Aristotle_And_Confucius__Philosophical_Differences

Aristotle And Confucius: Philosophical Differences 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 socrates, rules, man, confucius, society, must, men, believed, propriety, right, parents, wrong, wisdom, take, said, moral, correct, perfection, laws, government, follow, even, country, action, without, while, state, situation, says, one, individual, every, different, always, zhunzi