Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.3, 2013

A Mental Philosophical Interpretation of the Ethical and Moral Ideas in the Analects of Confucius

(Abstract)

Fan Hao

What “spiritual form” do the ethical and moral ideas of the Analects of Confucius take on? And what “Chinese traditions” have they opened up? A mental philosophical interpretation of the Analects of Confucius reveals that the book takes “rite” and “benevolence” as its basic concepts, and presents the “mentally-disposed” discourse of ethics and morality. It has established a mental philosophy that takes the basic model of “self-restraint and returning to rites being benevolence,” and that is based on the dialectical interactions between the ethical world of “rite” and the moral world of “benevolence,” while rising above the contradictions of two worlds through “self-restraint.” It has engendered a “Chinese form” of mental philosophy characterized by ethical-moral integration and the priority of ethics, in which the contradiction between individual perfection and social perfection becomes an inherent “Chinese problem.” The mental philosophical interpretation not only represents a mental philosophical discovery of the Analects of Confucius, but also demonstrates its “spiritual home” significance to Chinese ethics and morality.