ames regards as “a good place to start” for what he calls a “gestalt shift” not only in moral philosophy but also in many other philosophical inquiries. Ames is adept at blending cross-cultural intellectual sources from different time periods in the creation of a strong argument. In the book, he also adequately addresses the concerns raised by his critics. Despite my overwhelmingly positive impression of the book, there are nonetheless several aspects of it that might evoke critical reflection or demand for further clarification.

• Language: English
• Keywords: confucianism, role ethics
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.19 - Review, Book Review, Critique
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 231-242
• Numbering: Vol. 13, no. 2
• ISSN on article: 2232-5131
• DOI: 10.4312/as.2025.13.2.231-242
• Publication date in RUL: 05.11.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Asian studies = Azijske študije
• Publisher: Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2232-5131
• COBISS.SI-ID: 265206272

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: konfucianizem