Confucianism

Confucius

Confucius was active around the same time as Socrates.

East and West

The Greeks, and from them much of Western philosophy, often think in terms of a split between:

• Mind, or spirit
• Matter, or the world

Eastern thought largely did not make this same split.

From this, three main avenues of thought developed:

1. Daoism: mind and body living in harmony with nature.
2. Confucianism: mind and body living in harmony with society and nature.
3. Chan Buddhism: living in harmony with nature by realizing there is no mind or body.

Li

The heart of Confucian thought lies in the concept of Li, usually translated as ritual.

By performing the rituals correctly, and with the right reverence, we live in harmony both as a society and with nature.

Questions

1. Does living in harmony with society and nature really make the world better? Does it make a person happy?

2. Confucianism highly praises reverence. What is reverence? What sorts of things should we correctly revere?

3. Confucianism is highly hierarchical. Leaders pass down Li from the gods to the people. The people pass down Li to their children. There is a large element of humility in this. What sorts of problems might a highly hierarchical system have?

4. There is a famous story in Confucianism regarding familial loyalty. Loyalty is very important in Confucianism. How important is family loyalty now? Is this good? Is there a case that we in the West should have greater family loyalty? What sorts of problems might family loyalty cause?