Beyond Egalitarianism: A Confucian Approach to Global Health Justice

My aim in this chapter is to account for a Confucian doctrine of social justice and its application to global health issues. This account is not only valuable to recent debates on the fundamental principle of social justice in Confucianism, but may also provide an alternative theory of global health justice. In this chapter, I first critically examine the contemporary discussion about the principle of egalitarianism, then I argue for the interpretation that a Confucian doctrine of social justice supports sufficientarianism rather than egalitarianism. And finally, I claim that the core principle of sufficientarianism is grounded upon Confucian notions of benevolence, rites, and justice, and it entails other two principles, namely, the principle of fairness and the principle of responsibilities. Such an account is agent-focused, unlike the common institution-focused theories. Therefore, it can avoid, among other things, paternalistic concerns associated with some institution-focused theories.