On Mencius And His Virtue Ethics

From the tWentieth cenop O4 the develOPmen of ethecal theOryhas gone W three stages such as metMcs(ME), nonnaiveethecs(NE) and virtue ethecs(VE). In resPonse to VE rising in the ethecalacadeInic eircles of the west this thesis fOcuses itS attenon on theedrical thought of Mencius, especiaIly his VE. PrOceeding frOIn thecOmParison between the NE and VE, the author giVes a brief account ofWcins' system, and attachs haPortance to his main ideas of VE. As aresult, our modem society could be benefited frOIn Mencthe' theory ofWi.Because NE has found itself in a hgh comer in modem society it.is qulte necessny fOr us tO seek the signiflcance of VE from the ethecaltheory The westem trchion of VE strtd frOm AristOtel's system as itsveq beginning, While China's frOIn the original Confucibosm. ThedevelOPing course of the ethical system frOIn XbZhou(the Westem ZhouDynsty) tO Confucius shOW that the thinking about the concePt thehas been in the field of vision of man scholars, especially thoseCochcian WerS dtw the period betwee COchcnd and Mencius.JuSt based on the above thcorecal pmparatio and the histOricaibaCkgrund of BaWZheWa hundred schools of thoughtcontentiOn in addition, Menius cOuld at last consmict a comParatielyperfect sySthe of VE.The problem of "hOw tO cultiVate a morai person', Which is mallydiscussed in VE, involves at firSt the basis of human natUr. The proofof the goodness of hUInan natUr by Mencins which is the stheg pointof his VE, is on the basis of the wi of an natUre andfOtw. He revaled all kinds of innate moral charaters eInbodied inhuman natUr, and Wrmore exPOUnded the dyntalc aspect ofconscience, so that the conscious dyntalc role of subject could beunfOlded and its moral idea changd into reality As a character innate inhUman being, tw nO Ouly regards the goodness of humall being as itSbasis, but it is also combined with the SUbect itself as a whty ofpercePtioll, emohon and wili. In Mencius' systop the interpretationfrom manysided perspectives makes his VE Obtained a realisticfoundation.The differece between VE and NE also lies in that the SUbectiveconscience could be aroused in the former Mencius exPlained that thehannony of vboe and moral actions by revealing the boanen Ren-twboty and ObligatiOn, the unity of tw and reason, and thehannony of inOtive and consequence. As a practical achon by the subjecLthe vboe could not be divorced frOIn the normative rtiles. The personwhO idenified himself With the rules willingly should obey the norms inthe dally life, then he could get a selfsufficien moal mood in the end.All these series of deinonstrations above are the most twOrtan partS fOrthe subject to testify VE,Which is discussed fully by Mencius.VE of Mencins paid Won to the boty of tw and norm,which can llO dO withou the positive role of the culforal training, and soWcius stressed the point that the moral actions by the subject itSelfshOuld be a presuPposition of the cultUral training. Just based on ZhengJi so called in Chinsetwch means a person of intogrity,a goodpolitics and wt education could be possible, but the PrOblem abOuthe cultufal training Which is, develOPed as a course of every daypractices was not discussed sufficientiy by Mencthe.The cultivion of a morai person as an dri of VE is nOt Ouly aconfamatinn of personallty pthection, but the ultimate end of thesubjects whO tend to cOninuOusly reach the ideal trius realIn. In theligh of the innate foundainn of a morai person advOcated by MenciuS,V'E considers the dOctrine of "eVeryone could become YaO and Shun(twOsages in ancien tims befOre COMicius)" as itS ultAnate ideal,corresPonding tO Which. Wcius' theOry aboul the vtri realIn andhis opforon of the relations between trie and haPpiness, hUInan natUrand fotw, etc. enriched the theory of ''hOW tO culhvate a mtalperson". ms theory shOuld be histOrically erplained as a proAnse toperfect the Whole hUInan beingS in m...