『맹자』에 나타난 도덕 행위 도출에 관한 심리적 고찰 - 若鏞의 『孟子要義』를 중심으로

Abstract

Most actions of human beings are actualized through a certain mental process. Since value judgement also undergoes a mental processes, this mental process is especially required for a moral behavior. Feeling, thinking and motivation are three factors of mental process. In this article I analyzed Chŏng Yag-yong's view on Mencian ethics focusing on these three factors. According to Mencius, a moral behavior originates from human nature. He argued that human beings can feel ethical emotions, the Four Beginnings (si duan), in any circumstances, and can decide to take a moral behavior based on these emotions. When people decide the direction of actions in their minds, a power of execution which activates these actions arises. Chŏng rejected the usual Neo-Confucian ideas of innate moral virtue and defined human nature as having a desire for the good and against the evil. The Four Beginnings are the expressed emotions of this desire. He also argued that, as mentioned in Mencius (6A:15), thinking is recognition of the heart/mind of the Way (dao xin) -regardless its subtlety-, and, taking this recognition as a standard, human beings distinguish goodness of external objects for the part of themselves which is great. Chŏng also understood a will as a desire which can arise from both the mind/heart of the Way and the human mind/heart. According to Chŏng's view on Mencius, it can be stated that an individual moral desire plays a leading role in the deduction process of moral behaviors. Since the ethics of Mencius stressed that human beings can be a moral subject because they posses a moral foundation naturally, it can be said that Chŏng not only understood Mencian ethics better than those who believed an ethical system which has a moral foundation in the authoritative metaphysics, but also gave a new lease to a moral self in Mencius.