a.
Yi connotes a
moral sense: the ability to recognize what is right and good; the ability to
feel, under the circumstances what is the right thing to do.
·
Not chih, moral
wisdom per se, but intuition.
·
Most of us live
under the sway of different kinds of "I's." In this case, the
identification is with an impersonal ego. (In Freudian terms, almost like the
super-ego.)
·
The impersonal
ego is the assimilated or appropriated values of our culture--the Confucian
true self.
b.Some actions ought to be performed for the sole
reason that they are right--regardless of what they produce; not for the sake
of something else.
·
The value in the
act is the rightness of the action regardless of the intention or the
consequences of the act.
·
Hence, yi is a
different way than either stoicism (intention with soft determinism) or
utilitarianism (consequences with free will).
·
Confucianism is
similar to Kant's ethics of duty: the action is done as a good-in-itself, not
as a means to an end.
c.
Acting from yi
is quite close to practicing jen. Compare the two situations:
·
A person does
all actions for the sake of yi because they are the right thing to do (i.e.,
the behavior forms the disposition). This example is the way we learn; it is
not an example of yi.
·
A person does
all actions for the sake of jen because respect for humanity implies the right
human way to act (i.e., be concerned about who you are, not the individual
things you do). This example is practiced until it becomes second-nature, then
it is right.