On “Humane Love” and “Kinship Love”

摘要

I am honored to be asked to comment on the fine essays by LIU Qingping and GUO Qiyong(Liu 2007; Guo 2007). They are obviously both deep thinkers with serious moralcommitments. I find myself closer to agreement with Guo, and so I will have more to sayabout Liu’s work. Regarding Guo’s thoughtful and scholarly position, I will simply notethat I personally view the relationship between Kongzi, Mengzi, and ZHU Xi as analogousto the relationship between Plato, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas. Each figure influencesor is influenced by the others, and each is worthy of serious study. However, they presentpositions that are distinct, and we should be cautious that we are not projecting theworldview of one onto another (see Van Norden 2007:23–29 and 323–325; Ivanhoe2000.).