PEA Soup is pleased to be rebooting the Cross-Cultural Philosophy series, thanks to the work of Brad Cokelet, beginning with a discussion on the 16th and 17th of November.
This thread will feature Sai Ying Ng‘s forthcoming paper, A Tale of Two Owens: Xiao 孝 as Trusting Others to Know Who You Are (from Philosophy East and West), with a critical précis from Iskra Fileva.
Ng’s abstract of the paper is as follows:
This paper offers an account of xiao 孝, often translated as filial piety or familial deference, which is compatible with Bernard Williams’s insistence that ethical deliberation should be indeterminate and open-ended, rather than pre-established on the basis of one’s social relationships. Through a critical reading of Williams’s account of ethical knowledge localized to an advisor model, I suggest that we trust those who share similar experiences in social relationships to offer advice specific to our social roles. This trust exhibits itself as xiao, which amounts to no more than the deference children have towards their parents as their guides on the ethical question of how we ought to live—‘we’, as individuals who share common experiences of being children, fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, and other such social roles.
We hope you will join us on the 16th and 17th.