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The Voyage of Philosophy
Dr. Ahn’s Youtube philosophy lecture
03. 2022 Korea
unit 32-1 : A dialectical interpretation of the idea of “goodness” (仁) in Confucian Analects
the beginning of Chinese philosophy
According to Pung-yu-lan(馮友蘭), a famous Chinese philosopher, the first Chinese philosophy began when the public officers of Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC) were expelled and scattered from the palace because of social disorder and riots, and got into civil area, market economy. They became private teachers of the general folk. Confucian scholars are said to have been educational officer and Taoists are said to have been royal historians.
The great Chinese philosopher Confucius is said to have studied the 6 classical books of liberal arts at that time : Classic of Poetry, Book of Music, Book of Documents, Book of Rites, I Ching (Book of Changes) and Spring and Autumn Annals.
The mission of Confucius was the education of people through courtesy(禮) and music(樂).
The courtesy(禮) of Confucius means the realization of social order through the formal moral, etiquette or manners. The courtesy was actually a very significant element in feudalistic society, i.e. in Zhou dynasty. The feudalistic social order was kept through the vertical human relations, among which in ancient China the loyalty and the filial piety were counted as especially important.
The music(樂) is inclined to integrate the society by means of songs and dances.
Confucius however tried to revive the over said traditional values, i.e. the 6 classical books, and courtesy(禮) and music(樂) in his own way. I.e. he was not satisfied with mere acception of traditional value but wanted to lay the foundation of the transferred values. He didn’t ignore them but wanted to validate them.
2. the restoration of old values through the new principle
11. The Master said, To keep old knowledge warm and get new makes the teacher. (Bk. 2 Ch. 11)
11 子曰, “溫故而知新, 可以爲師矣.” THE SAYINGS OF CONFUCIUS TRANSLATED BY LEONARD A. LYALL, afterwards. analects.
As here revealed, old knowledge is to be kept warm. However it is not enough; on the ground of old knowledge, a new knowledge is is to be created. It is the role of the teacher.
What is a new knowledge? I think it is the concept of goodness (仁). Rén.
This character has been translated in various ways : benevolence, humaneness, the virtue proper to humanity and love. I translate it into goodness.
The translation is however not so important.
What’s matter is that Confucius wanted to reinterpret the old knowledge with the concept of goodness (仁).
The characteristic of goodness of Confucius is that it is spontaneous and voluntary. It might be thought of as innate idea. He wanted to reform the heteronomous values through the autonomous idea: goodness.
The traditional value-concepts e.g. loyalty or courtesy might not be so voluntary and spontaneous as goodness (仁). The general validity of those value-concepts are not evident, Confucius thought. Those ideas might be given from the outside e.g. through mere tradition and coercion.
Unlike these delivered traditional values, the goodness is thought of as innate, spontaneous:
29. The Master said, Is goodness so far a thing? I long for goodness, and lo! goodness is come. (analects Bk 7, Ch. 29)
In term of modern western philosophy, the goodness of Confucius might be compared with the innate idea by Descartes, which occures within me.
Furthermore the goodness is the foundation of the two opposite principles of society and mankind, namely courtesy and music. Courtesy and music would be useless without goodness, said Confucius. As over said courtesy was the principle of social hierarchy and music was that of social unity in the feudalistic Zhou dynasty,.
The Chinese word of “music” is (樂), which has various meaning besides music : to enjoy, pleasure, to like etc.
Therefore “music”(樂) can play the role of emotional agreement among humans by Confucius.
3. the goodness as dialectical unity of the opposite
As was above discussed, Confucian concept of goodness
is not a normal concept, a determinate concept. Rather it might be called a complementary concept : the relation of courtesy (禮) and music(樂).
Furthermore Confucius manifests the dialectical unity of goodness saying that “goodness is to conquer self and turn to courtesy” and saying soon afterwards “goodness is to love men”. (analects Bk.12 Ch.1, Ch.22) 1 顔淵問仁. 子曰, “克己復禮爲仁. 22 樊遲問仁. 子曰, “愛人.”
In the former phrase goodness means moral, which contains courtesy and etiquette. Moral is the widest concept of social rules. Moral opposes to instinct, desire and emotion. The ego (me) is generally a bundle of desires. In this respect Confucius regards the goodness as moral. “克己復禮爲仁.
However in the latter phrase Confucius says that “goodness is to love men”. (analects Bk.12 Ch.22) 22 樊遲問仁. 子曰, “愛人.”
Love is the most intrinsic feeling of man. Therefore the goodness of Conficius refers to feeling, liking and inclination. In other context the goodness sticks together with pleasure or enjoyment.
In this regard the goodness of Confucius can imply the (dialectical) unity of moral and inclination in the meaning of Kant and Hegel.
Kant defined moral as subordination of liking and inclination to the practical reason i.e. moral.
Hegel’s Dialectic stands for the identity of the opposite.
From this perspective the goodness of Confucius is to be thought of (dialectical or complementary) unity of the opposite : the (dialectical) unity of virtue and pleasure.
These things point out that goodness is a dialectical unification of reason and emotion. In other words goodness is the balance between reason and emotion. Otherwise goodness can be exchanged with doctrine of the Mean.
The goodness as the unity of reason and sensibility appears again in other part of analects : “Man of goodness alone can love others, or hate others”. (analects Bk.4 Ch. 3) “唯仁者能好人, 能惡人.”
How can a man of goodenss hate others? The hatred here is not an emotional hatred. It is moral, intellectual hatred or righteous anger. The man of goodness hates the evil in a person who is bad. Therefore man of goodness alone can love others, or hate others. This matter of fact we can name dialectical unity of goodness.
4. goodness and deliberation
As above discussed, the goodness of Confucius is to be regarded as dialectical unity of the opposite.
However the goodness is originally the thing of action, praxis, therefore the nature of this unity must be investigated more specifically : In order to achieve the goodness man should behave himself wisely as well as virtuously. In this regard Confucius emphasized both virtue and wisdom. Virtue alone cannot satisfy the goodness. E.g. courage or integrity alone cannot fulfil the demand of goodness. Goodness is the unity of the opposite.
Confucius interpreted the famous brothers of virtue, Boyi and Shuqi as masters of goodness.
Boyi and Shuqi did not accept unrighteous king and fled
to the wilderness of Shouyang Mountain (首陽山), and lived on fiddlehead ferns, which was the symbol of protest against unethical regime, and lastly they starved themselves to death. These brothers have been praised for their loyalty and righteousness all the time through Chinese history.
However the estimate and understanding of Confucius about the brothers are somewhat different from usual judgment.
The Master said, “Boyi and Shuqi did not remembered the former wickedness of men in mind, and hence the resentments towards them were few”. (analects Bk.5 Ch.22)
If the virtuous brothers really ignored and forgot the wrongdoing of unethical king they needed not flee to the mountain. To forget the formal wickedness and milden the resentment is however goodness by Confucius.
In this regard the goodness is thought of as a morality combined with life.
Contrary to his successors Confucius did not neglect the value of individual life and pleasure in front of the virtue.
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