Confucius’ Philosophy of Zhengming (“Rectification of Names”): Implications for Social Harmony in Africa
Social harmony is an imperative for the development of society. Without social harmony there is bound to be conflicts, violence, and social turmoil that impede the wellbeing of society. A key factor that can promote social harmony is when people live out the meaning of their names. This is what C...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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Editura Universităţii Aurel Vlaicu Arad
2020-11-01
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| Series: | Journal of Humanistic and Social Studies |
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| Online Access: | http://www.jhss.ro/downloads/22/articles/10%20vol%2011%20no%202%20(22)%202020%20BT-129-142.pdf |
| Summary: | Social harmony is an imperative for the development of society. Without
social harmony there is bound to be conflicts, violence, and social turmoil that
impede the wellbeing of society. A key factor that can promote social harmony
is when people live out the meaning of their names. This is what Confucius
called Zhengming (“rectification of names”). For him the rectification of names
implies every citizen living out the full import and meaning of their names and
roles. Without rectification of names society will continue to be bedeviled by
disharmony. Like many other societies the African continent is bedeviled with
social disharmonies caused by poor leadership, bad governance, corruption and
embezzlement of public funds, kidnapping and hostage taking, youth
restiveness, illegal migration, environmental degradation, etc. It is difficult for
there to be social harmony when citizens are experiencing social deprivations.
The paper will use critical analytic and hermeneutic methods to examine the
doctrine of rectification of names as proposed by Confucius. The paper will
also apply this doctrine to the situation of social disharmony in Africa. The
paper finds and concludes that there is need to use the ideas of Zhengming to
mitigate social disharmonies in Africa. |
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| ISSN: | 2067-6557 2247-2371 |