區別於經典的原義和朱子之說，陽明之學更具思想個性。「龍場之悟」使陽明將格物致知的用功方向由事物轉向此心，意為心之所發，而物是意之所在，此時格物主要是正其意念之不正，是誠意之功，致知被融攝於格物之中而不具有獨立的工夫地位。致良知宗旨標揭之後，陽明以知為良知，意為良知之動，物主要仍訓「意之所在」，但也兼具了良知明覺之感應者、良知所知之事的義涵。緣此，儘管陽明此時仍主要訓「格」為「正」，但格物的義涵已不再局限於去私復理，更兼有了以良知自有之天則去正物，以使事事物物皆得其應有的理則、秩序之義。格物的工夫地位便由原來的誠意之功變為了從屬於致良知這一首要工夫的施發之實地、實事。

Unlike most of the Confucian classics and Zhu Zi’s thoughts, Yangming’s theory is characterized with his own tinge. His insights in Longchang turns Gewu efforts from things to mind, which is to say that ideas are originated from mind while things are what mind unfolds. Gewu is mainly for correcting inauthentic thoughts, as a result of Chengyi’s achievements. Zhizhi loses its practical concern as it is integrated into Gewu. As the conscience theory goes, aspirations, which are also ideas, are the movements of conscience. Meanwhile, things are still the objects of mind as the latter unfolds itself. They serve to interact with the conscience as the very objects that the conscience could know of. Although Yangming argued that Ge is Zheng, the meaning of Gewu is not only confined to the removal of desires. What is more, it can put things in proper order with the conscience from an ethical point of view. In other words, the practical Gewu has eventually become the realm of what the conscience could unfold itself.