A Research On The Methodological Significance Of Mencius And Xunzi's Theory Of Human Nature

Mencius and Xunzi established respectively their own theoretical premise or starting point based on the doctrine of original goodness and the doctrine of evil human nature.Rich in ideologies,humanistic spirit and ethics,these two doctrines occupied an important position in traditional excellent Chinese culture.The doctrine of original goodness and the doctrine of evil human nature are not pure empirical proposition,as some scholars understand.Therefore,therefore one can not affirm one and negates the other,and take sides between both propositional ideologies.Because both two doctrines can find positive factual to support each other,but also easily get the so-called counterexamples.This thesis tried to grasp the theoretical significance and realistic values of their propositions from the perspective of methodology.By being faithful to the original text,this thesis attached importance to concept differentiation and the analysis and demonstration of specific opinions,illustrated the characteristics of these two doctrines by adopting the methods of logic analysis and comparative analysis so as to embody their differences in properties,their differences and similarities in ideology and their opposite and complementary relationship in methodology.Based on the above arguments,this thesis mainly arrived at conclusions as follows.First,the human nature doctrine of Mencius was the fundamental purpose of methodology and a presuppositional assumption.Through the assumption of human nature,Mencius and Xunzi both set up a reasonable set of theoretical system and rich ideologies,which provided theoretical significance for the irrefutability of their doctrines.Second,by means of Kant's theory of prepositional classification,this thesis expounded the prepositional category of the doctrines of Mencius and Xunzi,i.e.,a philosophical proposition with social and historical contents as well as values different from those of empirical propositions and logic propositions.It was also a response to the views of western logic empiricists particularly the Vienna school who had once publicly repudiated philosophical propositions and their meanings.Third,the humannature doctrines of Mencius and Xunzi on one hand,enriched the theoretical system of Chinese philosophical methodology and on the other hand,provided enlightenment for the deepening reform and the sustainable and healthy development of some fields in current society from the perspective of human nature.