英文摘要
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Beginning with Confucius's initial doctrine of benevolence (ren), this article analyzes the attributes of its metaphysical thought and experiential thought, as the former refers to its doctrine of the heavenly way, and the latter refers to the daily application of the principles of human relationships. From the perspective of the history of philosophy, such a distinction is closely related to the post- Confucius emphases on the goodness and evilness of human nature, made respectively by Mengzi and Xunzi. These two attributes were both originally concerned with the possibilities and sources of how to encourage the minds of human beings. However, due to the distinction between the metaphysical thinking and the experiential thinking, after the time of Xunzi, such a distinction made all the major differences between the Confucianism and Legalism during the Spring-Autumn period and the Warring-State period, and this article is to analyze the context of such a change in thinking. Structure-wise, we will point to the distinctions between Confucius's thought about the heavenly way and Xunzi's thought about experiences through discussing the differences between Confucius's and Xunzi's ideas of benevolence and exploring such fundamental concepts of Confucianism as benevolence (ren) and rites (li). Then we will present some contrasts and reflections, inspecting what elements in the doctrine of benevolence could motivate one's moral practice, while reviewing also how scientific and experiential thinking criticize the traditional and metaphysical doctrine of the heavenly way.
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