Abstract:
Goodness is the key domain of ethics. How to seek goodness, that is, how to be a good man, remains a leading concern in ethical study. Confucian ethics followed three ways to seek goodness. First of all, they advocated studying things around and reaching the nature of the world, by which human activity of cognition would be related to pursuit of goodness. They hoped to develop men’s moral character by inquiry and learning to awaken their internal selfconsciousness. Then they emphasized selecting and maintaining goodness, meaning adjusting one’s conduct by morality and will. Finally, they called on raising men’s sensitivity to morality, that is, firmly seeking morality to perfect personal accomplishment in emotional concern. Confucian experience of seeking goodness expressed the integration of knowledge, emotion and will and that of the true, the good and the beautiful.
