| Abstract |
The contemporary interpretations of Confucianism through western ethics have mainly two directions: the one is the interpretation of Aristotle’s virtue doctrine constructed by Yu Jiyuan,（余紀元） and the other is the earlier interpretation of Kant’s deontology constructed by Mou Zongsan（牟宗三）. Yu’s interpretation fails in pushing Confucius back to the Han tradition to explain Yi through suitability. Lao Siguang（勞思光） solves this problem by explaining Yi through legitimacy as a norm. Contrary to N. Noddings who puts emotion before reason, Lao Siguang interprets Confucianism by devaluing emotion. Neither of them can explain the concept of moral responsibility, because the latter makes a norm powerless, while the former makes emotion directionless. However, Mou Zongsan’s interpretation of Confucian deontology can solve this moral concept in his unity of emotion and norm, the concept of moral autonomy by Mou expresses the Confucian understanding of human moral nature. However, these concepts originated from Confucius rather than Mencius mentioned by Mou. This paper rediscovers Confucius’s contribution in this regard, which human nature is not an Aristotle’s common characteristic mentioned by Yu Jiyuan, but is understood as a concept of autonomous action defined through a feeling of respect, human being is the subject of this action. |
