Abstract
This study raises the question whether it is possible, in Xunzi’s 荀子 view, for someone who has gone through moral transformation to backslide. I consider three possible interpretations. On the first interpretation, one’s dispositions are transformed by environmental forces. Backsliding is possible and likely. I rule out this interpretation because it is inconsistent with other aspects of Xunzi’s thought. On the second interpretation, one’s kind-determining constitution is transformed from a neutral constitution to a moral constitution. Backsliding is not possible because one has acquired a moral constitution that is insusceptible to bad environmental influences. On the third interpretation, to be transformed is to have accumulated significantly more moral knowledge than ordinary untransformed people. Backsliding is possible but unlikely. I will then explain why it is difficult to adjudicate between the second and third interpretations and suggest further issues in Xunzi’s thought that need to be investigated.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by MOE Singapore under its Academic Research Fund Tier 1 Grant RG139/19 (NS). I am especially grateful to the following for their helpful comments and insights: Selusi Ambrogio, Youngsun Back, Andrew Forcehimes, Lin Hongxing, P. J. Ivanhoe, Doil Kim, Myeong-seok Kim, Chenyang Li, So Jeong Park, Dawid Rogacz, Jeffrey Riegel, Sato Masayuki, Kwong-loi Shun, Hua Wang, Fang Xudong, Zemian Zheng, and two anonymous referees. Drafts of this essay were read in 2019 at the Distinguished Scholar Lectures at Sungkyunkwan University and the International Society of East Asian Philosophy Conference; and in 2020 at the Qingyun Lectures at Fudan University. I am very grateful to the audiences for their questions and comments. I would also like to thank the students in my Special Topics class on Xunzi, whose questions and comments have prompted multiple revisions of this essay.
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Sung, W. Is Backsliding Possible on Xunzi’s View?. Dao (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-024-09944-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-024-09944-9