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Plato on human nature
Plato on human nature
Plato's view on human nature
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A Community of Inquiry, a social gathering of where participants put forth their views and questions are debated, fosters critical reasoning and the ability to express oneself. With regards to human nature, a complex notion that has been described extensively by different philosophies and religions, a CI can be the remedy to a theories diagnosis; yet can also counteract the remedy put forth by the theory. Each human has his or her own theory as to our nature, some classing while others align. Therefore, this essay will explore the merits and pitfalls to engaging in a CI with two distinct theories of human nature being debated. Plato, the student of Socrates, believed that the best life that is most beneficial to humans involves reasoning. …show more content…
He believes that humans have the ability to exercise free will in certain areas of life, even though we do not have control over our destiny. Humans are also malleable, constantly evolving. Confucius proclaims there are five distinct things wrong with human nature. The first is that humans are greedy, in that we yearn for money and profit. Human also lack respect of others, as well as being untrustworthy, proclaiming one thing and doing another. Humans tend to ignore their past, leading them prone to moral adrift and wrong action. Finally Confucius states that benevolence or human relationships are rare and not …show more content…
Communities of Inquiry, as stated before with Plato’s view foster education. Though education in these sessions are not what Confucius had in mind for remedying ignorance. Educations in CI’s are current, with present day issues usually being discuses, and present day examples and information being put forth. The Community ignores the past, because it is irrelevant to their discussions. The past is already solved, and any unresolved issues are not in the past, they are present issues. Therefore in a Community, education of the present is actually encouraged by the CI, therefore hindering the remedy for ignorance, which is past education. Participation in a CI therefore due to this hindrance of past education causes
To begin, Confucianism is a system of philosophical and ethical teachings founded by Confucius. Confucianism was the code of ethics accepted as the certified religion of most of the immense empires in the territory since the Han Dynasty. Confucianism provided an outline of ethical and religious beliefs that most of the Chinese expanded to make other religions such as Daoism and Legalism. To expand, Confucianism was founded by Confucius and his beliefs on the political and social order of China. Confucius believed that everything would fall into place if children had respect for their parents and if the rulers were honest. In Confucianism, specific roles were followed by each person in the family. The head of the family, the father, was the one primarily in control and then it was the oldest son that was next in line. Confucius had the belief that a ruler has to be everything he wants
Mencius believed that human nature was inherently good. Through his writing, Mencius tends to use metaphors to get his point across, some of which were very hard to understand. One that he uses to explain his theories is, “Human nature is inherently good, just like water flows inherently downhill” (Mencius 79). He makes it seem as if it is obvious that human nature is good by the way he states how water flows downhill. He also states, “You can make them evil, but that says nothing about human nature” (Mencius 79). Even though some points were made effectively, his writing style and overuse of metaphors that no one understands made his argument weak. Overall, Mencius truly believed that the human nature of man was inherently good.
Confucius was a philosopher, political intellect and an educator whose philosophies have significantly prejudiced not only the Chinese principles but the entire world evolution. He lived through the “Spring” and “Autumn” epoch of Chinese history, when east central China was separated over a dozen fighting states. The inordinate ailment and grief he saw swayed his political thoughts, which highlighted command, grading and the rule of a compassionate self-governing state.
Hsun Tzu, a follower of Confucius, believed that human nature was to be fundamentally evil. Tzu, in “Encouraging Learning, wrote to Confucians questioning why should they be educated and what human nature really was. Since Confucius never stated his thought on human nature, some people suspect that humans needed to be educated not because they were evil, but because it was moral, and that way they could become into the person Confucius taught them to be. Tzu disagrees with this because of his belief, that humans, in fact, were born with wrong ideals. Tzu considers human nature to take its course on people, and that is why some people are inferior to others. But, with proper training and education, Tzu agrees Confucians can become a better person, and not just that they are becoming into the people that they are meant to be. It could be that Tzu wrote this to straighten out the mystery of what human nature was and how to fix humans evil nature.
Community is like a Venn diagram. It is all about relations between a finite group of people or things. People have their own circles and, sometimes, these circles overlap one another. These interceptions are interests, common attitudes and goals that we share together. These interceptions bond us together as a community, as a Venn diagram. A good community needs good communication where people speak and listen to each other openly and honestly. It needs ti...
Humans are not by nature meant to be unsociable or alone. Rather, “being truly human and living in community are inseparable.” The very essence of human existence relies upon the communal rather than the individualistic. For humans, the only way that a person can become a complet...
So to better understand the reasoning behind man's need to be in the community it is imperative to look at nature. In the wild and brutal game of life the only measure of true success is whether genes are passed on. Like any other animal this measure of success measures man's success too. For all creatures, to survive is the chance at continuing a gene line, and it is this necessity to continue the line that is innately imbedded in man and all other creatures.
The teachings according to Confucius refer to Confucianism. Confucianism is the multifarious classification of ethical, collective, political and pious philosophy developed by Confucius and the old Chinese practices (Bertrand, 1999). Confucianism aim is actually making an individual honorable but also making such an individual the character of learning and of proper manners. The ideal and faultless man has to combine the characters of a saint, an intellectual and gentleman. Confucianism is a religious conviction whose adulation is focused on offerings to the dead. The idea of responsibility is extensive beyond the precincts of morals and holds close to the minutiae of daily living.
In his book The Community of Those Who Have Nothing in Common, Alphonso Lingis (1994) discusses community and proposes an untraditional view of community, the “other community”. Traditionally community is known as a social structure in which individuals have something in common. This usually refers to a shared location, shared identity or common values or beliefs. In this traditional view or “rational community” these commonalities are crucial in uniting individuals.
Confucius, the founding philosopher of Confucianism, never explicitly details what he believes to be the inherent nature of humans. However, through his teachings and writings, his opinion can be understood to be that humans reach good nature, through self-cultivation and self-improvement. He believes that humans are improvable and teachable, but lack virtue. “Confucius
Confucianism is a moral and religious system of China. Its origins go back to the Analects, the sayings attributed to Confucius, and to ancient writings, including that of Mencius. Confucius was born a mandarin under the name Kongzi. It was developed around 550 B.C. In its earliest form Confucianism was primarily a system of ethical concepts for the control of society. It saw man as a social creature that is bound to his fellow men by jen, or “humanity.” Jen is expressed through the five relationships—sovereign and subject, parent and child, elder and younger brother, husband and wife, and friend and friend. Of these, the filial relation is most important.
... Confucianism was all about loving each other, and it united the Chinese people in a way they had never been before. Confucius’s ideas helped achieve a peaceful Chinese society. In my opinion, Confucius was right to believe that man can attain the ideal character through education, self -reflection, and self- effort, however, I do not know if society could remain intact if everything were based on the trust system. Even with laws and punishments, people commit felonies, and I can only begin to imagine what the world would be like if the only things stopping a murderer from killing were his morals.
In the category of view of society, each belief has a different view. The Confucians believed that you develop good character through a good life and that everyone has their own role.
What is human nature for Confucius? What evidence does he give to show that his views about human nature are correct? Confucius is known for stressing that human nature is intrinsically good. He stresses that human beings are born with the ability to differentiate between wrong and right. A person may not be aware from infancy which acts are tolerable and which acts are not, but all offspring feel shame, and once the children learn which deeds are bad or good, they have a normal tendency to consent to the former and criticize the latter (Van and Bryan 27).
Education is the act or process of providing knowledge skills or competence by a formal course of instruction or training. Through out history societies have sought to educate their people to produce goods and services, to respond effectively and creatively to their world, and to satisfy their curiosity and aesthetic impulses. To achieve reliable knowledge and to think systematically. Over the course of human history education has appeared in many forms, both formalised and informal. Major thinkers have always recognised the educational value of intellectual exploration and of concrete experimentation. Most societies have attempted to standardise the behaviour of their members. These societies have apprenticeship systems by which the young have learned to imitate the beliefs and behaviours of a given group. Teachers have worked within schools of thought cults, monasteries and other types of organisations to shape desired convictions, knowledge and behaviour. Such philosophical and religious leaders as the Budha, Confucius, Pythagoras, Jesus, Moses, Muhammad and Karl Marx instructed their disciplines through informal education.