On October 25th an event took place as part of the project "Between Choice and Determinism: Cultural Diversity in the Experience and Conceptualization of Free Will, Success and Fortuity".
In the seminar-discussion, the concept of destiny based on the Confucian concept of “ming” was discussed. The author of the main report was dr. Vytis Silius (Vilnius University; Sun Yat-sen University). Commentators: doc. Agnė Veisaitė (Hong Kong City University) and dr. Paulius Rimkevičius (Vilnius University).
One of the most important terms in traditional China, ming 命, is often interpreted and translated as "destiny." In this discussion it was presented how the term "destiny" looks at the study of modern Western philosophy, psychology, anthropology. The author of the main report dr. Vytis Silius briefly introduced the concept of ming in the works of classical Confucianism and presented how a confuciatory interpretation of ming can offer us a new treatment of the concept of destiny and its psychological impact. During his research, V. Silius noticed that "fate" is treated negatively exclusively in Western academic literature, especially in philosophy, but also in other sciences and thus in "fate research" a "passivity attitude" has emerged.
In the discussion below, doc. Agnė Veisaitė added the Confucian conception of destiny with the ethics of roles and stated that in any moment of life, a person has certain roles that are best seen in relation to ming. The speaker compared the concepts of the fate of two different cultures, citing Jean-Paul Sartre, who said: "Man is free to make his own choices, but is “condemned” to be free, because we did not create ourselves“ and argues that in Confucianism man is condemned to be a man. She concluded her report with the idea that there will be no escape from fate, in the sense that it is impossible to escape from the roles of life roles or in the context of ming and we live with a great responsibility to be human.
Philosopher dr. Paulius Rimkevičius, through fatalistic perception in the context of Western philosophy, presented the concept of destiny from a philosophical perspective, and raised the question of whether people in principle believe in destiny. To believe that nothing depends on our actions is a false belief. The philosopher tried to present a sense of destiny by giving it a scientific spirit when man seeks what can change, what cannot change, and on what it depends. Philosophical beliefs in man depend on continuous self-education and a culture that supports those beliefs. Belief in destiny is neither a false belief nor a philosophical one, because people usually do not have philosophical beliefs, because if they have it, it takes effort and for the culture around you to support and reinforce that belief.
Indologist, prof. A. Beinorius, presented the concept of destiny from an Indian perspective. He argued that the entire Indian civilization and culture is accused of fatalism and reconciliation with the inevitability of karma, and that the concept of Indian karma speaks to a certain causality. All this reinforces the motive of the inevitability of fate in Indian culture.
The record of the discussion (in Lithuanian) is on our Youtube channel.