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Confucius
In traditional Western culture, especially in its Puritan and Kantian form, duty was usually contrasted with pleasure-- the highest moral ideal was to be able to do one's duty despite deriving no sense of pleasure from this. For Confucians, the highest ideal was to so integrate moral goodness into one's personality that one would find pleasure in being good."
People in the Western world often judge an action not on its actual merit or on its results, but rather, on how much suffering the person was willing to undergo. This is true somewhat in other cultures, such as Confucian societies, but as the author shows, Western notions of duty, pleasure, and goodness conflict with Confucian notions of duty, pleasure, and goodness in that "the Confucian ideal is the thorough integration of goodness into one's personality, so that one would spontaneously want to do what is right, without a sense of having to force oneself to do it by will power.
In many non-Confucian, especially Christian cultures, people feel obliged to do good deeds. For example, people need to be motivated by guilt in order to help someone in need, or motivated by the law. According to Confucianism, on the other hand, the desire to help others in need can and should arise naturally. The desire to help others therefore becomes a pleasurable activity, not a chore.
Part of the reason for the difference in approach to duty and goodness among these different societies is that Christian mythology is based on martyrdom. Jesus Christ died; he made the ultimate sacrifice of his life in order to help other people. Because Confucian society is based more on personal responsibility for moral action rather than on faith, it makes sense that for the Confucian, good deeds come from within, not from external motivation. Christians are often motivated by a fear of God or of retribution; they are taught that they will "go to Hell" if they do this or don't do that. Confucians, who are not taught this concept of morality, view goodness as something positive to be cultivated, and consequently view pleasure not as a negative but as a positive aspect of human existence.
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