孔子在《論語》中回應弟子門人問「仁」的方式總是「為仁」的方法，即如何由實踐中證立「仁」。孔子在回答其他重要的概念時，都是以如何能達成諸如君子、孝、智、政，等等，孔子都是以如何實踐為教。因此，本文以《論語》「學而第一」的第一章分析論證《論語》實是一部「工夫論」的哲學，或是一超乎哲學的「教」。孔子之教奠定了中國哲學是一實踐進路的哲學。孔子自述一生之進境，即顯示生命境界之不斷擴展，層層上升，最後達至「踐仁成聖」的境界。而孔子之「踐仁知天」即由實踐工夫所至的對於絕對而無限的天命天道的體證。聖人的生命不但由實踐知天，而且體現最高存有之天道於生命，即是以工夫實踐詮釋最高存有，也是生命的最高價值的實現，此可名為工夫詮釋學。實踐工夫的詮釋是攝物歸心，與物無對，生命至此體現仁者與天地萬物為一體之全部意義與價值。實踐進路的詮釋不但不同而且有進於觀解的進路。觀解理性所見仍不免有相和有主客對立之弊，未能真正體現無我而與物一體之境界。工夫對天道的詮釋正是中國哲學的實踐進路的具體明確的表現，以及由是而有的種種的哲學論述。

In The Dialects, when Confucius responds numerous times to his disciples asking what ren is, Confucius always offers a way to practice ren. Confucius responds in the same way when asked about other important concepts Hence, The Dialects is a book of moral cultivation. Thus it is a book of philosophical teaching for life, much more than just a philosophy. Confucius lays the foundation of practical approach for doing philosophy.
In moral practice, life starts an upward and expanding development and revealing a richer and richer horizon and life world. When Confucius talks about the stages of his own life it is an upward development of his life in “realizing saintliness through practicing ren,” and ultimately arrives the state of a sage at seventy. And, through his moral practice of “realizing Heaven (Dao) through practicing ren,” Confucius achieved the highest level of life by realizing personally the Heavenly Mandate or Dao in his life. It is a practical way of interpreting the Dao and thus a hermeneutic of Dao or the highest Being. I call this a moral cultivation hermeneutic of Dao. In moral practice, the heart/mind of the person resolves with the object and the other, and unify the world as One without a subject-object dichotomy, It is different and fares better in hermeneutic of the world than the western way of understanding the world with theoretical reason. For, the latter could not be totally free from limited and biased subject-object dichotomy and could never achieve a state of egoless holistic world view. Thus moral cultivation hermeneutic is a distinctive way of understanding the human life and the world and is the way of transcending the limitation of theoretical reason.