Innate goodness

Innate goodness
Chinese	性善论
Transcriptions

Innate goodness is a view of human nature that holds that human nature tends to be good and that it is easier to do good than to be evil. There are different schools of thought under the theory of goodness of nature, including the theory that nature is good, and The Theory of Goodness in Human Nature.

Also the idea that The streets are full of saints as said by Wang Yangming

The first person to talk about "human nature" was Confucius ("human nature is similar, and habit is distant." The Analects of Confucius‧Yangxiu), but Confucius did not explicitly state that human nature is good or evil. However, Confucius did not explicitly state that nature is good or evil. Mencius spoke of nature in terms of goodness, pointing out that benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom are the ends of human natural goodness, that is, the four ends of the heart. Mencius speaks of "heart," not only as a manifestation of behavior, not only as a cultivation, but also as a place where human nature originates, where it develops, where it begins, where one can realize the goodness of one's nature, the brightness of one's inner heart. Mencius looked for the root, the original heart, in the beginning, so Mencius is the theory of establishing the foundation. The theory of the goodness of nature and the four ends of the mind were also praised and spread by the Japanese Confucian thinker Ito Inzai of the Edo period.

Human nature theory of goodness or simply theory of goodness is an interpretation of Confucianism thought proposed by Taiwanese historian of philosophy Fu Pei-Jung. It is an interpretation of Confucianism, which is based on the Confucian view of the goodness of nature, and emphasizes the power of human nature to demand goodness. The theory of human nature is that since human beings are always changing, it is not appropriate to say "what human nature is", but rather "what human nature requires me to be".The theory of goodness in human nature asserts that there is a force in human nature that requires the subject to do good, and that the heart is not at ease if it does not do good.

Chinese

Confucianism

The Confucianism of Mencius, a representative of Confucianism, held the opposite view that human nature is originally good; the Xunzi, also a Confucianist, held the opposite Innate evilness, believing that human nature is originally evil and that "its goodness is It is the result of acquired education to be good. However, some people think that Mencius' theory of natural goodness does not explicitly and directly claim that human nature is inherently good, and that "natural goodness" is a way of pointing out (or emphasizing) that there is goodness in human nature and that it has a good side.

The Goodness of Nature and the Four Ends of Mind

The first person to talk about "nature" was Confucius ("Nature is similar, and habits are distant." The Analects of Confucius‧Yang Stuff), but Confucius did not explicitly state that nature is good or evil. However, Confucius did not explicitly state that nature is good or evil. Mencius spoke of nature in terms of goodness, pointing out that benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom are the ends of goodness, which is the four virtues. Mencius speaks of "heart", not only as a manifestation of behavior, not only as a cultivation, but also as a place where human nature originates, where it develops, where it begins, and where one realizes the goodness of one's nature, the brightness of one's inner heart. Mencius looked for the root, the original heart, in the beginning, so Mencius is the theory of establishing the foundation. The view of the theory of the goodness of nature and the four endings of the heart was also praised and spread by the Confucian thinker Itō Jinsai of Japan in the Edo period.His writings on the goodness of human nature include statements such as.

Everyone has a heart that does not tolerate people. The first king had the heart of intolerant people, so he had the government of intolerant people. With the heart of intolerant people, the government of intolerant people, ruling the world can be transported to the palm of the hand. This is why it is said that all people have a heart that does not tolerate people. Nowadays, when people first see a child going into a well, they are all fearful and compassionate, not so that they can make friends with the child's parents, not so that they can be honored by their friends in the village, not so that they are disgusted by his voice. From this point of view, it is not human to be without compassion; it is not human to be without shame and disgrace; it is not human to be without resignation; it is not human to be without right and wrong. The heart of compassion is the end of benevolence; the heart of shame is the end of righteousness; the heart of resignation is the end of propriety; the heart of right and wrong is the end of wisdom. A man has these four ends, just as he has four bodies. He who has these four ends and says he cannot, is also a thief; he who says his ruler cannot, is also a thief. All those who have the four ends in me, know that they are all expanded and filled. As the fire begins, the spring begins to reach. If I can fill it, I can protect the four seas; if I do not, I cannot serve my parents.

--Mencius - Gong Sun Chou Shang

The heart of compassion is in all men; the heart of shame is in all men; the heart of respect is in all men; the heart of right and wrong is in all men. The heart of compassion is benevolence; the heart of shame and evil is righteousness; the heart of respect is propriety; the heart of right and wrong is wisdom.

--Mencius - On the Suozi

Zhu Xi

Zhu Xi has developed on the basis of Mencius' theory of natural goodness, but has also changed. Zhu Xi advocates that 'natural goodness' is originally good, but the human desire for evil emerges later in life, so it is necessary to 'preserve the natural reason and destroy the human desire'.

Universal

The first sentence of the Three Character Classic, a popular enlightenment book in Zhong Yuan, is "At the beginning of man, nature is good"; this seems to be the view of the common literati and Old People. The scholar Luo Si-guang believes that the traditional Chinese literati were overly optimistic about human nature and failed to set up various checking power measures as the West did, thus failing to eradicate corrupt officials for thousands of years.。

Western

Adam Smith

The Western economist Adam Smith believed that human beings are good, naturally concerned with the fate of others, and endowed with empathy or compassion. He argued that 'however selfish one may think a person may be, there is always evident in that person's nature some such nature which makes him care for the fate of others and regard their happiness as his own, though he has nothing to gain but the pleasure of seeing them happy. This nature is pity or sympathy, the feelings that arise when we see or realistically imagine the misfortunes of others. That we often feel sad for the sorrows of others is an obvious fact, and needs no example to prove it. This emotion, like all other primitive feelings in human nature, is by no means confined to persons of high character, though they may feel it most keenly in this respect. The greatest villains, the most serious violators of the laws of society, do not lose all sympathy.'

Rousseau

The French Enlightenment thinker Rousseau believed that in primitive times, people had nothing, were ignorant and free, but at the same time had no social nature, were pure, good, and would not oppress each other, so human nature was inherently good, born with freedom, reason and conscience, and if they received naturalism education, and the development of obedience, one can become a good person and realize a good society.

Other philosophers

• John Locke
• Pelagius

Criticism

The theory of the goodness of human nature is not fully compatible with the Song and Ming traditions of Confucian Psychology, and it is contrary to the advocates of the theory of the goodness of human nature such as Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming, which has been criticized and opposed by some scholars in the academic world.。　

See Also

• Innate evilness
• A Treatise of Human Nature

• Absence of malice
• Good
• Human nature
• Innate
• Innate cruelty
• Noble savage
• Problem of evil
• Sade and Rousseau
• State of nature

References

• 張岱年《中國哲學大綱》，中社會科學出版社
• 朱熹《四書章句集注》

External Links

• 人性本善找到科學根據
• 日本京都大學實驗「人性本善」 （页面存档备份，存于）
• 科學家研究稱“人性本善” 嬰幼兒具有道德判斷 （页面存档备份，存于）
• 李明輝：〈康德的「根本惡」說──兼與孟子的性善說相比較 （页面存档备份，存于）〉。

研究書目

• 徐復觀：《中國人性論史　先秦篇》，臺北：臺灣商務，1988年。
• 錢穆：《中國思想史》，臺北：蘭臺出版社，2001年。
• 傅佩榮：《儒家哲學新論》，臺北：聯經，2010年。
• 蒙培元：《中國心性論》，台北：台灣學生書局,1990年。
• 姜國柱，朱葵菊：《中國人性論史》，鄭州市：河南人民出版社，1997年。

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