Abstract

My dissertation concerns aspects of early Confucian ethics as found in the Analects, the collected sayings of Confucius , and the Mencius, the book of Mencius . I show, in chapter one, that the fundamental religious/philosophical orientation of the Analects is revealed in the experience of "learning" , which, on the one hand, must be understood on the background of a peculiar act of negation found in the Feng poems of the Book of Odes, and which, on the other hand, determines Confucius' notion of "humanity" . In chapters two and three I show that the restraining function of the "rituals" in the Analects must be understood within the scope of the dynamic equilibrium between transgression and prohibition in the "learning" experience. Furthermore, I argue that the measure inherent in the notions of "thinking" and the "right" and in the implicit view of choice and judgement in the Analects in important ways differs from the measure inherent in practical reasoning of the Aristotelian kind. Finally I point to an important function of speech in the Analects: I show that the word passed from Master to disciple institutes, binds and transforms. In chapter four I show that the basic religious/philosophical orientation of the Mencius is revealed in the experience of the "heart of compassion" , which, on the one hand, can be understood in terms of the experience of the sacrifice, and which, on the other hand, is the basis for the Mencian notion of "humanity" . In chapter five I show that the measure inherent in the Mencian notions of "thinking" , the "right" , "wisdom" , "weighing" and extending, in important ways differs from the measure inherent in Aristotelian practical reasoning. I further argue that Mencian discourse gains its perfectionist thrust by distancing itself from practical reasoning. Finally, I show that the ultimate goal of Mencian discourse, like speech in the Analects, is to institute and transform