The harmony of moral education

Abstract

I present a creative dialogue between Kant's Categorical Imperative and Tien Xia Da Tong as a play between action (Li), proclivity (Yi), and education-imperative (duty): the “moral law within” is an internal disposition to an external reality as all in harmony under the “starry heavens above”. Tien Xia Da Tong as a socio-political reality becomes possible, as I offer, through following an imperative to act in a proper way. For Kant, there is only one good will and it becomes the duty of each to align one's will to that. The ideogram of Yi suggests a point of convergence—a “duty imposed upon me”. The duty to act accordingly is a result of moral education: right conduct (Li) is the expression of this moral consciousness (Yi). Actions are understood through Wu Lun yet go further: The externality of goodness is rooted not merely in the relation itself (i.e. the person at the receiving end) but in an internal alignment to the good will, which begets Tien Xia Da Tong, in harmony to their moral-imperative espoused by their Ming. Hence, moral education is as a rectification of names (Zheng Ming), which justly is the activity of practical reason. Repeating an action (Li) effects an exterior cultivation and a sense of harmony in relations, yet above all it is an internal acquiescence to the good will—a disposition to goodness, to humanity, to truth. All in harmony under heaven is when all act independent of external expectation (Li), internalizing the action to a moral cultivation (Yi), a duty of alignment to the good will.