Plato Essay, Research Paper

Living Well According to Confucius and Plato

Both Confucius and Plato considered the question, what form of community is best for all those who are most able to realize their ideal life. Living well is having a life that is both satisfying and fulfilling. Displeased with their individual state governments and cultures both Confucius and Plato began to question the basis of their society. Both men strove toward a Utopia, were all people could live a satisfying and fulfilling life.

Based on Plato s experience in Athens and with the unjust death of his teacher and friend Socrates, Plato had come to distrust the workings of democracy. It was obvious to him that individuals could not attain a good, ethical life unless they lived in a just and rational state. Plato thus constructed the idea of the ideal state or society which is described in The Republic. Plato believed that “the greater the unity of the state the better” and that is what all people should strive for in order to live well. In his ideal state, the republic is to be divided into three classes, the rulers, who are the philosophers with ethical knowledge of what is good in human life, the guardians, who keep order in the society and identify their good with the good of the society, and then the citizens who provide society with their material needs. To Plato, living well is knowing your place within this structure and to do all you can for the betterment of society. To live well in Plato s Republic each group fulfilled its assigned role which created a society which functioned harmoniously as one. People were not concerned with personal wealth or prestige in Plato s Republic like they were in Athens, and as a result everyone in the society led a better life.

Plato defines a city as a “settlement of many people who gather in a single place to live together as partners and helpers” (396C). All members of the society contribute to it by doing what they are best suited, by their nature, to do, and irrespective of their own judgments about how best to live their lives (462C). Thus, the society is like one individual guided by the same beliefs, morals, and thoughts. Plato believes that only the city constructed in the Republic is genuinely a city because other are too divided between rich and poor and have too many conflicting interests and values (422E). Plato s ideal of living well is living within his society in the Republic where unity is the root of goodness and that the virtues of wisdom, moderation, and justice are the components of the good life in a civilization.

Community and striving for the betterment of society is what living well means to Plato. One should not be concerned with personal fulfillment and desires and should instead be concerned with the welfare of the state. Plato saw this as the future of society and that the key to unity of the community was knowing your place and performing your duties within the society.

Confucius was also disgusted with the direction his government and culture were going. But instead of creating a totally new society like that in The Republic, Confucius wanted to get back to the old way of life. Confucius believed that his society could be saved if it emphasized sincerity in personal and public conduct. The key to the orderly social life was the gentlemen. He defined the gentlemen as person of good moral character who were reverent in their worship and rituals and who also respected his father and ruler. Confucius wanted to get back to the time when people respected authority and abided by the definite rules of conduct. Confucius included many of these rules in the saying “What I do not want others to do to me, I have no desire to do to others” (Book 5 v.11). Confucianism in short is a guide to individual duty and morality in society.

To live well, Confucius believed we had to get back to moral ideals and to strive for good in society. “Without goodness a man cannot for long endure adversity, cannot for long enjoy prosperity” (Book 4 v.3). Confucius wanted to strive for goodness but it had to be found with in yourself through self examination. A person should constantly examine themselves because that is the only way that they will find faults.

Confucius never comes right out and says what you need to live well or what is “good”. Goodness I think is found through the pursuit of knowledge and intelligence and also by the constant examination of one s self. The problem is that people don t strive very hard to build up their moral character and to better themselves. This point is proved in the passage: ” I have never yet seen anyone whose desire to build up his moral power was as strong as his sexual desires” (Book 9 v.4). Goodness is a practice and not a state of being. People have to work to be good and find goodness in themselves. “If one looks out for faults it is only as a means of recognizing goodness” (Book 4 v.7). We should thus fix our faults and to learn from others and their experiences. That is part of the reason why Confucius says to respect your elders because you can learn from their experiences and wisdom they have gained.

To live well is to pursue good in your daily life. By constantly pursuing good you improve yourself and society. If you stop pursuing goodness them according to Confucius ” the gentleman who ever parts company with Goodness does not fulfill that name. Never for a moment does a gentleman quit the way of goodness” (Book 4 v. 5)

The way of goodness is contagious according to Confucius and that when gentlemen were rulers, their moral example would inspire all those beneath them to lead good lives. Virtuous behavior by rulers had a greater effect in governing than did laws and codes of punishment.

Plato and Confucius both have very good ideas about what living well. But I think Confucianism is the more practical out of the two views. I would tend to integrate more of Confucius beliefs into my own life than that of Plato s. Plato s idea of living well looks very good on paper but really isn t possible. It sounds nice to have everyone unified for the common goal of bettering your society and country but from what history tells us is that it is not possible. Plato s Republic is nothing more than the definition of communism. Russia is the perfect example of a county who used Plato s idea of a republic and failed miserably. Both Confucius and Plato talk about unity but they talk about them in different ways. Confucius wanted to unite everyone by morals, public service and respect for authority and people. He was also more about personal behavior and how to be a person of good moral character. This betters society without radically changing the structure of it. If Athens would have used the ideas of Confucius in their society it would have been a much better place to live.

The Athenian convicted Socrates for corrupting the youth but essentially he was doing the same thing as Confucius. He taught people how to examine the world in which they live and to ask questions. ” The good ” was achieved through the pursuit of knowledge and truth according to Confucius. He also taught that knowledge was gained by examining the self. The Socratic method itself uses the same question and answer technique in order to lead pupils to see things using their own reason. Confucius and Socrates were more alike in this sense than Plato and Confucius. Plato had a distorted view of what was needed in society because of his anger over the death of Socrates. Plato went to the extreme of communism to try to get rid of the problems of the Athenian government. What he did not realize was that he created a whole new set of problems with his view of what living well meant.

Confucianism is much better because it addressed the problems within the society without creating new ones. Plato s Republic sounds good, but if put to practical use it would be a disaster.