Abstract

Herman Melville's masterpiece Moby Dick is enriched with Melville's profound philosophical thinking about the relationship between man's fate and his attitude towards the external world. Therefore, this thesis, inspired from that, aims to explore its thematic content from a newly philosophical perspective of Confucian theory—the Golden Mean, which is a philosophical theory advocating people should do something for self-cultivation by sincerely seeking for centrality and assessing the situation in order to lead a comfortable life in the complicated external world. This thesis aims to demonstrate that the profound meaning of the survival of Ishmael lies in his way of thinking and conducting that abides by the Golden Mean.

Structurally, this thesis is divided into six chapters. The first chapter is the introduction providing the content, giving out the literature review about the studies on Moby Dick, and showing Melville's life philosophy in Moby Dick. The second chapter researches the overview the origin of the thought of Golden Mean in the ancient Greek and attaches more attention to Aristotle's doctrine of the Golden Mean, and details the Confucian ideology of the Golden Mean. And then the third chapter explores the social settings, the symbolic meaning of the sea in this fiction and Ishmael's and Ahab's cry call for self-cultivation. The fourth chapter discusses both Ahab's and Ishmael's different ways of thinking and conducting for religion, doubloon and Moby Dick that result from their different understanding for seeking for centrality in the Golden Mean. The fifth chapter discusses the two heroes' different choices at the aspect of assessing the situation in the Golden Mean; and demonstrates that Ahab's extreme mind-sets blind him. Therefore, he fails to assess the situation, which prevents him from making necessary change. The final chapter is about the conclusion of the two heroes' different fate and the profound philosophic meaning in Moby Dick. 

Key words: Moby Dick; The Golden Mean; Self-cultivation; Seeking for centrality; Assessing the situation

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1.Introduction-1

2. Studies on the Golden Mean-4

2.1 A General Survey of the Thought of Golden Mean in Ancient Greek-4

2.2 A Research of Confucian Golden Mean-5

3. The Call for the Golden Mean-8

3.1 The Symbol of the Sea-8

3.2 The Evil Side of Industralized Civilization-8

3.3 Ishmael's and Ahab's Plights on the Land-10

4. Ahab's and Ishmael's Contrary Attitudes to Seek for Centrality of the Golden Mean-12

4.1 Ishmael's Neutral Attitude to Religion-12

4.2 Ishmael's Neutral Attitude to Doubloon-13

4.3 Ahab's Extreme Attitude to Moby Dick-13

5. Ahab's and Ishmael's Opposite Choices for Assessing Situation of the Golden Mean-15

5.1 Ishmael's Flexible Mind-sets and Ahab's Inflexible Mind-sets-15

5.2 A Torment for Ahab-16

6.Conclusion-19

Bibliography-20

Acknowledgments-21