การศึกษาเชิงวิเคราะห์เรื่องความดีในปรัชญาจีนสมัยโบราณ / มาลี ศรีเพชรภูมิ = An analytical study of the concept of goodness in ancient Chinese philosophy / Malee Sipechpoom
This analytical study of "The Concept of Goodness" in Ancient Chinese Philosophy is intended : 1. To show the attitudes of the various philosophers towards "the concept of goodness". 2. To examine the inspirational background which was responsible for producing these ideas. 3. To consider the similarities and differences of opinion which exist among the various schools. The results, of this analytical study show that it was the social turmoil and perpetual state of war which existed in Ancient China that largely determined the ideas of the philosophers. At that time China was divided into small, separate states which were constantly vying with each other for power - the consequent lack of peace and stability inspired a common goal among philosopherระ namely, the creation of an Ideal Society. However, since each philosopher was free to develop and express his own individual ideas, the manner in which this "common goal" would be attained reflects their independence of thought. The various ideas on how to create an Ideal Society thus match on some points, differ on others and are contradictory on others again. Nonetheless, it is possible to summarise the various ideas. The ideas on "the concept of goodness" of the Ancient Chinese philosophers can be seen to fall into three schools which have the following main characteristics : 1. Humanism The main idea in Humanism is to "improve" all the individual who comprise the society - to make these individuals "virtuous" It is believed that in this way the Ideal Society itself can be achieved. The most important philosophers of this school are Confucians. Their- main teaching is that people should be humanitarian and honest and that each person should accept his own particular responsibilities and duties and live up to them. For this school, "goodness" is not only something objective, existing "out there" - it can also be seen. One can see "goodness" through the examples of virtuous men who have lived in the past (for example, in the lives of the Philosopher-Kings of the past) Further, they believe that the Ideal Society has already existed - in the past. To become a virtuous person one has to follow the example of virtuous people of the past and one has to practice their ways. In order to judge whether or not a person in the present is virtuous, we have to compare that person to the virtuous men of the past. (This means that these "past persons" have established the standard of virtue against which all other people can be assessed.) So the main idea of this school is that all the individuals who make up the society should help- to build a virtuous society - the same sort-of society which the Ancient Chinese Philosopher-Kings Yao and Shun successfully built. NB One important philosopher who doesn’t belong to the Confucians but who nevertheless had the same sort of ideas is Mo, Tzu . He also praised ancient society as being the "Ideal Society" - however, he had one idea which did not coincide with those of the Confucians : Mo Tzu advocated "universal love" whereas the Confucians do not even mention this. 2. Naturalism It is Taoism that advocates a simple way of life and the natural order of things. This school’s idea of goodness emphasised that goodness is to be found in nature and that virtuous people should follow the principle of Wu-Wei ie they should not do anything which is opposite to the way of nature. Evil is seen as being any attempt to interfere with nature. Hence the development of civilization, culture and affluence ( in the pursuit of which Man has been, engaged since the beginning of history) are not the goals which should have been sought - the reason being that these things corrupt the beauty and goodness of nature. Hence the concept of goodness in this school is different from the concept of goodness in Humanism - especially as far as the building of civilization is concerned. A man who attempts to change nature in order to satisfy his own desire is not regarded as a good human being. A good man is one who attempts to unite himself with nature. The Ideal Society is one in which people live together in a natural, primitive environment. It is not essential to have a "ruler" and "ruled", but if this is deemed to be necessary then the "ruler" and "ruled" should live together in peace - without oppression and without exploitation. The way of life should be simple - with no weapons to be used as a mean of gaining power. 3. Traditionalism. The philosophers of this school, such as Man-Fei-Tzu believe that the Ideal Society can only be realised through Law. They believe that it is unrealistic to rely on people being virtuous voluntarily (as in the teachings of the Confucians) - this is because people have an inclination to do bad things rather than good things, which in turn causes disorder and turmoil in society. However, if there are "good" laws (ie. just and effective laws) with harsh penalties for offenders and attractive rewards for those who abide by the law, then people in society would be "dis-suaved" from breaking the law and would be inclined instead to behave as model citizens. This school of thought does not accept that people should return to a way-of-life as lived by their fore-fathers - this is because society itself has experienced a lot of changes. This school argues that to believe that it is possible to revive the past is just a phantasy - it would be impossible to do this. They also argue that to ask people live a simple life - as Taoism recommends - is impossible because human beings have chanced to such an extent that they can no longer return to their original state. Hence, goodness - or being of good person - is not important for this School. It is good, strong, effective laws - which provide justice for everyone - that are the best means which a ruler can employ in order to achieve the Ideal. Society. Conclusion Although each and every School has different means of achieving the goal of the Ideal Society and the Chinese study all these ideas - they choose to act on only those that they can apply to everyday life. This is because the Ideal Society can never really be achieved through these teachings.
