Can a Confucian philosopher fix Kant’s greatest blind spot using ancient Buddhist wisdom?

Ideas & Philosophy · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Mou Zongsan, a titan of 20th-century Chinese philosophy, argued that Kant’s moral system was incomplete. By blending Confucian ethics with Tiantai Buddhist metaphysics, Mou proposed a radical moral metaphysics that grants humans the 'intellectual intuition' Kant reserved only for God, aiming to bridge the gap between Eastern and Western thought.

Born in 1909, Mou Zongsan spent his life outside mainland China, eventually becoming an intellectual celebrity in Hong Kong and Taiwan. His massive body of work, spanning over 30 volumes, sought to articulate a 'moral metaphysics'—a system where ontology and morality are inextricably linked. Mou believed that the universe is not merely a collection of objects, but a world of value, and that human moral consciousness is the key to accessing this ultimate reality, or benti.

Mou’s philosophical project was defined by a deep, critical engagement with Immanuel Kant. While he admired Kant, he rejected the idea that human beings are incapable of intellectual intuition. For Mou, if humans lacked this intuitive grasp of the thing-in-itself, the entirety of Chinese philosophy would collapse. He famously attempted to rectify Kant's 'summum bonum' problem—the connection between worthiness and happiness—by applying Tiantai Buddhist ontological concepts to Confucian ethics. This synthesis, often termed 'New Confucianism' or 'Mind Confucianism,' positioned the moral subject as autonomous and capable of transcending the phenomenal world.

His work also involved a complex, often contentious dialogue with Martin Heidegger. Mou translated parts of Heidegger’s work and utilized his ontological framework to reinterpret Chinese thought, yet he ultimately criticized Heidegger for being 'floating' and morally neutral. Mou argued that Heidegger failed to reach the realm of true metaphysics because he remained trapped in a focus on phenomenal beings, lacking the moral awareness inherent in the Confucian tradition. While some scholars suggest Mou may have misinterpreted Heidegger’s transcendental metaphysics, his attempt to unify phenomenal existence with a moral ontological basis remains a cornerstone of modern Chinese philosophy.

Despite his influence, Mou’s legacy remains debated. Traditionalists sometimes criticize his embrace of Western democratic values, while other philosophers question the necessity of his reliance on 'intellectual intuition' to validate Chinese thought. Nevertheless, his 1985 work, On the Summum Bonum, stands as a definitive attempt to construct a 'Confucian Modernity' that speaks to both the ancient sage Mencius and the modern Western subject.

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