'The Heart That Cannot Bear...the Other': Reading Mengzi on the Goodness of Human Nature

摘要

This paper will discuss the ancient Chinese thinker Mengzi’s 孟子 (ca. 390-ca. 305B.C.) thought of human nature. But let us first quote from an increasingly influentialmodern French thinker: Emmanuel Levinas. The purpose of this citation is two-fold:on the one hand, it is an attempt to form a potentially constructive dialogue betweenwhat we will say about Mengzi in this paper and what Levinas has said about man asbeing inescapably responsible for the other; on the other hand, this citation shouldalso serve to situate our discussion in wider philosophical contexts. We hope thus wemay be able, at least in an implicit manner, to bring closer two thoughts or twointellectual traditions, viz., Chinese and European, and also to show how Mengzi’sthought of human nature, as it is read and interpreted in this paper, can go beyondthe borders of Chinese thought and language, and take on more universal significance.