This paper maintains that Confucian moral philosophy takes the inner goodness of an individual as the very basis of philosophizing. With a community forming the world of man’s existence, the execution of an individua...This paper maintains that Confucian moral philosophy takes the inner goodness of an individual as the very basis of philosophizing. With a community forming the world of man’s existence, the execution of an individual’s moral principles in the community is the way to manifest his existence. As the general harmony of a community is upheld as a value orientation of goodness, the realization of humanity which brings all things under heaven as a unity is its ultimate goal. In the process of approaching to such a universal humanity, an individual’s inner awareness of himself as a moral subject is the prerequisite to adequate expression of his existence, and the recognition of other individuals as moral subjects in the community is essential if moral principles are to be extensively implemented. While the domain of the value of goodness extends in accordance with the expansion of the existence world, a systematized Confucian social-natural “ethical ecology” is formed that is tied together by the moral subject’s practices. From affection for family to that for the universe, from the preliminary community of the family to the universal community of “under-heaven”, the process is an ongoing development of an individual’s world of existence, and is also a continual expansion of his moral world as well.展开更多
文摘This paper maintains that Confucian moral philosophy takes the inner goodness of an individual as the very basis of philosophizing. With a community forming the world of man’s existence, the execution of an individual’s moral principles in the community is the way to manifest his existence. As the general harmony of a community is upheld as a value orientation of goodness, the realization of humanity which brings all things under heaven as a unity is its ultimate goal. In the process of approaching to such a universal humanity, an individual’s inner awareness of himself as a moral subject is the prerequisite to adequate expression of his existence, and the recognition of other individuals as moral subjects in the community is essential if moral principles are to be extensively implemented. While the domain of the value of goodness extends in accordance with the expansion of the existence world, a systematized Confucian social-natural “ethical ecology” is formed that is tied together by the moral subject’s practices. From affection for family to that for the universe, from the preliminary community of the family to the universal community of “under-heaven”, the process is an ongoing development of an individual’s world of existence, and is also a continual expansion of his moral world as well.
