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The Greatest Thinkers part 2 (Confucius)

The next section of the book is about Confucius and it left me feeling shorted.  The contributer of that section, Pamela Gray, starts off with the observation that under Confucius the most important aspect is how people relate to each other.  The view is that it doesn’t matter if you are a good person or a bad person, all that matters is whether your relationships are proper and everyone does their duty according to their station.

The big problem I have with this article is she spends almost all of it giving the history of the individual and very little on why he is so important as to merit being included in the book as a great thinker.  As such, she gives Confucius short shrift.

Confucianism is essentialy ethics without a deity.  It has fundamental virtues of integrity, righteousness, loyalty, etiquette and knowledge.  These virtues in combination with social harmony (relationships) form the basic foundation of this belief system.  Confucius and his disciples added rituals and reverence for ancestors making almost appear as a religion.  In this manner it seems to serve the function as a religion but fits more in concept to a non-theistic ideology.

In the eventual influence of his belief system upon Chinese politics and society, his influence can be seen on Chinese civilization.  What is left unsaid is the support this “philosophy” gave to deists in the West.  Voltaire pointed out how Confucius brought about a meritocracy of virtue instead of might.

As such, these beliefs actually have gained some resurgence while not under the name of Confucianism.

Next time, Plato.

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A Quick Update

I thought it would be a good idea if I gave you a quick overview of what we will be exploring.  These “Great Thinkers”  in order and in groups of three are:

Moses, Confucius and Plato

Aristotle, Euclid and Jesus

Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas Aquinas and Christopher Columbus

Niccoló Machiavelli, Nicholas Copernicus and Martin Luther

Sir Francis Bacon, René Descartes and Sir Isaac Newton

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant and Reverend Thomas Malthus

Carl von Clausewitz, Charles Darwin and Karl Marx

James Clerk Maxwell, William James and Friedrich Nietzsche

Ivan Pavlov, Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein

John Maynard Keynes, Norbert Wiener and Jean-Paul Sartre

As I go through these names, I will also explore how views may have changed the perspective we see through along with other names that possibly should have been included or new names that should be added since 1976.

The Greatest Thinkers part 1 (Moses)

The Greatest Thinkers Reviewed part 1

I started re-reading a book from 1976 called “The Greatest Thinkers” by Edward de Bono.  It’s amazing the perspective of the writer at the time for some of his choices.  Marx and Nietzsche but no proponents of Democracy or Republicanism.  Keynes but not Hayek. No mention of Jefferson, Monroe or even Thomas Paine.

The first thinker in the book is Moses.  The author sees him as a “loudspeaker who broadcast G*d’s will”.  He points out the difference of Y*hw*h manifesting as a personal god, always present and watchful.  This would have been very strange in a world wheretghe gods were remote and indifferent even if they had familiar shapes (hawk or jackal).

The idea of a god that won’t even give his name but instead answers with: “I Am That I Am” must have been perplexing to those people at the time.  Is it any wonder then that Pharoah initially perceives Moses as a joke or madman?  In that context it could even be seen as understandable that so many “plagues” are required to bring about the release of the Hebrews.  And yet, it isn’t until the destruction of the Egyptian army at the Red Sea that Pharoah finally relents.  A fascinating example of stubbornness by a man born to rule.

Then we have Moses as Lawgiver.  Not only the Ten Commandments but also the ritual observances that close Exodus and lead into the body of laws known as Leviticus.

This influence, as well as the code of laws set down by Hammurabi, even affects our speech as in something being “written in stone” as fixed and unchanging.

A key difference of the Hebrew god is the lack of a physical manifestation.  Other peoples lament the forcible seizure of their gods after being conquered.  They didn’t speak symbols of their gods but that the symbols were in fact actually the gods themselves.

The concept of an invisible being that had no physical form had to have been mind-blowing.  Viewed from that perspective, we can see why the newly freed Hebrews molded a golden calf.  They were merely reaching back to what they were accustomed to seeing with Egyptian rulers and others.   

As this body of law develops and grows, we get to the point where the letter of the law becomes almost a fetish for some over the spirit of the law.  This is famously shown in the exasperation Jesus with those intent on trying to trip him up.

Moses, while not the first lawgiver, has influenced Christianity and Islam and in turn our modern civilization.

Next time, I will delve into how the author looks at Confucius and his influence on Eastern civilization.