Knowra Mou Tsung-san Mou Tsung-san Mou Tsung-san (1909–1995) was a Chinese philosopher who reinterpreted Confucianism through modern philosophy, especially Kantian ideas, and engaged deeply with Buddhism.
Confucianism : A Chinese ethical and philosophical tradition centered on moral cultivation, social relationships, and humane government. Mou treated Confucian moral cultivation as a living philosophical tradition, not merely a historical doctrine.
Intellectual intuition : A proposed form of cognition in which understanding directly grasps or produces its object rather than receiving it through the senses. Mou argued that human beings possess a moral form of intellectual intuition, contrary to Kant’s restriction.
Immanuel Kant : An eighteenth-century German philosopher whose critical philosophy examines the limits of knowledge and grounds moral autonomy. Mou adopted Kant’s questions about reason but challenged his restriction of intellectual intuition.
Confucian democracy : A political approach that seeks to reconcile Confucian ethical traditions with democratic institutions and participation. Mou’s later political thought explored how Confucian moral ideals might support modern democratic life.
Contemporary Confucianism : The ongoing interpretation and development of Confucian ideas in contemporary ethical, political, and philosophical debates. Mou’s systematic reconstruction remains a major reference point for contemporary Confucian philosophers.
Kantian philosophy : The philosophical system of Immanuel Kant, which investigates the conditions and limits of human knowledge and moral agency. Mou adapted Kant’s account of moral reason while disputing its limits on human knowledge.
Moral metaphysics : An account of reality in which moral agency or value is fundamental to the structure of being. Mou used moral experience to ground claims about the reality of things in themselves.
Xiong Shili : A twentieth-century Chinese philosopher who developed a metaphysical interpretation of Confucianism shaped partly by Buddhist thought. Xiong was Mou’s teacher and an earlier model for rebuilding Confucian philosophy.
Moral self-cultivation : The deliberate development of ethical understanding and conduct through reflection, practice, and disciplined attention. Mou’s philosophy treats cultivation as the realization of an innate moral capacity.
Confucian ethics : An ethical tradition emphasizing virtues, cultivated relationships, ritual propriety, and humane conduct. Mou gave Confucian ethics a metaphysical defense grounded in moral mind and self-cultivation.
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