주희와 왕양명의 덕 윤리와 덕 인식론-시비지심과 양지를 중심으로-

Abstract

This essay starts with the question of how to understand the mind of approval and disapproval (Shifei Shi Xin, 是非之心) within the four Mencian sprouts (Siduan, 四端). The statement that Shifei Shi Xin is the sprout of intellectual virtue provides room for interpreting it as ‘a reasonable faculty for one’s judgment.’ However, this approach is based on the modern way of understanding the human mind, which is divided into two: reason and emotion. Just as Mencius did, Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming were aware that rational judgment would often distort the situations with obsessive analysis, stratagem, and even deep consideration. Thus, I will examine whether Shifei Shi Xin can be separated into rational judgement and how it can be explained if it must be viewed in terms of one of the bundles of four sprouts. This approach also attempts to confirm whether Shifei Shi Xin can lead to a unity between moral virtues and intellectual virtues. I think we should pay attention to the reason why Mencius cast the concept of four sprouts and view the Shifei Shi Xin from a holistic perspective of the four sprouts. I interpret it as a reaction of the mind that occurs regardless of learning or experiences, before any other calculation was involved. It is an immediate and holistic reaction of mental energy to a particular situation that occurs before being classified into the cognitive or the conative. Keeping the pure reactions of the mind occurring initially is soon enough to be moral motivation. Thus, I will review Zhu and Wang on Shifei Shi Xin and Liangzhi (innate knowledge, 良知) for my entire argument. This review must inevitably be understood in the context of the four sprouts. The reason for taking Zhu and Wang’s discourse is to examine the meaning of the internalization of wisdom (Zhi, 智) in terms of the unity between intellectual virtue and moral virtue. In conclusion, a concern on the unity between them is part of a philosophical project to critically reflect on the dualistic framework that has formed modern philosophy, and it is also necessary to understand Shifei Shi Xin in the totality of the mind.