Mencius Thought - Essay Example

The main reason behind Mencius’ reiterating the significance of adopting morality includes his very claim that man maintains innate inclinations towards morality, which does not let him go astray quite unbridled without being responsible to some Supreme Being, who has created His voice in every heart in the form of conscience in order to keep the seduction and temptation of the evil away from him.    

Human nature, according to this distinguished sage, and its impulses as well, if cultivated, turn into moral virtues. Our natures are, he argues, what heaven has given us (6A.15). Since heaven has created human nature in its own image, it has natural tendencies of inclining towards goodness ultimately. Thus, human nature even remaining indulged in the vice of various kinds, eventually inclines to the traits and characteristics attributed to it by birth. Human nature, Mencius further asserts, is what links us with the non-human universe, the normative order of heaven. Consequently, the human soul has been created with gifted moral values Nature looks for inhuman actions in one way or the other. Indeed, the quality of this relationship is such that Mencius is able to claim that “If one knows one’s nature, one will know heaven” (Makeham 2001). The same has also been preached by Mencius’ predecessor Confucius, and the very notion has always been endorsed and projected by the future philosophers and thinkers in their respective philosophical works.

Illustrious moralist and sage of ancient Chinese civilization Confucius preached virtue and compassion towards humanity without discrimination through his preaching. He submits that where there exists the razor of iniquity, inequality, evil and social injustice in a society, there is the least probability of the blossoming of the plant of goodness, charity, honesty, and wisdom, and vice versa (Yu 2012). The same was the notion promoted by the distinguished ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, who had declared having knowledge of the universal phenomena as a great virtue that protects humans from going astray and getting prey to vice and injustices. The seven sages of ancient Greece and others have also preached the same due to the very reality that virtuous deeds, kindness, benevolence, and sacrifices for others fill the human heart with mirth and delights while exercising injustices, inequalities, and prejudice against others are sure to invite grief and repentance, though for few moments even. It is therefore man looks to be consulting the unknown metaphysical powers on the eve of distress and facing troubles, for he has an innate belief in the existence of such supernatural forces that could rescue him from all calamities, turmoil, and ruination. Thus, man is good by nature, and Nature has bestowed its countless mercies upon him by blessing him with the capacity of making judgments between right and wrong; Lombroso’s theoretical framework partly ratifies the same.

Renowned nineteenth-century Swiss biologist-psychologist Lombroso is of the view that it is innate qualities that reflect human activities in their later years. It is therefore he declares the virtuous and the criminals as having the innate characteristics under which they have entered the world (Hagan 1976). In other words, both virtue and vice are part of personalities since birth in humans. However, Lombroso’s notion partly contradicts the thoughtfulness presented by Mencius that humans are born with good nature, and could be corrupted after entering into interaction with society.