Xunzi (Hsun Tzu 298-238 BC)

- Personal name is Kwang also known as Hsuan Ching

- Holds that Human nature is evil
- Reasons why he claimed that human nature is evil:
1. Men are born with love of gain and profit. If it is followed man
becomes greedy, quarrelsome and the result will be the lack of courtesy
and lack of consideration of others.
2. Men are filled with envy and hatred with others from birth. If it is
not controlled man becomes violent and villainous; Devoid of integrity and
good faith
3. Man is endowed with desires of senses and man becomes
disorderly.

- Xunzi have a low opinion of man.

General Thesis: Every good and valuable is product of self-effort.

- “the nature of man is evil and the goodness of man is acquired”

- Human nature should be cultured because if it is not cultured it is not
good.
- “Value comes from culture and the culture is the achievement of man”
- Everything acquired or brought by culture.
- Whatever is good is result of acquired training. In other words education
can make a man good. Therefore, without teachers man became malicious
and unrighteous.
- All men are born equal. The wise men began also on the same level
- By a practice of goodness man can become a sage but one cannot practice
goodness without a teacher.
- Without teacher and laws= Man becomes selfish, unrighteous and
malicious

 If we are taught by the teachers to become good, who then taught

the teacher? The answer is “It is the sages who taught the first
teachers”
 The second question is “Who taught the sages?” The answer is
“They became good by their own efforts.

- All human person can become sages but the problem is they are not
willing.

Two Arguments/norms:
 1. Man cannot live without some kind of social organization
- Man needs cooperation and material support to enjoy a better
living.
- If people live alone there will be trouble and if people did not have
the same desire and dislikes there would be no trouble. But these 2 are not
ideal.
Needed: Li- sets the limit and without it people will live in strife and
conflict. And acting against Li would be Immoral.

2. Man is truly man not just because he got 2 feet or his Physical; but man
can make social distinction.
- Unlike animals who don’t show affection between father and son.
- The capacity to make social distinction is only for human beings.
- Man strength is not equal to animal.
- Man need to be united in order to conquer animals. Being united
will give man strength and strength will give them power.
-

IDEAS ON GOVERNMENT

1. Government is for the people and not for the ruler

- The function of the ruler is to select the virtuous and capable
ministers by their performance and not out of favoritism.
- If ruler is evil. He is no longer a ruler and must be dethroned

THEORY OF RITES AND MUSIC

- For Confucianism= the most important ceremonies is sacrifice and mourns

especially to the ancestors. It is universal at that time.
- Function of mourning and rites: to make meaning of life and death.
- Intellect/mind: We have reason to believed
- Emotion- causes us that the dead will live again and that their soul
continue to exist in the other world.
- There is difference of what we know and what we hope.

- We must treat the dead both as we know and as we hope them to be

(middle way)
- We must avoid treating the dead as they are really dead (lack of love and
affection)
- We must avoid treating the dead like the living (lack of wisdom)
 LOGICAL THEORIES
- Epistemological theory:
- That in mind by which he knows is called the faculty of knowing.
- That faculty of doing which corresponds to external things is called
knowledge.
No correspondence= no knowledge.
- If it correspondence, there is knowledge.

The faculty of knowing consist of two parts.

1. Natural senses (e.g. eyes, ears)–– receive impression; impression
being received are interpreted by mind
2. Mind itself- Interpret the received impression not only interpret,
gives also meaning to the impressions.

- No knowledge- When the 5 senses note something but can’t classify that
something and the mind tries to identify it but fails to give it meaning.
There is knowledge if the senses noting that something, and mind
identifying and giving meaning to it.

THEORY OF LANGUAGE
- Xunzi sought to investigate the very nature of language and to lay down
rules for its proper use.
- Origin of names: names are made to denote actualities for two reasons.
First is to give distinction between superior and inferior and the second is
to distinguish things that are similar and different.
Names are made to conveniently talk about things.
- Names are originated partly for logical reasons.
Ethical reasons: Logical classification of names.
Thing is the most general term. Although things are innumerable there are
times we speak of them all in general; we call them things. Xunzi noted that
we tend to generalize; we further generalize until there are no general
anymore. Ex. Acacia-general as trees- plants- material object- substances-
being.
Xunzi: There is progression of generalization; from the less to more
general; the general, the better.

Two kinds of names:

1. General- product of the synthetic process of reasoning.
 2. Appropriate/classifying- product of the analytic process of
reasoning.

Problem: Why should a certain actuality is designated by one specific name and
not by the other name? Why call a dog and not cat? Dog is particular, if it is P,
why is there a certain name? This problem is giving P name to certain actuality is
not exclusive to Chinese Philosophy; these problems has been discussed in
Plato. (Cratylus) . There you have Cratylus and Socrates; they are discussing the
origin of names. They conclude: Some names were products of nature; other
names are product of convention; imitation/sound/shape.
But for Xunzi, names are product of convention. They are no names necessarily
appropriate themselves. Names are named by convention but when convention
name has been established and customary we call the name appropriate names.
This tells us that names are not inherently suited for the objects they signify.
Therefore, men agreed to simply use certain names to designate certain things.
Book of rites: One of the sections greatly followed the teaching of Xunzi.
Book of rites: Chung-yung, the doctrine of the mean, it follows the idea of
Mencius.

Summary-Nature of Individual:
Confucius, never tell how it is possible to one man to become superior man. He is
seemed to imply that man is good by nature. But he said only that, by nature men
are alike but thru practice they become far apart. And it was explained how
necessary to explain how we know how man is good. We have now Mencius,
supplied the explanation, man is instinctly to do good. From the fact that children
to love his parents, Mencius concluded that man’s nature is originally good,
posseesing the four beginnings.
1. Humanity Gen 2. Yi righteoenses Li. Prpiriety, 4. Wisomd; innate
knowledge of the good and ability to do good
View as to evil: Evil is due not in nature but in environment. If ever there is evil, it
is not due to nature of amn but to the abd evnvironment and lack of education;
casting ones self away.:Mencius. The superior man is one who devekops his
mind t ebutmost and nourish his natire.
Rules of propriety: Li and Yi have been formulated to control evil and to train men
to be good. Are they native moral chaarctersitics of man, the yi and. ? No but
artificial effort of sages according to Xunzi. But theye were both Confucian.
liXunzi. Opposed Mencius.
Bakit magkaiba: different view and understanding of nature of man.