When_Socrates_Meets_Confucius4篇范文

InancientChineseandwestern,therearetwoeducationmasterscanbecomparabletoeachother.oneisConfuciusinChinaandtheotheroneistheancientGreekSocrates,whichuptonowarestillpraisedintheworld.Imagine,whenSocratesmeetsConfucius,whatsparkswilltheycollideout?Asweknow,ConfuciusisconsideredasthegreatestoftheancientChinesesages,andSocrateswasanancientGreekphilosopherwhowasregardedasasaintdyingforthepursuitofthetruth.Whenitcomestoeducationalmode,theyhavesomethingincommon,butatthesametimetheystillholdvolumeofdifferentviews.FromtheperspectiveofConfucius,Confuciussteachingmethodisthegentlemantype,althoughintheteachingheisanamiableoldman,heestablishedthebasicspecificationofteachersabsoluteauthority.Ingeneral,Confuciustaughtstudentsbytheknowledge-transferenceway.Althoughhealsopromptedthestudent,whathedidwasintendedtofindwaystoletthemunderstandwhattheteachersaidbetter.Sohewasnothappyforstudentsagainsttheintentionoftheirteacher.Thiseducationalmodeismoretocultivatestudentstotheteachersloyaltyandunderstanding,tobelieveinauthority.However,SocratesteachingmethodswerequitedifferentfromConfucius.Henevertaughtstudentstheready-madeanswers,buttookdispute,cross-examineandsoontoforcestudentstothinkforthemselves,andfinallyfoundtheanswertotheirquestions.Hedidntcarewhethertheythoughtthesamewiththeirteacherandtheybelievewhattheteachersaidornot.TheSocratesmodeismoretocultivatestudentstheirownreasoningabilityandself-awareness.SoPlato,whowasgoodatthinkingandpursuedthedialecticalway,becametheheirofSocrateseducationstyle.Fromthewayofeducation,ConfuciustransmittedknowledgewhileSocratesforcedstudentsthemselvestogetknowledge;ConfuciustaughtpeopletobelievewhileSocratestaughtthemtodoubt.Ofcourse,theybothpaidattentiontotheheuristicteachingandencouragedindependentthinkinginsteadoftheforce-feedingteachingwithresultsgivendirectly.Iftheytwolearnttheteachingideafromeachother,theworldculturewillbefurtherintegration.Also,Chinasfeudalcultureboundwontcontinueforsolong.Lastbutnotleast,theculturalconflictswillbereduced andtheworldwillbemorepeaceful.WhenSocratesmeetsConfuciusInancienttimes,therearetwogreateducator.OnewasConfuciusinChina.TheotherwasSocratesinGreece.Theyarestillbepraisedintheworldtoday.So,nowadayswediscussthetopicwhenSocratesmeetsconfucius.Ofcourse,intherealworld,thereisnochancethattheyencounterwitheachother.However,thereisafieldofconsciousnesswheretheycanexchangeideasthroughmoderncommunicationsinthewholeworld. Becausetheirthoughtsarestillhavingaprofoundimpactonmodernpeople.Notonlydidtheyadvocatedbenevolenceandgoodness,butalsotheypaidattentiontohumanismandconcernedaboutpeopleandsociety.Firstly,iimagethattheywouldbecomegoodfriendsandliveinharmonywitheachotherwhenSocratesmeetsConfucius.ThesearealsoentirelyreflectedfrommodernpeoplecommunicationactivitiessuchasOlympic,Copenhagenconferenceandsoon.Forexample,wearecommittedtopeaceandopposedtothewar.Inaddition,ourcommunicationsbecomemoreandmorefrequentlyinpolitical,economicalandculturalaspects,especiallyinExpo.Besides,manyofthestudentschoosetostudyabroadinordertoexchangeideas.Thus,thereisapeacefulexchangebetweenfriendswhenSocratesmeetsConfucius.Secondly,becausetheyadvocatedbenevolenceandgoodness.Iimagethattheywouldhelpeachotherwhentheywouldhavesufferedfromdifficulties.Itisreflectedfromcountriesintheworld.Whenacountryencounterswithamajordisaster,theothercountrieswillextendahelpinghand.Forexample,anearthquakehadstruckSichuaninchina.Then,manycountriesalsosentsuppliestohelpdealwithsomeproblems.Thirdly,ontheonehand,theyhadtheseideasincommon.Ontheotherhand,theyhadthedifferentemphases.Confuciuslaidemphasisonhumanethics,adjustingtherelationshipbetweenpeople.Hepaidattentiontothesocialnatureofpeople.However,Socratesadvocatedhumanfreedom.Notonlydidhelayemphasisonhuman,butalsoheagainstGod.Hefocusedonthehumanpersonality.Forinstance,Althoughgaymarriagecannotbelegallyrecognizedinchinatoday.Intheus,theyarenotonlyabletoreceiveamarriagecertificate,butalsotheycanadoptachild,whichisduetothattheyfocusonpersonality.Thus,theydonotscrupleonpursuingsomething.Allinall,whenSocratesmeetsConfucius,itisnotonlyafeastofideasexchanged,butalsoitisaculturalcollision.When Socrates Meets Confucius Giants always represent their age,and they are always symbols of human civilization.Each nation owns its sages.In the east,Confucius is considered as the greatest saint.He is the major founder of our profound traditional Chinese culture and was rewarded as one of “the Top Ten Cultural Celebrities”. Confucianism, which he established and developed by his follower, had a significant influence on the formation of our national characteristics.His theory relates to politics,economy ,education and aesthetics.Confucius was respected and remembered by offspring. At the same time ,Socrates was like a star shining in the sky of west.He was known as “the western Confucius”. As an Asian ,I know little about Socrates. But there is always a conventional image in my mind : an old man,barefoot ,in rags ,looking in to the sky and lost in thought.He has contributed to the western culture such as sociology ,education,natural philosophy,ethics and so on .In a word,they both share great fame in history and make significant sacrifices to the world. Although they lived in a different area and had different and created different life path, they shared some points in common. First, they are both not accepted by their age . To some extent,it is like a tragedy. Socrates accepted the final trial and died by drinking poison. Meanwhile ,Confucius led a vagrant life for years. The roots of their tragedy are that their advanced and profound thoughts conflict with the inherent social institutions and the interests of high ranks. Socrates lived in Athens where the democratic system has just boomed and the public worship absolute democracy as a guarantee of their happy life. However,there are many inherent errors. The absolute democracy means nothing. People may decided the important social affairs just by wills. Leaders chose by the system might not own the management talent. Socrates observed the fault and pointed it out loud to the public. He promoted that the king or those who had specialized abilities should govern the country. And rulers were ought to make rules and send commands, the ruled were ought to observe the orders. To some extent,it was the right medicine to the “illness” of the system and emphasized the leaders excellent abilities. However,it went against the public will and sent Socrates to the last trail. So did Confucius. He lived in the Spring and Autumn Period ,which was a famous discord times in history. Every powerful chief set up their own separatist regime by force of arms and competed to enlarge their territory. They regarded the legalism as the only approach to success. Confucius promoted that the king should treat their people by benevolence. They should set the public interests as the first standard to make decisions. The thoughts were fit for a peaceful dynasty to consolidate power. So Confucius thoughts can not be employed in this era and he lived a frustrated life. While they were failed in politics, they both played an important role in education and shared great fame . They set the “it is never too old to learn” as their life motto. When Socrates was young,he was interested in natural philosophy and learned from people in the markets.He never gave up any chance to learn.And Confucius was born in a scholarly family.His mother created a great atmosphere for him to grow up and he read a lot at a young age.Then he learned various skills from famous teachers and did a great job.He once went to Zhou Dynasty to discuss issues with Laozi and respected laozi as his teacher.His famous sayingTwo heads are always better than oneperfectly proved this.Both Socrates and Confucius are good at teaching.They combined the knowledge with conversations.They did not directly gave the correct answer and just led others to think and comprehensive,which is quite different from the teaching methods of today.Socrates irony was the earliest form of debate.Through the conversation,let others found the contradiction and got the answer.They thought they did not know everything and kept modest.What they did was helping others to develop themselves.Their words were all recorded by their students through conversations.In a word, they spread knowledge. They did not set certain standards for their students.No matter rich or poor,they treated them all the same.In face of the knowledge,everyone is equal.And they did not build schools,but taught students everywhere in a causal atmosphere.In the little woods,Socrates talked with his students and discussed the vital issues.Confucius taught his students during the journey around the countries.His students followed him and took care of each other.He promoted that the poor should have the same opportunity to get education.Yan Hui,his favorite student,lived a poor life.Their students played a significant role in history like Plato and 72 persons of virtue. They concentrated more on the ethics and came up with standards to be a gentleman.Socrates thought virtue was knowledge.Only when a person own the ethical knowledge ,would he do the moral conduct.He believed that everyone was born with moral sense.Ethics was the basic norm of behaviour.The core of Confucius theories was benevolence.He encouraged people to be kind to others.Do not push or force others to do the things they are unwilling to do.They all regard ethics as the core value of life.They promote people with moral virtue to take charge of the country. Although Socrates and Confucius have so much in common,there are still many differences based on the different background.In the west,nearly everyone think that God created the world.They think highly of religion and the bishop take charge of the social business.So Socrates theories are connected with the God.Although he did not worship the god that westerners believed in,he approved that some deity was really existing.And the deity was omnipotent and knowledgeable.However people are ignorant.The most significant thing of life is learning about oneself.While in the east,the feudalism is gradually forming,and people are connected with agriculture.Confucius theories are more about national life.He advocates the etiquette of Zhou Dynasty and wants to set it as standard of behaviour which is based on the education that he received. And Socrates theories are more abstract,he pays attention to the philosophy about human beings and society. He brings the philosophy from heaven to the ground and to peoples normal life. He says that people need to learn about themselves. The world and the knowledge are changeable. Human are actually ignorant. Only the deity is really wise. He created a new era. He also thinks that soul is immutable and there are differences between mind and matter. He is regarded as the founder of Idealism. He came up with inductive demonstration of argumentation and general definition.,which are the starting point of science. The process of debate is getting conclusion. The most famous is Spiritual midwifery method. However ,Confucius theories are specific,such as how to be a gentleman,how to study and so on. He concentrates more on the self improvement. He is the model of Chinese.In my opinion,we should regard Socrates and Confucius as the bridge of communication between the west and east. Nowadays ,globalization is an irreversible trend. And cooperation is necessary for all the countries. They are all the representatives of their culture and have a profound influence on the generations. However ,most people are just familiar with their own sage and know little about other culture. It is a must to introduce the sage to each other and get more connection. Recently ,China has built many Confucius Institutes all over the world to spread the Chinese culture and led a Mandarin fever. A great many foreigners get access to learn about China and study aboard in China. But Chinese have few chances to know about western culture.,although they have a fancy on western festivals. To learn about a culture need learn the intention and history. I hope that government or organizations could recommend more cultural sages like Socrates to us to exchange culture. What impressed me most are their views on education. It is apparent to see that the government try to give every kid an opportunity to receive education. The civil organizations also contribute a lot to the Hope Project. Now, the serious issue is how to give education. What students received today is exam-oriented education. Students can not learn skills but to recite knowledge points to get high marks. Before university, the ultimate goal is to enter the best university. Students study for 12 years just to get a passport to university. In the process, the loss of creativity and imagination is inestimable.Socrates and Confucius use conversations to lead students to find answers themselves. The western education is more free and flexible. We should combine the advantages to develop a valuable to teach. After getting into college,many students lost their directions and be confused about future. Some are even addicted to games. We should learn from the sage ,they are learning all the time. When Socrates meets Confucius, they will discuss life ,ethics and so on. The most important is they want to leave their wisdom the next generations and lead them to live a happy life. Sages are like lighthouses to point the right directions when human are confused.Reference: 1.the origin of western wisdomWhen Socrates Meets Confucius I believe that many people are not sure what will happen if Socrates and Confucius met at the same time. Perhaps there are many similarities and differences in all aspects between them. I am more interested in their perspective in education. Now let me use an example to represent their educational point of view. Socrates and Confucius were privileged to teach in the same school. One day, a student asked Confucius, A man fell into the water, I saved him and then his family prepare to send me a head of cattle, should I accept it or not? Confucius told him, You have to accept it, you think, you saved him, what would his family think? And then what would they do? The student replied, theyll appreciate me, wanted to repay me, and then they will give me something to express their gratitude to me. Confucius said, If you accept her gift of what other people think? And then what would you do it? The students add, everyone can see me saving rewards, recognizing the benefits of saving, it would raise the enthusiasm of saving people, later saw people fall into the water will rush to him. Confucius noded. The student put the same question to ask the other teacher, Socrates. Socrates asked him, What is your own opinion? And why do you think