Morality/Ethics
“He who governs by his moral excellence may be compared to the pole-star, which abides in its place, while all the stars bow toward it” (Analects Book 2, I).
In Western terms, the idea of morality is the act of doing something. For example, choices such as eating meat, abusing animals, being a hipster, and your sexual orientation are all examples of a moral choice because the decisions we make (eating meat or not) is considered morally wrong.
However, in Confucian idea, the idea of morality is different and should be compared to Western philosophy. Confucian morality is the decision idea of choice, the best way to behave; it is not the idea of the right choice or the wrong choice.
Virtue
“A man without virtue cannot long abide in adversity, nor can he long abide in happiness; but the virtuous man is at rest in virtue, and the wise man covets it” (Analects, Book 4,2).
Confucius believed that one could not live life without conflict. However, to maintain one’s identity, he believed that one only remain virtuous to combat conflict. The idea is that someone with “virtue” is not someone who will be disappointed by events in the material world. Kupperman gives the example of someone who loses their fortune and their friends. He argues that a virtuous person will not be “bothered” by this because their virtue, the important aspects of life, is tied elsewhere and therefore will never be bothered by this (61).
The idea that if wealth is something important to a person, the next question that arises is “How much is enough?” (Kupperman, 62) The answer may be that even an infinite amount would never be enough. As a result, chasing an abstract dream will always lead to disappointment because the perfect ideal does not exist.
Confucius believed that virtue was something immaterial and, as a result, was something that could not be taken from a person. Thus, if a person lived within their own virtue, he could live a happy and fulfilling life. One does not be a virtuous person for only one day, it is a lifetime ordeal that can only be defined after one had died. Similarity, one cannot understand Confucius ideas of virtue unless one has read the entirety of The Analects (Kupperman, 66).
The Way or Depravity – Existential Moments
The Western Idea of choice is that everyone has a choice and everyone is held responsible for the choices they make. Whether you had that third slice of pizza, procrastinated with your project, or yelled at your sister, were all conscious choices that you had control over to decide not to do. In the Western world, we believe this to be autonomy and that nothing can influence our decisions. However, that is not entirely true. Everyday advertisements, recommendations from friends, and our own base desires can take over our control and subconsciously force us to do things that, logically, we shouldn’t really be doing in the first place.
While there is no evidence that Confucius was of Determinist ideal, some of the ideas he offers has a sense of Determinism. Determinism is that idea that everything in life has already been determined by some higher force. There is only the illusion of choice. Whether you had that cookie or not this morning was already determined by fate and the conflict you had within yourself to eat it or not was also a determined reaction. Few who hear about Determinism are accepting of it because it would mean that the control they thought they had did not exist at all.
“Li” or The Way was a path that a virtuous person could follow to obtain a fulfilling life. “Li” was originally the idea of performing ceremonies and rituals properly, with reverence. Over time, it became a term to also encompass moral thought. However, The Way was different for everyone and was often not very clear which path was correct. One of the paths to The Way was being well-versed in the Book of Songs. Another was to be able to write well (Kupperman, 107). One could also fall into Depravity, falling away from the traditions of “Li”.
Confucius believed that there were “Existential Moments” in which a person would fall away from The Way and into Depravity. He believed that, rather than be determined, a person could choose, through action, which path to take. He believed that this moment would not only determine the action of choice but also affect a person’s morality for the rest of his life. In essence, Existential Moments meant “Li or Depravity”, life or death.