Why Confucianism is Not a Religion. And why knowledge of it should be part of one’s scholarly training as a philosopher.

Abstract

In Western parts of the world, Confucianism is often grouped together with other major world ideologies as being “religions”. Some justify this by arguing that millions of its followers share a “sense of religious identity” ; others say Confucianism is a religion because its founders based their thoughts on the notion of a volitional ‘Heaven’ that intentionally constructed the universe . Arguments like this may provide an explanation for the fact that in the contemporary Dutch education system, Confucianism is studied in university departments of Religious Studies and high school classes like ‘Religion’, while inquiry into this subject is uncommon (or at least not mandatory) as part of the training of philosophy students. However, educating Confucianism solely as part of ‘religion education’ seems only valid if Confucianism solidly proves to be a religion. Likewise, not providing philosophy students with knowledge about Confucianism seems only valid if Confucianism solidly disproves to be a philosophy. So, is Confucianism really a religion? Or is it more like philosophy?