Wittgenstein and the Analects on the Ethics of Clarification

What is it about?

Scholars of early Confucianism such as Roger Ames and Chad Hansen argue that the doctrine of the rectification of names (zhengming) ought to be understood not as involving a metaphysically robust conception of truth that regulates the meaning of language but instead as a social practice established in connection with the performative end of social harmony. This article draws some comparisons between the Confucian rectification of names, as represented by Ames and Hansen, and Wittgenstein’s philosophical pursuit of clarity, arguing that the two may help shed light on each other. While the ethics of clarification presents itself in the Analects and Wittgenstein in mutually illuminating ways, a key difference between the two lies in perspicuity operating as an ultimate end for Wittgenstein, while for Confucianism rectification of names itself serves the ultimate end of renewal of social harmony.

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