Aristotle And Confucius: Philosophical Differences

6 Pages 1593 Words

Aristotle once said, “Man is by nature a political animal.” While this may be true, men are by no means bound to agree with one another regarding politics. In Confucius’ book The Analects and in Socrates’ book Crito, these philosophers offer differing solutions to the problems of their countries by addressing the areas of right conduct, effective government, and moral perfection. Their solutions differ because their respective cultures stressed very different morals.
Confucius believed that the most important virtue a person could have was a respect for the rules of propriety, the rules governing the attitudes of society. In The Analects, he said that “Respectfulness, without the rules of propriety, becomes laborious bustle; carefulness, without the rules of propriety, becomes timidity; boldness, without the rules of propriety, becomes insubordination; straightforwardness, without the rules of propriety, becomes rudeness.” He believed that without these rules, society would cease to function as a body. He said that it was through strictly following this set of specific rules that men in society would become upright citizens. Key to the rules of propriety was the idea of filial piety, the support and respect of one’s parents. Confucius argued that even animals can take care of their parents, thus men must go further than support and show their parents and ancestors total reverence. Confucius said that if a man shows his parents and ancestors total respect in life, death, and sacrifice, he will be totally fulfilling his duty as a son. This will place him on the road to becoming an individual of moral perfection.
In stark contrast to Confucius, Socrates believed that the greatest virtue a man could have was wisdom. In Crito, Socrates says that the only opinions of value are those of wise men and that often the majority can be wrong. He said that wisdom allowed a man to know the correct action to take in every ...