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    Man's Perfectibility

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    Jose Marie Bilango
    Confucius believed that through self-cultivation, man can perfect himself and build a more developed society. He saw self-cultivation as a lifelong process of improving oneself through constantly gaining knowledge and wisdom. By cultivating virtues like ren (humaneness), one can rectify their heart and mind, properly govern their family, and ultimately create a harmonious society. However, self-cultivation is not an egoistic act but done for the benefit of one's community, as people are social beings who cannot perfect themselves alone. When each individual engages in self-cultivation, society as a whole progresses towards utmost harmony.

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    Man's Perfectibility

    Uploaded by

    Jose Marie Bilango
    55 views2 pages
    Confucius believed that through self-cultivation, man can perfect himself and build a more developed society. He saw self-cultivation as a lifelong process of improving oneself through constantly gaining knowledge and wisdom. By cultivating virtues like ren (humaneness), one can rectify their heart and mind, properly govern their family, and ultimately create a harmonious society. However, self-cultivation is not an egoistic act but done for the benefit of one's community, as people are social beings who cannot perfect themselves alone. When each individual engages in self-cultivation, society as a whole progresses towards utmost harmony.

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    Perfectibility: Chinese Philosophy

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    Confucius believed that through self-cultivation, man can perfect himself and build a more developed society. He saw self-cultivation as a lifelong process of improving oneself through constantly gaining knowledge and wisdom. By cultivating virtues like ren (humaneness), one can rectify their heart and mind, properly govern their family, and ultimately create a harmonious society. However, self-cultivation is not an egoistic act but done for the benefit of one's community, as people are social beings who cannot perfect themselves alone. When each individual engages in self-cultivation, society as a whole progresses towards utmost harmony.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    55 views2 pages

    Man's Perfectibility

    Uploaded by

    Jose Marie Bilango
    Confucius believed that through self-cultivation, man can perfect himself and build a more developed society. He saw self-cultivation as a lifelong process of improving oneself through constantly gaining knowledge and wisdom. By cultivating virtues like ren (humaneness), one can rectify their heart and mind, properly govern their family, and ultimately create a harmonious society. However, self-cultivation is not an egoistic act but done for the benefit of one's community, as people are social beings who cannot perfect themselves alone. When each individual engages in self-cultivation, society as a whole progresses towards utmost harmony.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    Self-cultivation: A Step to a More Develop Society

    “Man… day by day builds himself up through his many free decisions; and so he knows,
    loves and accomplishes moral good by stages of growth.”1 Man is not born knowing all things.
    His whole life is a moment of learning and exploration of new things and of truth. Confucianism
    concerns were mainly about political contexts and moral doctrines. Confucius (Kongzi c. 551- c.
    479 BCE), the recognized founder of Confucianism, gave attention and observed the life of man.
    He focused on man that humanism became the central theme in Confucianism. Unlike others in
    his time, who were interested in cosmocentric philosophies and theocentric philosophies, and the
    reality of death, Confucius was attracted in studying everyday concerns. He is known with his
    principle, “We do not yet know how to serve man, how can we know serving the spirits?” “We
    don’t know yet about life, how can we know about death?”2

    Most of Confucius works were mainly about issues related to man, family, morals, and
    the purpose of a good ruler. Confucius was able to relate the purpose of man to a good society.
    The importance of man a member of a family which is a part of a bigger society. He believed
    that man is first formed by his family and it is only after then he can contribute to a larger state,
    the society. Confucius made use of Ren (humanity or humaneness as translated in English) as the
    head or the highest Confucian principles — Yi (honesty and uprightness), Zhi (knowledge and
    wisdom), Xin (faithfulness and integrity), and Li (propriety). Ren, which is humanity, is the
    complete Virtue of the mind.3 Confucius was against the idea that some men are born superior to
    others. He believed in the perfectibility of man. He rejects the notion that man’s superiority was
    determined by his nobility or by the status where he belongs. He believed that all men are
    perfectible by personal and communal endeavor which on the latter part became his concept of
    self-cultivation. Blood has nothing to do with man’s superiority rather being moral makes him
    superior not to other beings but to himself. Confucius was interested on what we can become for
    human being is not something we are; it is something we do and become.4

    1
    John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, (November 1981) accessed on March 12, 2019. Vatican.va.
    no.34.
    2
    Cofucius, Roger T. Ames, and Henry Rosemont. The Analects of Confucius: A Philosophical
    Translation. (New York: Ballantine Pub. Group, 1998), p. 144.
    3
    Wing-tsit Chan, trans. Neo-Confucian Terms Explained (New York: Columbia University Press,
    1986), p. 75.
    4
    Analects, 12.1.
    Man is perfectible to through ren, which encompasses zhi (knowledge and wisdom) and
    the other Confucian principles, when cultivation of this virtue is manifested. It is when one is
    able to know what is right and what is wrong yet the principle of knowledge is in it 5 and also the
    presence of the other virtues. One cannot become a person by oneself and so we are irreducibly
    social. Ren is the foremost process of growing (sheng). Confucius viewed man as perfectible
    being in a sense that he is teachable and improvable and not in a sense that he is faultless or
    blameless. This perfectibility is a continuous lifelong self-cultivation:

    “The master said, “from fifteen, my heart-and-mind was set upon learning; from thirty I took
    my stance; from forty I was no longer doubtful; from fifty I realized the propensities what the
    world is and how it is (tian); from sixty my ear was attuned; from seventy I could give my
    heart-and-mind free in without overstepping the bounderies.”” 6

    Self-cultivation is not selfishness. Man is perfectible through the society and his
    perfectibility is for the society, his community. What makes this concept interesting is that it
    expresses the virtue of hope. Perfectibility of man is basically a hope to what he can really
    become. Confucius advocates that man are endowed with authentic potentiality to develop
    himself as a moral person but through the cognitive and affective functions of the mind. Man’s
    perfectibility is a self-cultivation to serve as a motivation for everyone to be able to form a
    society in harmony. Self-cultivation is not an egocentric act for it starts with oneself and ends for
    the society. Man is a being capable of learning and his refinement of knowledge lies in the study
    of things. And there could only be pure intentions when one has a refined knowledge. Having
    pure intentions are only hearts and mind rectified. And when the hearts and minds rectified one
    may now cultivate his personal life; and when he is cultivated, the family where he belongs
    becomes in order. Families that are in order causes states be governed and with this a
    harmonious society is made possible. Self-cultivation, on the other hand, is a responsibility of
    everyone since no one lives on his own. It is a mutual responsibility informed by a transcendent
    vision. With the manifestation of ren in the process of self-cultivation, our society may achieve
    impeccable harmony.

    5
    Ibid, p. 70.
    6
    Analects, 2.4.

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