A Study Of Liang Shuming’s Theory Of Mind

This article is to dredge and evaluate Liang Shuming’s Dispositional Structure as well asits evolution and key points. Liang Shuming pointed out in the comparative research ofeastern and western culture and philosophy that the theory of dispositional conception was thefoundation of every philosophical school. And thus he determined to make a specialized studyof dispositional conception, and this study depended much on the book The Heart and Life.The prime motivation of his study is to positively elucidate the doctrine of Confucius, and theresearch of eastern and western ideology is just a point of penetration. After the publication ofthe book Eastern and Western Cultures and Philosophies. Liang Shuming realized that thebook did not make it clear of Confucius’ psychology, instead it based on the prevailing schoolof instinctive psychology to explain the ideas and doctrines of Confucius, thus it’s was totallywrong. On the other hand, this self-reflection made him realized that every psychologicaltheory has to be based on a psychology. Therefore the plan of writing The Heart and Lifecame into being, and the author expected it to be his most famous work. Which means LiangShuming’s philosophical exploration began to focus on Dispositional StructureThis article put Eastern and Western Cultures and Philosophies (1921), Essence ofChinese Culture (1949) and The Heart and Life (1984) as a clue, dredged the evolution ofDispositional Structure as well as attributed eastern culture to the sphere of instinct andwestern culture to the sphere of rationalism. The theoretical performance of this model is:firstly, departure from life conation，it put forward that the difference of the three culturaldirections；Secondly，In philosophical thought，it Concluded that western developed theoryof knowledge is based on the spirit of science and Confucius’ metaphysics is based onintuitionism. After that, Liang Shuming Put forwarded the trichotomy of Instinct, reason andrationality, and Rational representatived the content of the human affection freed from animalinstinct. The content of rational was selfless affection, in addition, rational also was thefoundation of Chinese Philosophy’s dispositional This idea was briefly summarized in thebook Essence of Chinese Culture. Specialized topics of the book The Heart and Life wasdispositional, and this topic represented Liang Shuming’s last understanding on this issue. The rational was core areas of the dispositional. Liang Shuming’s general idea of analysis in thehuman hind used the theory of evolution as a model, and he indicated that biologicalpsychology evolved from instinct to reason, then the rationality, and rationality was unique tohumans, was the highest spiritual form of life in the universe. Firstly, Liang Shuming usedMao Zedong’s On Protracted War to invent the concept of "initiative", and revealed thecharacteristic of the people’s domination. Secondly, from the relationships between man andhis body, and between man and nature, society, Liang Shuming revealed the meaning ofconsciousness and the significance of human life. Instinct come from heredity, wasaccompanied into the way of life. Reason was a newcomer in “anti-instinct tendency”. Reasonas a function of human mind, its main function was to form knowledge, and to beyond thesimple, primitive instincts restriction of impulsive behavior by it. Reason was still in thecategory of the instinct, and was still a mean of survival of mankind, only it and Instinct in theopposite direction. The limitation of instinct was that it was dominated by the two majorproblems of survival and reproduction all its life, and was short of autonomy of life. The heartstarted from reason to calm situation, and then got rid of two major problems of the instinct ofself-survival and reproduction of racial. In such a situation, the heart produced Consciousness,and rational mind also appeared simultaneously. Reason produced knowledge, and rationalitybrought about emotion. Rationality was the body, and reason was the use. But the rationalemotion beyond the instinctive personal relationships. Selfless affection was rationality, andalso was the heart. The reason why people were people lied in the heart. Then Liang Shumingtalked about life in view of the heart, the life and the heart were one thing. Lastly, LiangShuming’s "Rituals" was the end-result of the heart. The theory of dispositional conceptionwas an important part of the modern school of Neo-Confucianism, Liang Shuming was thefirst man in this area. But he was short of philosophical methodology, and lacked clearexplanatory framework, Therefore, the trichotomy of the theory of dispositional conceptionhas many misinterpretations.