李卓吾是晚明毀譽兩極的思想家，五四以來備受學者之關注；而耿定向是晚明泰州王學健將，卻因與李卓吾之長年論戰，而受後世學者的貶抑忽略。二人論戰之內容及其意義，在既有的研究中少有深入探討，本文則關注到二人在面對不同講學對象（上上人或下下人）時，其主張看似存有紛歧與矛盾，但其中卻凸顯二人在儒學如何落實於生命實踐乃至社會教化的問題上，實皆有極為真切的思考。二人表面上的矛盾並不足以論證此是彼非，而僅是彼此關切之重點層面有別；然而其中確實亦存在難以解消的困境，此一疑難非僅存於耿、李二人之學術，而乃儒學發展上具有普遍性意義之論題，故深入發掘耿、李之學術及其論爭之內涵，亦有助於後人反思晚明儒學之成就與局限。

Li Zhuo-wu was a celebrated heretical thinker in the Late-Ming Dynasty. Keng Ting-hsiang was a scholar of Taichou School, being an influence on the academia of the Late-Ming Dynasty. But in the later period, the scholars ignored his teachings. For the Li’s advocating staunchly of “true Confucianism”, and the continuous debates among Li and Keng, the scholars generally regarded Keng as a pseudo-Confucian. However, Li criticized severely Keng on the one part, but still eulogized that Keng was a sage on the other part. Then we should reconsider the biased view on Keng’s teachings. The learning of Keng and Li were both the practical wisdom, they extremely paid close attention to the questions about the geniuses and the featureless multitudes should apply to different teaching methods and subjects. They focused on the students.The dissimilar opinions of Keng and Li were displayed the difficulties and the predicaments of Confucianism, nothing for right or wrong. Their debates could help us to explore the meaning of their theories in Confucian’s development. We could think about the questions comprise the ideal and reality, the predicament, and the future of Confucianism.