Knowledge And Morals

The question of relation between knowledge and morals which has ever been discussed in western philosophy is an important problem .In fact, as a basic philosophical question, it was concerned much earlier by ancient western philosophers as well as ancient eastern philosophers. Confucius' "the unity of benevolence and knowledge" opened Confucians' first page. New-Confucianism research in Song and Ming Dynasty developed the thought by interpretation and understanding of "to investigate things to acquire genuine knowledge". Nowadays, the question becomes more and more outstanding. we can perhaps gain some enlightenment from ancient Confucians' considering on the problem.Ancient Confucians' considering about knowledge and morals were confined to the subject of relation between Weixue (learning) and Weidao(pursuing the way). So, the relation between Weixue and Weidao(to learn and to pursue the way) appears as a kind of relation between knowledge and morals, as well as a kind of relation between knowledge and wisdom. Ancient Confucian scholars raised some important propositions on the problem. In the pre-Qin period, these proposition consisted(show/display) in "Four Books": "to raise oneself realm by studying thing" and "to find a constant principle by teaching and learning" from "the Analects" established the principles of the unity of benevolence and knowledge which Confucian scholars followed to become sages. "Great learning" gave the Confucian scholars concrete methods to Weixue and Weidao(learning and pursuing the way), in that, "to investigate things to acquire genuine knowledge" though giving the Confucian scholars the guide to learn to attain virtue in practical actions, it remained for late generations a large space of understanding and explanation. "What is endowed by Heaven is called the Nature; to follow theNature is called the Way" from "The Doctrine of the Mean "established the base on which people can cultivate themselves to be sages through a series of learning practice. "man has the same mind" and "completing your mind to learn nature and heaven" placed emphasis on the subjective spirit in the course of learning ,defined the mind playing the main role in the "gongfu" of learning. The relation between Weixue and Weidao were harmony in "Four Books", but in Song dynasty, the tense (strained) between them appeared. Contrasting to Buddhism neglecting practiced life in Tang dynasty, the thinker in Song dynasty commonly cared how to master the concrete things. When Chenghao and Chengyi constructed their systems of Lixue(philosophy), they explored the spirit of "to investigate things to acquire genuine knowledge" from "Great learning"; they placed the thought of "Weixue" and "Weidao" under the proposition of "investigating things to acquire reason", since then, Confucians' "gongfu" of "Weixue" and "Weidao" concentrated on the understanding and interpretation of "investigating things to acquire knowledge".Chenghao and Chengyi transformed "investigating things to acquire knowledge" from a proposition of self-cultivation into a epistemological proposition of ontology with their new interpretation and understanding, which expressed the spirit of Confucian' thinking of learning and real life highly. However, if we pay attention to the realization of the reason of real things in moral practice, it leads to the question of relation between knowledge of sense and knowledge of virtue.Zhuxi gave a classical interpretation of "investigating things to acquire knowledge" further, and established the principles, bases and programs of it. Because of his epistemological tendency of learning, his "gongfu" diverged his aim of learning. Lujiuyuan put forward a simple kind of "gongfu" of inventing "benxin", he tried to correct Zhuxi'sdeviation, but he did not eliminate ontological meaning of "li"(reason). Wangyangming realized that there was a tense between knowledge and morals in "investigating things to acquire reason" through his experience of "Ge bamboo"(investigating bamboo), he hoped to construct ontology of "Xin"(mind) to clar...