Bongrae Seok, “Moral Psychology of Confucian Shame: Shame of Shamelessness” (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017)
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What is Confucian moral shame and how does it differ from Western notions of shame?
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Hello, and welcome to New Books and Philosophy, a podcast channel with the New Books Network. I'm Carrie Figdor, Associate Professor of and I'm co-host of the channel along with Robert Talese, Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. Together, we bring you conversations with philosophers about their new books, drawing from a wide range of areas of contemporary philosophical inquiry. Today's interview is with Bangre Siak, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Alvernia University. His new book, Moral Psychology of Confucian Shame, is just out from Roman and Littlefield. Shame is a complex social emotion that has a particularly negative valence in the West. It is associated with failure, inappropriateness, dishonor, disgrace.
But within the Confucian tradition, there is, in addition, a distinct positive variety of moral shame, a virtue that, as Sack writes, is not for losers, but for self-reflective moral leaders. In his new book, Sioc draws on textual evidence from Confucius, Mencius, and Xunzi, as well as contemporary moral psychology, anthropology, biology, linguistics, and ancient Greek philosophy, to illuminate one aspect of the rich Confucian tradition in moral psychology. Sayoc explains how moral shame involves the whole self's sensitivity to moral ideals and how it supports the Confucian virtues of self-cultivation, self-reflection, and learning. Let's turn to the interview. Hello, Bangre Sayoc, are you there?
Yes, I'm here.
Hi, welcome to New Books and Philosophy. I'm looking forward to our conversation about your new book, Moral Psychology of Confucian Shame, subtitled The Shame of Shamelessness, which is a really interesting mixture of, well, it's an interdisciplinary approach to a series of Confucian texts from Confucius, Mencius, and Xunzi. But it also mixes in contemporary moral psychology, anthropology, biology, linguistics. So it's a very different, very interdisciplinary approach that you take to articulating this special Confucian moral shame, very special sort of moral emotion.
Right.
And before we get into the book itself, I mean, you have this is not your first book, you know, in this in this area, I should say you had a couple of years ago, you did a book on embodied moral psychology and then Confucian philosophy. So could you say a bit about your background first as a philosopher and your work in this area?
Yes, first of all, thank you for having me in this wonderful opportunity to promote my book and myself. And in this book, Motor Psychology of Confusion, same, I have another book came out two years ago, Embodied Motor Psychology and Confusion Philosophy, and also other papers and articles as well. What I do in these books, especially the book that I'm writing right now is
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is Confucian moral shame and how does it differ from Western notions of shame?
0:00–9:09
2
How does Seok’s interdisciplinary background shape his approach to moral psychology?
9:09–16:50
3
What are the three main types of shame in Seok’s taxonomy (subordination, social, moral)?
16:50–25:20
4
How do Confucius, Mencius, and Xunzi each contribute to the concept of moral shame?
25:20–33:15
5
Why does Seok argue that moral shame can be a positive, leader‑building emotion?
33:15–40:49
6
What physiological and embodied reactions accompany Confucian moral shame?
40:49–48:16
7
How can Western individuals cultivate Confucian moral shame within a collectivist cultural context?
48:16–56:20
8
What future projects is Seok planning after his work on Confucian shame?
56:20–1:04:47
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from New Books in Philosophy
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