Epistemic Elitism, Paternalism, and Confucian Democracy Shaun O’Dwyer # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015 Abstract This paper brings a fresh, epistemic perspective to bear on prominent Confucian philosophers’ arguments for (1) a hybrid Deweyan-Confucian democracy, or (2) for an illiberal democracy with “Confucian characteristics.” Reconstructing principles for epistemic elitism and paternalism from the pre-Qin 秦 Confucian thought that inspires these advocates for Confucian democracy, it finds two major problems with their proposals. For those who abandon or modify this epistemic elitism and paternalism in accordance with (1), the result is a philosophical syncretism that is either unconvincingly Confucian or unconvincingly Deweyan. For those who retain it in accordance with (2), the result is a democratic proposal that will lack legitimacy in increasingly pluralistic East Asian societies. In the end, there is a need for thinking that appropriately synthesizes Eastern and Western philosophies in a politically changing East Asia, but it would benefit from being less “Confucian.” Keywords Confucius . Mencius . John Dewey . Epistemic elitism . Epistemic paternalism 1 Introduction An interesting feature of English language discussion of Confucian thought is the range of arguments it has fielded for the compatibility between Confucianism and democracy. Some philosophers are trying to convince English-speaking audiences of this compat- ibility with blueprints for non-liberal democratic institutions which are adapted to the Confucian, communitarian traditions of East Asian countries. Others argue for a synthesis of pragmatist and Confucian political thought, which can yield democratic practices and values that are viable alternatives to liberal individualist concepts of democracy. Representative of the former group is Daniel Bell’ s suggestion for a representative democracy “with Confucian characteristics” in China, featuring an upper house of unelected officials of demonstrated moral and intellectual merit (Bell 1999, 2006a, 2006b, 2009). Representative of the latter group are thinkers such as David Hall and Roger Dao DOI 10.1007/s11712-014-9415-9 Shaun O’Dwyer (*) School of Global Japanese Studies, Meiji University, Nakano, Tokyo, Japan e-mail: shaunodwyer@yahoo.com.au