Introduction
This assignment is a discussion on the topic of Confucianism. The thesis statement of the discussion is that Confucianism is useful in cultivating and instilling good morals in individuals and in so doing contributes to harmonious co-existence of people in society. In the discussion I will argue that individuals gain good morals through the scripture, experience, reason and traditions. I will conclude the discussion by refuting the criticism labeled against Confucianism especially by Marxists.
Discussion
Confucianism is a philosophically derived ideology which outlines the moral and ethical principles which govern the relationship of people in a society. The philosophy has its roots from the Chinese philosopher Confucius who founded it in 551 BC.
Confucianism makes the project of moral self-cultivation central to human living and offers a distinctive account of the nature of the self and of its cultivation. According to early Confucians, the essence of humanity is to live to serve other humanity with a view of creating a harmonious society (Ivanhoe and Van Norden 244).
From the Confucianism view, morality is a behavioral based approach in distinguishing and classifying actions and decisions as being good or right on one hand and bad or wrong on the other. Put simply, morality refers to what is right and what is wrong based on some specific socio-cultural environments. It is synonymous to virtues, ethics and good.
About what constitutes knowledge, Confucianism views knowledge as “a belief which is best explained by the reference to its truth” (Ivanhoe and Van Norden 244). In philosophy, moral knowledge is knowledge of what is morally good. Philosophers however tend to disagree on whether there is moral knowledge. Some elitists like Aristotle argue that there is nothing like moral knowledge, but rather “knowledge of the forms”, which means that moral knowledge is only found in those people who are trained or have studied morality.
Other philosophers of the Confucianism orientation and especially those who are inclined towards the view that there is universal knowledge about morals based on our cultural and philosophical orientations argue that it is essential to reject the elitist views of Aristotle, and base our arguments on our conscience, simply because everybody has a conscience, which directs him or her to make judgments on what is good, right, bad or wrong.
The difference of this view from the elitist one is that conscience enables everyone, regardless of whether educated on moral knowledge or not, to be able to gain moral knowledge regarding what is good, right, bad or wrong.
According to Confucianism, morality is governed by moral codes of conduct which are written down rules which govern the moral conduct of a particular group of people, who share beliefs and customs. Examples of codes of conduct are the bible for Christians and Koran for Muslims.
The opposite of morality is immorality, which are actions which can be interpreted as being opposite of what a particular group of people belief to be moral. For example, Christians believe that faithfulness and trust in marriage constitute good morals. If one commits adultery therefore, he or she is perceived as being sexually immoral.
Moral Self-Cultivation
Moral knowledge, just like any other knowledge has got its sources. Each and every one of us lives in a society, which is characterized by values, norms and ethics which are specific for that particular society. It is these values, norms and ethics which make every one of us direct his or her conscience to comply with the expectations of the society.
It is important to mention here that a person’s conscience may go against what is considered to be good by many people within a particular social setting. This act of going against what is considered to be good by the society is what constitutes immorality within a particular social setting, even though it may be relative because it may depend on the reasons which make an individual commit or engage in such actions.
Even though there are the standard forms of behavior and actions governing our conduct in the society, it is important to acknowledge the fact that what may constitute good behavior in society A may constitute a bad behavior in society B.
As I have already mentioned that everyone lives in a society, the society itself may be seen as the main source of moral knowledge because people get moral knowledge through various experiences in the society, reasoning in regard to the prevailing societal norms, religion and tradition, all of which are either directly linked to the society or are part of the society itself.
Confucianism explains what constitutes knowledge and how morality is acquired within a society. According to Confucians, there are four ways in which morality can be acquired namely from traditions, the scripture, experience and reason. These are discussed below.
The scripture
One way through which we cultivate morals is through the Scripture. By this, I mean the various religious doctrines, books or publications which talk about God or gods. Everybody has at least an idea about the existence of a supreme creature, which is above all other creatures, and is behind the existence of all other creatures and the creation of the earth and the world. This is what is referred to as God.
God is the central theme in any religion, meaning that each and every religion outlines rules of conduct for those who belief in that faith. Both the bible and the Koran outline what the followers should adhere to, and thus the two may be seen as moral codes, because they shape the morality of the followers of those faiths. For example, the Christian faith is based on the Ten Commandments, which were given to Moses by God himself.
Those who subscribe to the Christian faith therefore follow the Ten Commandments as their guidance in their moral conduct by observing things like respect for older persons, not to steal, not to kill among others. Those who commit acts opposite to these are therefore considered to be morally wrong.Those who are not Christians on the other hand follow their doctrines as guidance to good moral conduct while those who do not have any religious doctrines are guided by their conscience regarding what is good, right, bad or wrong.
Reason
Every action is triggered by a reason. This means that many of our actions are based on some reasons and some realities. The big question is whether the reasons are genuine or not. The aspect of reason is synonymous to conscience; which can be seen as the basis upon which we base our actions, behavior and thinking.
One person may prefer steeling instead of borrowing money while the other may prefer borrowing to stealing. Even though the two are reacting to a similar problem of lack of money, they have different consciences, which lead them to meet their need using different ways.
The question of whether one is right or wrong or who is right or wrong may become debatable because we may not know the beliefs under which the conscience of the two were based, and whether the beliefs were true or not, but one thing we know is that both acted as per their conscience, which may have been based on true or untrue beliefs. The interpretation of their actions as either moral or immoral depends on our socio-cultural orientations.
Experience
Since we live in a social world, it constantly keeps on influencing our behavior, actions and thinking towards various social phenomena. This is what I refer to as experience. The ideas of John Locke, who argued that we are born as a tabula rasa, meaning that we are open to absorb what is within our socio-cultural environments explains how experience can be a source of moral knowledge. What we experience greatly shapes our morals.
If we undergo through tough life conditions like war or civil strife, we may find our self not caring much about killing other people, because we have witnessed others be killed any way as opposed to situations where by we are not exposed to such experiences.
If we live in a country where we experience a lot of official corruption, we may see nothing wrong with being involved in it because we would have either participated in it in one way or another or we would have benefited from the same. Experience can therefore enable us develop some ideas about moral knowledge.
Tradition
Culture and traditions greatly influence our understanding and acquisition of moral knowledge. Each culture and tradition has got its teaching about what is acceptable as good behavior and what is not acceptable. The morals are passed on from generation to the other through birth and assimilation as well as acculturation.
Even though they keep on changing, each generation is able to have a chance to gain some moral knowledge from the culture and traditions of that community, which increases commonness and makes the community members, have a sense of solidarity as they acquire and share similar morals and moral knowledge.
Confucianism has however attracted criticism from various quarters in the manner in which it presents individuals as teachable, perfectible and improvable. For instance, Marxists argue that the ideology of Confucianism is a fallacy used by the elite in the society to oppress the poor.
They go to the extent of blaming it for the oppression and exploitation of the poor before the era of revolutions and also during the cold war, arguing that it created an ample environment for the rich to exploit the ‘humble poor’. They cite the contention by Confucianism that ‘human beings should live in harmony with each other’, as the one which was used by the bourgeoisies to exploit their subjects, who did not question the basis of the exploitation so as to avoid disturbing harmony in the society (Van Norden 87).
Conclusion
Confucianism is useful in cultivating and instilling good morals in individuals and in so doing contributes to harmonious co-existence of people in society. This is my basis in responding to the above criticism by Marxists. Confucianism is not to blame for the oppression but rather, it should be credited for making people sensitive to those around them.
It can be argued that Confucianism ideology made the poor communities to be aware that they were being oppressed by the rich, which made them to stage revolutions in countries which perpetrated the inequalities. Those who criticize Confucianism fail to understand that every individual who has good morals has to put the interests of others before the interest of self. This is what Confucianism ideology is about (Van Norden 87).
Works Cited
Ivanhoe, P.J., and Van Norden, Bryan William. Readings in classical Chinese philosophy. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing, 2005. 244. Print.
Van Norden, Bryan. W. Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing, 2011. 87. Print.