Mandarin paradox explained

The Mandarin paradox is an ethical parable used to illustrate the difficulty of fulfilling moral obligations when moral punishment is unlikely or impossible, leading to moral disengagement.^[1] It has been used to underscore the fragility of ethical standards when moral agents are separated by physical, cultural, or other distance, especially as facilitated by globalization.^[2] It was first posed by French writer Chateaubriand in "The Genius of Christianity" (1802):^[3]

I ask my own heart, I put to myself this question: "If thou couldst by a mere wish kill a fellow-creature in China, and inherit his fortune in Europe, with the supernatural conviction that the fact would never be known, wouldst thou consent to form such a wish?"

The paradox is famously used to foreshadow the character development of the arriviste Eugène de Rastignac in Balzac's novel Père Goriot.^[1] Rastignac asks Bianchon if he recalls the paradox, to which Bianchon first replies that he is "at [his] thirty-third mandarin," but then states that he would refuse to take an unknown man's life regardless of circumstance.^[3] Rastignac wrongly attributes the quote to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, which propagated to later writings.^{[2] [4]}

In fiction

• The Mandarin (novel) by José Maria de Eça de Queirós
• Button, Button by Richard Matheson (plus movie The Box (2009 film))
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

See also

• Ring of Gyges

Bibliography

• Champsaur F., Le Mandarin, Paris, P. Ollendorff, 1895‐1896 (réimprimé sous le nom L’Arriviste, Paris, Albin Michel, 1902)
• Schneider L. Tuer le Mandarin // Le Gaulois, 18 juillet 1926, no 17818
• Paul Ronal. Tuer le mandarin // Revue de littirature comparee 10, no. 3 (1930): 520–23.
• E. Latham // Une cita�on de Rousseau // Mercure de France, 1er juin 1947, no 1006, p. 393.
• Barbey B. «Tuer le Mandarin» // Mercure de France, 1er septembre 1947, no 1009
• Laurence W. Keates. Mysterious Miraculous Mandarin: Origins, Literary Paternity, Implications in Ethics // Revue de littirature comparee 40, no. 4 (1966): 497–525,
• Antonio Coimbra Martins. O mandarim assassinado // Ensaios Queirosianos: «0 mandarim assassinado». "0 incesto d"os maias,' imitagdo capital". (Lisbon, 1967), pp. 27–28.
• Eric Hayot. The Hypothetical Mandarin: Sympathy, Modernity, and Chinese Pain. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2009

Notes and References

1. Hanotte-Zawiślak . Anna . Le retour du "paradoxe du mandarin" dans la construction de l'arriviste littéraire au XIXe siècle . Uniwersytet Gdański . Cahiers ERTA . 2019-06-28 . 18 . 9–23 . 10.4467/23538953CE.19.010.10695 . 2020-01-23. free .
2. Delon . Michel . De Diderot à Balzac, le paradoxe du mandarin . Italian Review of French Studies . 3 . 10.4000/rief.248 . 2013-12-15 . 3 . 2020-01-23. free .
3. Ginzburg . Carlo . Killing a Chinese Mandarin: The Moral Implications of Distance . Critical Inquiry . 21 . 1 . Autumn 1994 . 46–60 . 10.1086/448740 . 1343886 . 162198091 .
4. Book: Falaky, Fayçal . Reverse Revolution: The Paradox of Rousseau's Authorship . Rousseau and Revolution . Lauritsen . Holger Ross . Thorup . Mikkel . Continuum Studies in Political Philosophy . Continuum . 2011-09-15 . 978-1441128973 . 83–97 . 2020-01-23.