Abstract

One of the most intriguing features of the Mencius lies in its claims about the path to goodness: they are eloquently defended but also articulated in ambiguous ways. It is clear that a major role for feeling or emotion is envisaged, but is the relevant sort of feeling to be contrasted with reflection and reasoning? Or are these things intertwined and implicated in one another? I support the second answer and disagree both with those who take as primary the role of a kind of feeling that is largely untouched by reflection and reasoning and with those on the other extreme who hold that reasoning has an independent and in some ways a primary role in realizing goodness. Though my position has in broad outlines remained constant, it has evolved over time in important specifics. I will set out what I am thinking now.