Confucius and the Effortless Life of Virtue

Natural talent and diligent practice regularly lead to effortless virtuosity in many fields, such as music and athletics. Can the same be true of morality? Confucius’s wonderfully terse autobiography in the Analects suggests that, given the right starting materials and an appropriate curriculum of study, a program of moral self-cultivation can indeed lead to effortless moral virtuosity. But can we make sense of this claim from a contemporary perspective? This paper evaluates the plausibility of the moral ideal in the Analects using resources from contemporary moral psychology. 2 Life is complex. Human beings typically require years of guidance, rearing and correction by others in order to navigate the social world with any degree of proficiency, and even with considerable experience it remains likely that one will encounter awkward situations, face conflicting social or moral demands, or be unsure of what how to act or what to feel. Hence, while it may seem attractive to live a life full of spontaneity and natural ease, the facts of social life seem to