In an intriguing op-ed today in the NYT, David Books thinks aloud about the problems of moral philosophy:

One problem with this kind of approach to morality, as Michael
Gazzaniga writes in his 2008 book, “Human,” is that “it has been hard
to find any correlation between moral reasoning and proactive moral
behavior, such as helping other people. In fact, in most studies, none
has been found.”

I immediately sensed a connection to Confucius here: he, too, would agree that moral theorizing is meaningless (lacking in sincerity) if it is not embedded in practice, the regular performance and enactment of one's duties.  But the Confucian resonances are more and more pronounced as Brooks continues.  Consider this:

Today, many psychologists, cognitive scientists and even philosophers
embrace a different view of morality. In this view, moral thinking is
more like aesthetics. As we look around the world, we are constantly
evaluating what we see. Seeing and evaluating are not two separate
processes. They are linked and basically simultaneous.

Of course, the mention of aesthetics brings Hall and Ames to mind, as in this passage from their introduction to Chinese philosophy in the Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

Chinese thinkers sought the understanding of order through the artful
disposition of things, a participatory process which does not presume
that there are essential features, or antecedent-determining
principles, serving as transcendent sources of order. The art of
contextualizing seeks to understand and appreciate the manner in which
particular things present-to-hand are, or may be, most harmoniously
correlated.

And Mencius would agree with most of what appears in these paragraphs:

Moral judgments … are rapid intuitive decisions
and involve the emotion-processing parts of the brain. Most of us make
snap moral judgments about what feels fair or not, or what feels good
or not. We start doing this when we are babies, before we have
language. And even as adults, we often can’t explain to ourselves why
something feels wrong.

In other words, reasoning comes later and
is often guided by the emotions that preceded it. Or as Jonathan Haidt
of the University of Virginia memorably wrote, “The emotions are, in
fact, in charge of the temple of morality, and … moral reasoning is
really just a servant masquerading as a high priest.”

Yet even though he would agree that we have within us an innate moral sense, Mencius would hesitate at the statement "reasoning comes later."  Rather, he would recognize that our will and the socio-economic circumstances that surround us, can obstruct the natural unfolding of our inherent moral sensibilities.  Thus, we must, from a Mencian perspective, be constantly consciously engaged in discerning and choosing the appropriate action for any give social context.  That is why, I believe, he says, in passage 3.2 (2A.2):

The will guides the ch'i, and ch'i fills the body.  So for us, the will comes first, the ch'i second.  That's why I say: Keep a firm grasp on your will, but never tyrannize your ch'i.

But Brooks never references Confucius or Mencius, even as he presents obviously Confucian and Mencian ideas.  Americans just don't have the eduction or background or instinct to look to ancient Chinese sources – which is what makes the mission of this blog all the more pressing!  The relevance of the ancient Chinese texts is there as plain as day; we just have to work to make more people, more Americans, aware of the intellectual possibilities.

Indeed, Brooks' (and, more generally, the American) ignorance of Confucian thinking is almost embarrassing when he gets to this point in his piece:

The question then becomes: What shapes moral emotions in the first
place? The answer has long been evolution, but in recent years there’s
an increasing appreciation that evolution isn’t just about competition.
It’s also about cooperation within groups. Like bees, humans have long
lived or died based on their ability to divide labor, help each other
and stand together in the face of common threats. Many of our moral
emotions and intuitions reflect that history. We don’t just care about
our individual rights, or even the rights of other individuals. We also
care about loyalty, respect, traditions, religions. We are all the descendants of successful cooperators.

Cooperation in groups; loyality; respect; traditions (OK we'll leave out religions…): Confucius and Mencius would be happy that we are talking their talk….