The Concepts Of Human Nature As Contrasted By Xunzi And Hobbes

Since there were human beings, the concept of Human Nature has been a very important question throughout the globe. Philosophers, Scientist, Religions from West to East have come up with different conceptions of human nature, among which some have been influential some have not, some have been revised some have been declined, but only very few have been able to bring about fundamental changes in the floating direction of human life. In the history of western philosophy Thomas Hobbes material conception of human nature on which he based his political theory have been applaud and rejected by many but his influence has been great and still echoed until recent days. In China the philosophy of Xunzi have not been the main stream of Chinese thinking but his conception of human nature on which he also based his political theory have been considerable in many aspects. The philosophy of Xunzi and Hobbes both have the same starting point, namely they both held the view that human nature was originally bad in the state of nature. However Hobbes human nature theory differs from that of Xunzi in many points.Even though Xunzi believed that human nature was evil, he also believed that this nature is changeable and his final aim was to transform man's evil nature into good and all of his philosophy was serving this very propose. Hobbes, however, never considered evil human nature changeable and therefore his philosophy is not concerned with changing man's nature but to build the system around it that can keep it under control so that his provisioned catastrophe of human life can be avoided. The course of investigating the similarities and differences of Xunzi and Hobbes human nature theory has helped to reveal many of the hidden particularities of their philosophies including their periodical, historical and geographical differences. The general construction of this dissertation is as follows:Chapter one is an introduction of the whole work. Xunzi and Hobbes have been studied, analyzed and discussed by many people throughout the globe. Therefore in chapter one a thorough introduction is carried out about the areas and issues that have been brought into focus by other researchers. What makes it very particular is that, even though there have been a great number of studies carried out both on Xunzi and Hobbes and many of their ideas have been analyzed, no comparative study such as this have been conducted. Therefore in the final part of this chapter a short approach of this study is written to let the readers know how the writer approaches this study.Chapter two is a detailed introduction of the historical background of Xunzi and his life, which places him into historical context. By focusing of the history of the late Zhou dynasty during the spring and autumn period it illustrates how his life and the development of his thoughts are connected and shows a strong ties to the intellectual environment of the Hundred Schools of Thought period. The second part of the chapter walks thought the life of Hobbes and also places him into the environment of the 16-17 century. In Europe the humanism and renaissance followed by the Reformation was the beginning of a new cultural and political era, which directly led Europe into the long period of the Enlightenment. Growing out of this environment Hobbes thoughts were also influenced by the growing importance of science and technology. Finally the last part of this chapter brings in focus the differences and similarities along which this comparative study can be carried out.The first part of chapter three introduces the most important views of human nature in the field of science, philosophy and religion to give a reasonable foundation to the following parts, which, through examples from Europe and China, shows how Hobbes and Xunzi theory of human nature deviated from human nature theory (renxing) to the direction of natural human theory (renqing) and discusses their common understanding of evil human nature. The core discussion of this chapter can be found in the third section, which examines the ethical and religious elements in the evil human nature theory of Xunzi and Hobbes.The importance of rituals (li) and music (le) in the philosophy of Xunzi has been overemphasized. Therefore chapter four discusses the logical connection between Xunzi's idea of instituting rituals and music to maintain the order of the society and his theory of evil human nature. Hobbes on the other hand introduced the concept of natural law, emphasized the importance of natural right of people. Setting out from the basis of natural law, Hobbes unfolded a logical connection between evil human nature and natural law, drawing his picture all the way down to the establishment of state, which is fully analyzed and introduced in this part. Finally the chapter brings together and compares the similarities and differences between the significance of Xunzi's rituals and Hobbes'reason.Chapter five is the final conclusion of Xunzi and Hobbes theories and the massage they carry for our life today. Xuzni's proposal for instituting rituals and music by which the elimination of evil from human nature can be achieved is also emphasizing the personal effort of man, without which no success can be concluded. Hobbes however puts emphases on reason that makes man want to live in harmony among each other. Beside considering its own value of Hobbes'reason its limitation is also taken into consideration. The Common Values and Modern Implications of Xunzi's"Ritual-music"and Hobbes'science and reason is unfolded and concluded.On the whole this work is an experiment trying to bring the knowledge of the West to East and the wisdom of the East to West and make them meet somewhere half way between Asia and Europe to make our world a better place to live. There is no question about the contribution that Hobbes made to the science of philosophy not to mention his influence from the sixteenth century onwards until recent days. Due to his hard materialism, however, his idea can only be discussed and studied but never implemented, because of his denial of the possible existence of non-material things, like feelings, emotions, the very essence that makes man what he is today. Xunzi, however has never received the recognition he would have deserved in the shadow of Confucius and Laozi even though his ideas are far too obvious and applicable. His soft materialism was enough to cast him away from Confucianism, but it at least brought him closer to reality. As opposed to Hobbes, Xunzi never denied the existence of human feelings, emotions, since he believed the goodness of people. By bringing Hobbes and Xunzi ideas closer to each other, combining them, renewing them and delivering them at the foot of man, the final aim of this dissertation to let man decide whether or not it is worth learning from what these two gentlemen wanted to say.