Meta-Theories, Interpretability, and Human Nature: A Reply to J. David Velleman

My thanks to David Velleman for a clear and constructive response to my comment. He raises two issues that might benefit from some further brief remarks. The first concerns the error-theory I put forth to explain why the early Confucians (as I understand them) were not relativists. The second concerns the extent to which the Confucian notion of harmony is at odds with Velleman's notion of interpretability or coherence. I consider each in turn, below.

I. Functionalism and Relativism

In the epilogue of my comment, Velleman's avatar suggests that exposure to other stable and enduring daos should undermine the early Confucians' confidence in the unique efficacy of the Zhou. I imagined this would be Velleman's own reaction to the Confucian commitment to absolutism, and so was happy to read his acceptance of it.

However, I also think this is correct; the Confucian view of morality should be friendly to relativism, even though the Confucians themselves were absolutists. This is because Kongzi and Xunzi (my two main sources for the Confucian view) had what we might call functionalist accounts of the origins of their favored dao: it was created by brilliant sages of the past so as to allow humans to get along and flourish. Without the institutions and practices they created we would still be sustaining ourselves with raw foods, living in caves during winter and in nests during summer, and otherwise eking out a miserable existence—to use a memorable description from the Record of Rites (Liji 禮記).

The key question for such a functionalist view is: could the sages have created a different social ontology to serve the same purpose? Xunzi would answer in the negative. What the sages created was perfect and unimprovable; there is only one true, workable set of doables: "none under Heaven can add to or subtract from it. … [T]hose who do not follow it will be endangered … [and] will perish" (Hutton 2014, p. 205). However, were he aware of the relevant facts—namely that there are other advanced civilizations that persist and do not perish—it would be difficult to insist on the unique correctness of the Zhou (which itself perished, after all).

I am less sure about Mengzi, though, who grounds morality in a Heaven-endowed human nature, setting him apart from the classical thinkers we now label Confucian in philosophically deep ways. (Indeed, I left him out of my initial account altogether.) Mengzi's signature claim is that human nature is good and contains moral content organized (ahead of any experience) into four beginnings or 'sprouts' of virtue: compassion, disdain, deference, and affirming/denying (2A6, 6A6). These sprouts reveal themselves through spontaneous reactions to relevant stimuli—such as when the otherwise callous King Xuan feels unexpected compassion at the sight of a terrified ox being led to slaughter (1A7). Under ordinary conditions the sprouts develop on their own without need for a specific or detailed curriculum of formal study (e.g., 2A6, 7A17). A nutritive environment (e.g., a loving family and favorable socio-economic circumstances) is sufficient to lead most people to develop the corresponding virtues of benevolence, rightness, ritual propriety, and wisdom, while those seeking higher levels of moral excellence can engage in various forms of engaged reflection to further strengthen them (Van Norden 2007, pp. 228–246).

Mengzi emphasizes that this pre-structured moral content is the 'one root' of all morality. For example, the rituals surrounding burials were not, in his view, created by brilliant sage kings but were instead pre-ordained expressions of human nature, summoned forth by the sight of deceased kin rotting and besieged by pests (3A5). These rites can be refined and embellished, but not changed; they must, for example, be ever lavish (e.g., 2B7, 3A5), even in the face of vigorous argumentation and criticism (such as those leveled by the rival Mohists, who found the wastefulness of lavish burials beyond the pale). Attempts to alter the rituals fail to gain traction because they are inconsistent with human nature.

On the one hand, the organic nature of...