An Exploration Of The Moral Motivation On Xunzi

Moral motivation is a core issue in ethics.It is not only related to agent's moral judgments and actions,but also closely related to human psychology.In the inquiry of issue of moral motivation,the basic approach of Western scholars centre on desires and beliefs to explain this problem.Although the pre-Qin Confucians did not directly pay attention to this issue,their understanding of moral motives is mainly included in the theory of human nature.In Xunzi's moral theory,the question of moral motive is essentially a question of how to transformate the inborn nature and develope the acquired nature.In response to the issue of Xunzi's moral motivation,Bryan W.Van Norden,David B Wong,T.C.Kline III,and Dong Fangshuo come up with different views.Bryan W.Van Norden regards that "Xin zhi Suo ke" plays a key role in the process of creation of moral motives.David B Wong insists that desire is the sole motivation of agent's actions and the ultimate source of moral motivation.T.C.Kline III think that " Xin zhi Suo ke " and "desire" are two independent and incompletely separated motive mechanisms.Therefore,moral motivation is not simply production of "desire" or " a force of heartmind",but it is a More complex existence.Dong Fangshuo emphasise that the concept of moral motivation has two stages,namely,the stage that the period before ritual civilization and the stage that the period after ritual civilization.My viewpoint holds that in the motive mechanism of Xunzi,the heart-mind is the only master of agent's action,and it can determine the realization of our action,but its decision-making ability is based on “Zhi” and “Lv” of the heart-mind;And desire is only a reason for agent's action,it cannot independently make agent to take action.