Abstract
Mengzi 孟子 6A2 contains the famous (or infamous) water analogy for the innate goodness of human nature. Some evaluate Mengzi’s reasoning as strong and sophisticated; others, as weak or sophistical. I urge for more nuance in our evaluation. Mengzi’s reasoning fares poorly when judged by contemporary standards of analogical strength. However, if we evaluate the analogy as an instance of correlative thinking within a yin-yang 陰陽 cosmology, his reasoning fares well. That cosmology provides good reason to assert that water tends to flow downward, not because of available empirical evidence, but because water correlates to yin and yin correlates to naturally downward motion. Substantiating these contentions also gives occasion to better understand the nature of correlative reasoning in classical Chinese philosophy.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allan, Sarah. 1997. The Way of Water and the Sprouts of Virtue. Albany: SUNY Press.
Bear, Jacob. 1972. Dynamics of Fluids in Porous Media. New York: American Elsevier Publishing Company.
Bloom, Irene. 2009. Mencius. New York: Columbia University Press.
Chong, Kim-chong. 2002. “Mengzi and Gaozi on Nei and Wai.” In Mencius: Contexts and Interpretations, edited by Alan Kam-leung Chan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
____. 2009. “Classical Confucianism (II): Meng Zi and Xun Zi.” In History of Chinese Philosophy, edited by Mou Bo. New York: Routledge.
Denecke, Wiebke. 2010. The Dynamics of Masters Literature: Early Chinese Thought from Confucius to H an Feizi. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Feng, Youlan. 1983. A History of Chinese Philosophy, Volume II: The Period of Classical Learning. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Forbes, R. J. 1965. Studies in Ancient Technology. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Fu, Charles Wei-Hsun. 1983. “The Mencian Theory of Mind (Hsin) and Nature (Hsing): A Modern, Philosophical Approach.” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 10: 385–410.
Fung, Yiu-ming. 2010. “On the Very Idea of Correlative Thinking.” Philosophy Compass 5.4: 296–306.
Graham, Angus Charles. 1986. Yin-Yang and the Nature of Correlative Thinking. Singapore: Institute of East Asian Philosophies.
____. 1989. “Rationalism and Anti-Rationalism in Pre-Buddhist China.” In Rationality in Question: On Eastern and Western Views of Rationality, edited by Shlomo Biderman and Ben-Ami Scharfstein. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Hall, David L., and Roger T. Ames. 1995. Anticipating China: Thinking through the Narratives of Chinese and Western Culture. Albany: SUNY Press.
Hansen, Chad. 1992. A Daoist Theory of Chinese Thought: A Philosophical Interpretation. New York: Oxford University Press.
Henderson, John B. 2003. “Cosmology.” In Encyclopedia of Chinese Philosophy, edited by Antonio S. Cua. New York: Routledge
Holyoak, Keith James, and Paul Thagard. 1995. Mental Leaps: Analogy in Creative Thought. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Lau, D. C. 1970. “On Mencius’ Use of the Method of Analogy in Argument.” In Mencius, trans. by D. C. Lau. Baltimore: Penguin Books.
____. 2003. Mencius: A Bilingual Edition. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press.
Lee, Chan Sin. 2003. “The Confucian Conception of Gender in the Twenty-First Century.” In Confucianism for the Modern World, edited by Daniel A. Bell and Hahm Chaibong. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Li, Chenyang. 1999. The Tao Encounters the West: Explorations in Comparative Philosophy. Albany: SUNY Press.
Mou, Bo. 2009. Chinese Philosophy A–Z. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Nivison, David Shepherd. 1999. “The Classical Philosophical Writings.” In The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C., edited by Michael Loewe and Edward L. Shaughnessy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Pielou, E. C. 1998. Fresh Water. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Salmon, Wesley C. 1973. Logic, 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Slingerland, Edward. 2008. What Science Offers the Humanities: Integrating Body and Culture. New York: Cambridge University Press.
____. 2011. “Metaphor and Meaning in Early China.” Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 10.1: 1–30.
Waley, Arthur. 1939. Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Waller, Bruce N. 2001. “Classifying and Analyzing Analogies.” Informal Logic 21.3: 199–218.
Wang, Robin R. 2005. “Dong Zhongshu’s Transformation of Yin-Yang Theory and Contesting of Gender Identity.” Philosophy East and West 55.2: 209–231.
____. 2012. Yinyang: The Way of Heaven and Earth in Chinese Thought and Culture. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jones, N. Correlative Reasoning about Water in Mengzi 6A2. Dao 15, 193–207 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-016-9487-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-016-9487-9