muflax65ngodyewp.onion/drafts/liangzhi.mkd

---
title: Teaching Morality Through Examples
date: 2011-11-24
techne: :rough
episteme: :believed
---

# Introduction

Traditionally, morality is approached through definitions and rules. I tell you
"consequences matter" and then you know that consequences are morally important.
This doesn't work. Centuries of debates have shown that no rule really works. At
worst, it introduces politics. Now it's [consequentialists][Consequentialism]
vs. [deontologists][Deontology] and we don't get anywhere.

I want to try a different way. In education, we already know that definitions
and rules are useless. We need examples and classifications. The words we use
aren't relevant. So I'm not going to teach you "morality". I'm teaching you a
specific concept that matters a lot to me. Sometimes I call it *morality*. But
this time I'm going to call it *liangzhi*. You probably don't know what liangzhi
means. That's good. There won't be any wrong associations in your mind. It isn't
a concept that maps to any particular word. You can't translate it. But you can
learn it anyway.

Here is how. I will give you a couple of examples. For each example, I will tell
you if it is liangzhi or not. Then I will give you some unclassified examples
and ask you if you think they are liangzhi. (Please really answer.) Then I tell
you if you're right. After the examples, you should get it. (If you don't, I
failed.) You might not know how to put liangzhi into words and worry. Or you
might want to say "Oh, liangzhi means X!". Please don't do either of these
things. Just accept "I now know what muflax means by liangzhi". This is all you
need. You don't need theories or definitions. You just need to know. Then right
action will follow.

# Liangzhi

## Consent

## Contracts

## Duties

## Honor

## Liangzhi

# Some Comments

This teaching approach is called [Direct Instruction][]. It's based on
[Engelmann][]'s [Theory of Instruction][]. The name "liangzhi" means "innate
knowledge" and comes from [Confucianism][]. I took it from [Wang Yangming][].
The sub-concepts are similarly taken from Pali, Chinese and other languages. You
can google them if you want. The meanings I taught you don't exactly correspond
to the original ones, but that doesn't matter. Labels are irrelevant. The more
alien they are, the better. What you need are wordless ideas and using a
language you already know will just confuse you.

The idea that you only need to properly understand something and then right
action will always follow is called the [Unity of Knowledge and Action][] in
Yangming's philosophy. You are never divided. You can never fail to do what is
right. You can only be confused.

I have covered several important positions in morality. Please don't think I'm
directly advocating a specific take on them, or that you have to adopt them.
This is not about politics. However, these topics have lots of good discussion.

- Antinatalism
- Deontology