Chinese Philosophy of Human Nature

It is too simplistic to say without equivocation that the Chinese philosophers or the North American people believe that man is inherently good or not inherently good. For example, the pre-eminent Chinese philosopher, Confucius, can hardly be said to believe simply that man is inherently good, but it is nevertheless safe to say, in general, that Confucius did have a positive view of human nature.

The North American view, generally rooted in European beliefs, holds that human nature is good, but that goodness will not occur or dominate without effort and guidance from both other human beings and from God.

In general, the Chinese view is that human beings need social guidance and traditions --- rooted in the family structure --- to exercise the goodness in themselves. The basic philosophic or religious view of the North American whose roots are in Europe is a Judeo-Christian view which sees man as inherently good, as long as man is united consciously with God. For example, as Hubbard writes in his study of Quakers, the human being's goodness is a matter of the presence of God within that individual. Clearly, the individual who d

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ch Western philosophers as Hobbes, whose rational philosophy attempted to diminish the destructive elements of the individualism which tends to emphasize the selfish or evil part of man (Smith, 1965, p. 151). Social, civil and criminal laws were seen by Hobbes as necessary to diminish this individualistic, selfish tendency in the West. North America has essentially adopted this attitude. To Confucius, on the other hand, the answer rests in the family, not in coercive laws. To Confucius and the Chinese philosophers who drew their ideas from him, the resort to force to encourage the good in man was a sign of failure. As Smith writes, None of the rival answers to the problem of social coherence looked promising to Confucius. He rejected the Realists' answer of force because it was clumsy and external. Force defined by law can regulate the grosser dealings between men but is too crude to enter the subtleties of the day-to-day, face-to-face exchanges that constitute life's substance . . . Confucius . . . assumed that the mind must always operate in a context of attitudes and emotions that are conditioned by the individual's relationships with his group, and that unless his experiences in the latter area dispose him to coopera
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Approximate Word count = 1830
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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