The idea of the unity of knowledge and action as an aim of moral education stipulates that people should carry their knowledge into practice by overcoming the state of separation of knowledge and action. However, according to Wang Yang-Ming's theory, ...
The idea of the unity of knowledge and action as an aim of moral education stipulates that people should carry their knowledge into practice by overcoming the state of separation of knowledge and action. However, according to Wang Yang-Ming's theory, there is originally no separation between knowledge and action, and unpracticed knowledge is not true knowledge. In common view of morality, knowledge of a moral norm is regarded as the prerequisite of moral behavior. On the other hand, in Yang-Ming's doctrine of 'the unity of knowledge and action'[知行合一], moral behavior logically presupposes knowledge which, in his view, is nothing short of 'the true knowledge'[眞知] comprising all moral norms. Here, in contrast with the common sense view, moral actions are temporally prior to knowledge. Chu Hsi's doctrine of 'knowledge preceding action'[先知後行], if interpreted in line with the Neo-Confucianist way of thinking, cannot be the same as the common sense view. 'Knowledge', in his view, refers to the state of mind in which the unmanifested standard of behavior is internalized, and 'action' to the process in which the unmanifested standard becomes manifest in words and deeds in actual situations. This suggests a possible alternative to Wang Yang-Ming's view. The Neo-Confucianistic way of cultivation of mind does justice both to the necessity of absolute standard and the complexity of our moral life. In this respect, it has far-reaching implications for the theory and method of moral education.