struggling with the world 171
In the teaching of Confucianism, we advance both through our con-
formity to the rules and rituals of social life and through the cumula-
tive enhancement of our ability to imagine other people: their experi-
ence and their needs. Here the foundation of altruism is no longer our
universal affi nity, secured through shared kinship in the one being. It is
the recognition that within a dark and meaningless cosmos the only
reality of unquestionable value is the experience of personality and of
personal encounter. Once again, the model of our relations to one an-
other is that of a selfl ess and inclusive fellow feeling. We must perform
our roles and honor the obligations that we have to others by virtue of
occupying the social stations that we do.
Despite the sharp contrast between the metaphysical grounding of
altruism in the overcoming of the world and its anti- metaphysical de-
fense in the humanization of the world, the practical consequences for the
conduct of life are similar. In both instances, from widely contrasting
perspectives, we are taught that the highest standard to which we
should aspire in our relations to one another is a detached and sacrifi -
cial benevolence. Such benevolence is marked by certain attributes that
reappear, although with diff erent connotations and justifi cations, in
both views. Th ese attributes take hold whether the distinctive vision is
that of a Confucian, a Buddhist, or a Stoic.
First, altruism motivates generosity off ered from on high by an indi-
vidual who has advanced to a higher state of insight and of life. He off ers
it to an individual who is ordinarily less advanced. Th e higher being is
less needy: in par tic u lar, less needy of other people. His greatness lies in
part in his relative freedom from such need, achieved through the de-
manding cultivation of both the mind and the will. He is not benevolent
because he is incomplete without the other person. He is benevolent out
of a surfeit of his own goodness as well as out of insight into the truth
about the cosmos or about humanity.
Second, altruism is unilateral in practice and in intention. Its value
and effi cacy do not depend on any par tic u lar response or counterper-
for mance by its benefi ciary. In fact, the less the altruist receives in re-
turn for his altruism, the more sacrifi cial his conduct becomes, and the
higher it rises on the moral scale. On that scale, selfl essness is the most
reliable standard of ennoblement.