Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Trying to Understand Humaneness
After our class discussion yesterday, I am left with many questions as I try to define humaneness from Confucius' perspective. Does action precede humaneness or does humaneness influence one's actions? As a class, we did not have a clear answer. I think this is because both can be justified. From Confucius' point of view as a leader, the idea of humaneness was probably devised to create stability and a moral code for his people. So, in that case, humaneness precedes action. Humaneness is a standard for behavior that in order for society to thrive, everyone must adhere to. We discussed self reflection and self awareness. Professor Vaught said, "Well those are two very different things." At first, this confused me because the two aren't that distinct from each other. I thought about it some more and did find some differences. Self reflection happens after the action, after the good or bad deed, or behavior has happened. Self awareness goes alongside the action. If either of these complement humaneness, it would be self awareness because if behavior is not monitored in the moment, one will likely disobey the principles. Self awareness is similar to self discipline, which one must have in order to adhere to humaneness.
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I agree with the fact that both can be justified. I also agreed with Rachel's idea of it being like a "cycle", because both ideas essentially feed off of each other. At first I thought action preceded humaneness, but then I thought about the instances where the actions are only made because of a certain character/attitude, instead of that character being built due to an action. The drive and source of the action is that "humaneness" in people. But as we see in Confucius' teachings, humaneness isn't something innate per say, and is kind of shaped through conduct. In which case, since humaneness is something that has to be disciplined or followed, I would say action always precedes humaneness.
ReplyDeleteI like your description and the point you made about humaneness. Still though I don't necessarily think it stems from the actions a person commits to doing, but rather the individual himself - the natural mentality that a person grew up with. Even Confucius remarks how he "the master" was not a gentlemen, which thus concludes that he was not a humane person. A person can work towards humaneness, but they are never going to reach it. The only ones that would reach that level of thought would be those that practiced and were born with the quality.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Wendell that humaneness comes from what has been passed down to an individual though I disagree with the fact that an individual can only achieve humaneness if they are 'born with the quality'. I believe that anything that is not genetic can not be 'born with'. I often think to the example religion. We are not born with the ideas and the rituals of our religion, they are taught to us as we go up or we see them being conducted by people around us.
ReplyDeleteAs for the achieving humaneness, I believe it is achievable but as we discussed in class it is an abstraction and that we are working towards the idea of good that could lead to humaneness.
When I first started my powerpoint, I used to think that humaneness was an attainable goal, outlined by my diagram as a single, straight "path". However, after our class discussions how humaneness is an abstraction, I agree with everyone how humaneness is more of an on-going process. With that said, I have to contradict my original idea and say that I don't think action precedes humaneness or vice-versa. If I have to re-do my diagram, I would create a cycle, since I believe that one can act humanely to another person, one is susceptible to mistakes, one identify that mistake, corrects it, and keeps refining himself or herself. This cycle can be applied to the metaphor we posed in class of 'heath', as there is no end game, but it is rather a 'how' than a 'what'.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think humaneness includes everything that everyone has said, both on this thread and in class. It stems from not only the mindset and desire to be humane, but also in the actions one commits in order to reach the 'higher level' of humaneness, similar to self-actualization in Maslow's hierarchy of needs. This higher level may be what Confucius considers a "gentleman"; someone who has already traveled far down the Way. The origin of humaneness, however, needs to stem from the desire to do good-- and then the actions based on that desire. However, that desire must be a true desire for all correct intents, rather than a superficial desire to do good. But then, it follows to assume that if one originally had this desire (nature vs. nurture!), he will have already lived his life according to one form or another of the Way.
ReplyDeleteWhile the many personal forms of the Way exist due to nurture and one's upbringing, one must naturally have the true desire to do good. With that said, are there multiple forms of the Way? Is humaneness just a circle that connects the stem of itself to the end goal (i.e. self-actualization)? If so, are people naturally humane, or do they need to learn to be?
Amy Shih
(Sorry, I tried to make this comment into a blogpost but couldn't figure out how... so I made it into a comment on a similar blogpost!)