The Phenomenology of Guilt: A Clarification with Confucian Discourse

With the help of phenomenological analysis, this paper elucidates the experience of guilt by examining discourses in Confucianism and the writings of Western scholars. The opening section investigates the nature of the feeling of guilt, which is rendered in academic studies as a feeling of either wrongdoing or not treating others well. After having clarified its nature of wrongness, the second section continues with the classification of two dimensions of guilt, namely, external conviction and internal self-accusation. The tension between the two leads us, in the next section, to working out the paradox between two opposite virtues in Confucianism: the joy of clear conscience and the uneasiness of guilty conscience. Based on the inquiry into the phenomenon of guilt in the first three sections, the last section expounds its effect, enabling us to see the relevant moral and religious issues more clearly.