Wang Yangming and Kant, respectively among the most important philosophers in the history of Chinese and Western philosophy, both strive to analyze the essence of morality. Based on an a priori analysis of “mind is reason”, Wang Yangming believed that “conscience”, as the essence of the mind, is independent, spiritual, and capable of constant knowing and enlightenment, able to distinguish right from wrong and know good from evil. He urges people to explore the innate moral conscience of human beings outwardly from the essence of the mind, so that obscurations will be removed, and one would be able to realize moral ideals, eventually becoming a saint. Kant, on the other hand, based on his basic principle of human autonomy, believes that the moral code of man presupposes freedom and that only when one’s reason abides by the law one establishes oneself, will human freedom and morality be possible to exist. Therefore, “freedom as autonomy” is the cornerstone of Kant’s practical reasoning, which establishes the a priori nature of moral law in the form of categorical imperatives.
From the ontological basis of morality, Wang Yangming inherits and carries Lu Jiuyuan’s theory of “mind is reason” forward, believing that true reason is not external but internal, even one with the human mind, while continuing to deny Zhu Xi’s view that mind and reason are two different things and further enhancing the ontological status of the mind. In fact, “conscience” is the true reason that he seeks, it is the essence of the human mind; whether one is a saint or a beggar, conscience cannot be changed by external factors at all. It is supposed “to be known without thinking, to be able without learning,” and it is the standard of all right and wrong, good and evil.
Conscience is the essence of the mind, and the mind naturally knows [it]. When you see your father, you naturally know filial piety; when you see your brother, you naturally know brotherhood; when you see a child fall down a well, you naturally know compassion; this is conscience.
Wang Wencheng Gong Quanshu
So, the road “to conscience” does not mean to create a moral code a posteriori, but to remove the selfish desires that obscure conscience, so that conscience can manifest its original state and “flow through one’s body” as blood flows through vessels. In other words, the “conscience” that Wang Yangming speaks of emphasizes the subjectivity of moral code and asserts that morality originates from the internal value of human consciousness rather than external compulsion or experience, with an a priori nature, existing innately in everyone’s mind, independent of any empirical facts.
Kant holds the same view as Wang Yangming regarding the motivation of moral behavior. He believes that moral law came from reason, while natural laws came from our understanding, therefore the moral law is expressed as a command to human reason, telling one what should be done. The moral law is imperative, but not all imperatives are moral laws. There are two kinds of imperatives according to Kant, one is “hypothetical” and the other is “categorical”. The former is conditional, for instance, I have to honor my parents because I will be condemned by society if I do not honor them. In this case, filial piety is not an end in itself, but merely a means to achieve the end of maintaining one’s positive social image. This may seem to be filial piety judging by the surface, but in actuality, Kant would argue not to be a moral behavior. The only true moral law is the unconditional, categorical imperative, where the end and the means are unified, i.e. I choose to honor my parents, not for some other purpose, but because of the command “you should honor your parents”.
Wang Yangming, like Kant, believes that moral principles are a priori and should not have any preconditions or motives. Any compliance with moral principles should stem from the consciousness of the agent, rather than be driven by any external conditions. He said, “The law of heaven is in the mind of human beings, be it ancient or now, there’s no start or beginning, and the law of heaven is conscience.”
Despite their agreement on the theoretical value of moral principles, Wang Yangming and Kant differ when it comes to the practical significance of their moral philosophy. As a Neo-Confucianism philosopher, the whole reason Wang Yangming argued for people to find a path “to conscience” is to uphold traditional Confucian ethics. Keep in mind that the unity of knowledge and action, Wang Yangming’s most central philosophical view, entails that one’s moral principle has to be implemented into reality and not just stay a theory.
However, Kant’s moral philosophy is more theoretical and has almost nothing to do with the reality of everyday life, since it is entirely concerned with the innate form of practical reason, rooted in his dualistic division between the phenomenal world and the theoretical one. He believes that only the universal necessity that transcends all experience can be the true moral law because once real action appears, it automatically falls into the phenomenal realm of experience, and thus inevitably would be under the rule of natural laws instead of moral laws. As previously stated, natural laws come from our understanding while moral laws come from reason, and with the lack of reason, there is no more morality in action. Thus, Kant separates knowledge from action and maintains the purity and universality of moral principles by not involving real experience in any way. Such a complete separation of knowledge and action is certainly something that Wang Yangming could not have agreed to.
In conclusion, Wang Yangming believed that human conscience is innate and universal; similarly, Kant presupposes autonomy and establishes a priori moral laws in the form of categorical imperatives. However, Kant’s moral philosophy exists only in the abstract realm, entirely independent of human experience, while Wang Yangming believes that knowledge and action are united, so moral laws should be expressed as moral behavior.
Work Cited
Chen, Lai. The Realm of Being and Not Being – The Essence of Wang Yangming’s Philosophy. Beijing Book Co. Inc., 2013.
Rohlf, Michael, “Immanuel Kant”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2020/entries/kant/>.
Wang, Yangming. Wang Wencheng Gong Quanshu. Wikisource, https://zh.m.wikisource.org/zh-hans/%E7%8E%8B%E6%96%87%E6%88%90%E5%85%AC%E5%85%A8%E6%9B%B8_(%E5%9B%9B%E9%83%A8%E5%8F%A2%E5%88%8A%E6%9C%AC)/%E7%9B%AE%E9%8C%B2. Accessed 11 Oct. 2022.
“Zhi Liang Zhi – To Conscience.” Baidu Baike, https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%87%B4%E8%89%AF%E7%9F%A5/2288667?fromModule=lemma_inlink.