This study will compare and contrast the philosophies of Plato and Confucius. Included in the study will be the consideration of what each philosopher believed the role of the individual in the world to be, the relationship of one person to another, and what Plato and Confucius saw as the ultimate concern of an individual in the world. The study will also consider the impact of each philosopher on the cultures in which they lived.
Gerald Clark, in his work Impatient Giant: Red China Today, notes the impact of Confucianism on modern-day China, and in doing so brings out important elements of the philosophy of Confucius in terms of his beliefs about the role of the individual in the world, in society, and in the family: "Confucius, the famous sage of twenty-five hundred years ago, taught that political order, the order of national life, began with the regulation of family life, with the emphasis on 'filial piety,' the respect and obedience of children for parents. After this could come respect for authorities of the state" (Clark, 1959, pp. 101-102).
The question is whether Confucius' ideas had as great an impact in his time as some historians believe. As Clark goes on to say, "Many historians argue that Confucianism as such, a code of ethics and a ritual of social order, never played much of a part among the vast masses of peasants. Its influence was mainly among the mandarin or ruling class, and among intellectuals, and this influence was eliminated long before the Communist revolution" (Clark, 1959, p. 102).
Ironically, however, when Confucianism began to disintegrate among the upper class under Sun Yat-sen, "among the peasants a form of practical Confucianism remained. Not only did fathers expect their sons to stay with them, to help eke out a living from the soil, but whole clans clung together in a sort of mutual-assistance society" (Clark, 1959, p. 102).
Although Confucius was concerned with the individual...