SCOTUS and Confucian Shu
May 24th, 2009 
Chinese Philosophy, Politics 
Chris
In reading about Obama’s upcoming battle with respect to his selection for SCOTUS, this caught my eye:
“You have to have not only the intellect to be able to effectively apply the law to cases before you,” Obama said in an interview carried Saturday on C-SPAN television. “But you have to be able to stand in somebody else’s shoes and see through their eyes and get a sense of how the law might work or not work in practical day-to-day living.” Obama also has said he wants someone who employs empathy, “understanding and identifying with people’s hopes and struggles,” when arriving at decisions that could influence the nation for decades.
Obama is clearly asking here that a judge be capable of expressing shu – he wants judging to incorporate (a) empathy and (b) he wants the empathy to function in a way that it has the judge “put him/herself in the place of the other.” Although Confucius’ doctrine of shu was meant to apply to the application of ritual, I have no doubt that he would extend the use of that capacity also to fa (law). It’s pretty clear here that Confucius’ criticisms of his disciple Zigong — who knows ritual well, but is incapable or unwilling to flexibly apply it to others — would also function as a criticism of the position of contemporary conservativism on SCOTUS picks.
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