Dear Friends,
It seems to me, human heartedness is truly a path to both wisdom, wealth and health. The old sayings of Confucius have been so bastardized over the years, most people only have a half comedic view of him and his philosophy, the philosophy of human heartedness. In fact, the reason he has been so revered for over two millenia, is that his voice rings truth across the ages. To me the philosophy of human heartedness sounds like a small rivulet running down a cliff side, pure and clear, promising succor from life’s heat. Human heartedness is not to be soft hearted, not at all, to be human hearted one must practice many traits, reciprocity, generosity, moral judgment, conscientious, trustworthy and be devoted to learning. Confucius was also adamant that to be human hearted one must also eliminate in oneself, obstinacy, bias, self-centeredness and arbitrary judgments. Imagine for one moment what a society would be like, if the majority of people followed this example, our economy would hum along, crime would be rare and government would be hardly noticeable, in short, it is self interested rightly understood to be human hearted.
Carneades argued that true justice is impossible because for a man to be just he must do violence to his own self interest. The very next day he argued the opposite just as eloquently, to show that pure reasoning is insufficient to decide moral questions, centuries before Kant. If pure reason is insufficient then is there a means by which we can decide the moral right? There are two that have stood the test of time, the first are the inspired morals of God, like the Ten Commandments, the teachings of Jesus, etc… the second is pragmatism. Every time the teachings of God have been ignored things go quickly awry. Even the most mundane, the seven day work week, is empirically tested, the ideal for the human body and when changed people perform worse. Pragmatically the word of God matches with empirical evidence of morality. To practice good moral judgment then is to follow the teachings of Jesus… follow the golden rule, look to your own sins before pointing at the sins of another, let he who is without sin cast the first stone, love thy neighbor as thyself, judge not lest ye shall be judged and in the same manner, etc… all educated people on our planet know the teachings of Jesus, the practice of good moral judgment.
Reciprocity is doing to others as they have to you, it doesn’t mean exacting revenge for harm, that would be violating practicing moral judgment, but returning good works for good works. Someone who returns evil for good is not practicing reciprocity and is violating both practicing good moral judgment and reciprocity. To be generous is to help those around us, within our means, so we are a benefit to humanity and not a burden. That benefit can be in any form that helps people, donating money is obvious but picking up trash next to the road also is a help, or simply holding the door to someone with their hands full, also makes a person generous. Conscientiousness and trustworthiness are qualities every employer looks for in an employee. Once an employer recognizes them in someone that employee becomes invaluable. Even if they lack other attributes, their conscientiousness and trustworthiness will always win out. That is because those are such a rare qualities today.
To be devoted to learning is to be open minded, curious and investigative. The person who is devoted to learning never takes the word of someone what a book says, they read it themselves, then laughs at how others had tried to manipulate the knowledge in the book. Confucius loved learning and so had plenty to teach, many today hate to learn but love to teach, as a result, they have little to teach and much to learn. Learning itself is a good done for itself, as well as a good we do to get another good, ie, knowledge. The very act of learning forces the brain to rewire itself, and in rewiring itself the brain becomes ever more malleable, more able to adapt, and it is the ability to adapt, more so than strength or agility, that is often the difference between life and death. Learning gives us both knowledge and the ability to adapt.
Of course there are those things the human hearted person must avoid. The obstinate are unable to learn, as are the biased. Self-centeredness is an attribute that undermines the ability to be reciprocal, be generous, trustworthy or even practice good moral judgment. The self-centered, egoists, are closed off from evolving into a higher form, like the proverbial camel must be fully unburdened before it can enter the eye of a needle, the egoist must shed his or her self-centeredness before any form of wisdom can be attained. Arbitrary judgment is jumping to conclusions based on something other than considered conclusions. An arbitrary judgment can be due to emotion, bias as in tribalism, race etc…
Human heartedness has been translated in other ways, ritual and righteousness, music and ritual among others. Human heartedness clicks with me though, because after reading most of the existent quotes by Confucius, it is obvious he was a deeply caring man who wanted to change his kingdom for the better, not by forcing people to do what he deemed right, but by leading by example, showing people the good that comes of being human hearted, the good that would befall a kingdom if it’s rulers were human hearted and shining a light down a better way. To be human hearted is to be civilized, not to be human hearted is to be a barbarian. History is unambiguous, when people have been civilized, there has always been more liberty, leading to prosperity and good health, leading to low crime. If we want to live in a free society with low crime, that is prosperous, it becomes a self interested thing to do, rightly understood… to be human hearted.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
