Righteous Incivility Revisited

Confucians are almost totally silent about what, if anything, might justify incivility and rudeness. This chapter revisits the issue of righteous incivility, incivility motivated by moral concerns, and considers Confucian resources for addressing when, whether, and how civility norms can be broken. It emphasizes the role of good situational judgment in matters of dissent and advocates for a broader understanding of civility’s possibilities. Civility, as the Confucians practiced it, can be fierce and imaginatively used in dissent. The chapter also considers what a psychology of disagreement rooted in a commitment to civility would look like, articulating an alternative picture to our more commonplace descriptions of righteous incivility.