Mou Zongsan

Mou Zongsan was a Chinese philosopher, born in Shandong, who taught in Taiwan and Hong Kong after 1949 and is regarded as a leading figure of twentieth-century New Confucianism. Engaging closely with Kant, he argued that Confucianism offers a 'moral metaphysics' grounded in the moral mind: the moral heart-mind is not only the source of ethics but the way into the nature of reality.

Key ideas

• Confucianism offers a moral metaphysics, in which ultimate reality is disclosed through the moral mind, rather than a mere metaphysics of morals.
• Against Kant, humans possess intellectual intuition through the moral heart-mind.
• The moral mind must 'self-negate' to make room for objective knowledge, science and democracy.
• Song–Ming Confucianism divides into distinct lineages, and he reassessed which carried the orthodox Mencian line.

Major works

• Mind and Human Nature (Xinti yu xingti, 1968–69)
• Intellectual Intuition and Chinese Philosophy (Zhi de zhijue yu Zhongguo zhexue, 1971)
• Phenomenon and Thing-in-Itself (Xianxiang yu wu zishen, 1975)
• Nineteen Lectures on Chinese Philosophy (Zhongguo zhexue shijiu jiang, 1983)

In the conversation

• Question Xunzi says the sages invented ritual and rightness. Does that make him a moral anti-realist? Elif Yıldız · 5 replies