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Chinese Philosophy > Midterm <3 > Flashcards

Midterm <3 Flashcards

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Chinese (Mandarin) flashcards
1
Q

Historical Context

What dynasty?

A

The Zhou Dynasty

  • Wester Zhou (1045-771 BCE)
  • Eastern Zhou (771-256 BCE)
  • Spring and Autumn Era (771-465 BCE)
  • The Warring States Era (475-221)
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2
Q

Confucius

A
  • real name: Kongzi
  • lived during the spring and autumn era, a time of political division and warfare
  • returned to his hometown Lu as a failure, his reverence came after his death
  • Analects - composite text compiled by his students
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3
Q

Confucius’s teaching method

A
  • applied wisdom flexibly to the situation instead of blanket statements
  • gives us a method of cultivating sensitivity rather than a playbook or code of conduct
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4
Q

Confucius: Ritual

A
  • rituals bring people together and teach us how to behave in different roles
  • help restrain us and make us better people need to be carried out thoughtfully and meaningfully, not just going thru the motions
  • rituals can be altered when appropriate
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5
Q

Confucius: History and Tradition

A
  • the ancient past (early western zhou) was an important source of knowledge, wisdom, and practice
  • apply lessons learned from the past to the present, develop them where appropriate - develops organically
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6
Q

Confucius: the Living and the Dead

A
  • Confucius preferred thinking about living humans and their ethical obligations rather than the deceased ancestors or spiritual powers
  • did believe in rituals for dead and supernatural but we also have obligations to humans
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7
Q

Confucius and goodness

A
  • Ren is the highest virtue
  • Ren (goodness, humaneness) meant figuring out how to act in a way that benefited others and not just oneself
  • not enough to do the right thing, must be for the right reasons
  • not enough to do good, you must be good
  • get joy from helping people
  • if you’re a failure but a good person then don’t worry about the reward - ill-gotten success is not real success
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8
Q

Confucius - what are the hallmarks of morally superior people? (sages and gentlemen)

A

ritual and goodness

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9
Q

Confucius and Family and Society

A
  • the success of family and state were mirrored in each other
  • responsibilities to family more important than duty to non-relations
  • a moral person would support a healthy family, which in turn would contribute to.a healthy society and strong state
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10
Q

Confucius and virtue ethics

A

Confucius was a virtue ethicist, wondering how can I be a good person who lives well, and therefore does good things

  • more concerned with being a good person rather than how to have good actions, that will follow
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11
Q

Confucius and Role

A
  • believed our ethical obligations depend on the role(s) we are in
  • we have multiple, overlapping identities, and we have moral obligations to be the best versions of whatever role we occupy
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12
Q

Confucius and Xiao

A

Xiao: filiality - important virtue to Confucius

  • filiality- relationship of a child to a parent
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13
Q

Confucius and Particularism

A
  • Confucius was. a particularist, believed ethical conduct has to be tailored to the particular situation at hand
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14
Q

Confucius and Learning Goodness

A
  • believed all people could and should work on themselves to become good
  • seemed to think that humans require training to become good, not a natural trait
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15
Q

Mozi

A
  • lived during 5th century BCE
  • traveled during Warring States era
  • Mohist/Mohism Philosophy
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16
Q

The afterlife of Mohist Philosophy

A
  • popular in Warring States era, gradually declined and became scattered and lost
  • very misunderstood/ignored
  • appreciated today for its use of consequentalism and logic
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17
Q

Goals of Mohism

A
  • put an end to the chaos of the Warring States
  • ensure people were fed and secure, avoid unnecessary wars, poverty, depopulation, and social chaos
  • lashed out on his rivals who he saw as lazy, careerist hypocrites who only wanted to benefit themselves (Confucius and his followers)
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18
Q

Mozi and Consequentialism

A
  • more interested in actions and outcomes than what makes a person good
  • judged action by amount of benefit it brought to the greatest # of people
  • believed he could train people to change their habits and behavior through rewards and punishments, eventually changing their character
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19
Q

Mozi - reward and punishments vs Confucius

A

Mozi: believed he could train people to change their habits and behavior through rewards and punishments, eventually changing their character

Confucius: believed that you could not force someone to the “Way

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20
Q

Mozi and Impartial Caring

A
  • caring for others regardless of who they were and their relationship to you
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21
Q

Mozi - Impartial Caring vs Confucius

A

Mozi: care for others regardless of the relationship

Confucius: greater duty of care to our parents and relatives

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22
Q

Mozi and Heaven’s Will

A
  • Heaven, ghosts, and spirits are active in our lives: watching, judging, and taking action to either reward or punish us accordingly
  • the good will always be rewarded and the bad will always be punished
  • dismissed Confucius and his followers as fatalists (all events are inevitable, so choices and actions don’t matter)
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23
Q

Mozi and Heaven vs Confucius

A

Mozi: believed Heaven played an active role in our life, and rewards and punishes people

Confucius: heaven more of an overseer, and the good are not always rewarded

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24
Q

Mozi and Moderation and Avoidance of War

A
  • offensive war is bad, only endorsed defense
  • believed in moderate rituals - funerals, music, and expenditure didn’t bring the greatest amount of benefit to the greatest amount of people
  • these things cost time, energy, and money, that could be better spent elsewhere in ways that benefited everyone
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25
Q

Mozi and Meritocratic Hierarchy

A
  • heaven was supremely virtuous, appointing virtuous kings who appointed virtuous ministers, etc.

-good people and even rulers could come from anywhere, important to raise up the good and weed out the bad

  • doesn’t believe in nepotism and elitism - this is the impartial caring portion
26
Q

Mozi and the Three Gauges

A
  • a standardized system of ethics based on three questions
  1. did the sage kings act in this way?
  2. have people throughout history actually heard of such a phenomenon?
  3. If this were implemented as a policy would it benefit the greated number of people
  • Mozi emphasized people following different virtue standards leads to chaos, crucial to follow the three gauges
27
Q

Circular Logic of Mohist Views

A
  • lessons of the past had to be tested against the present
  • something could satisfy gauge 1 but not gauge three - however there is circular logic, if the sage-kings did it in the past then it would be to the benefit of the greatest number of people
28
Q

Mohist v Confucian Methodolody

A

Confucius: a virtue ethicist and particularist
- virtuous people perform virtuous acts

Mozi: a consequentalist and generalist
- anyone can use the system of the 3 gauges to arrive at the best course of action

29
Q

Common ground between Mozi and Confucius

A
  • wanted us to put the needs of others before our own interests
  • wanted to raise up the good and weed out the bad
  • believed the past was crucial
  • believed people could change and weren’t fixed in human nature
30
Q

Mengzi

A
  • lived during fourth century BCE
  • defended Confucius’ legacy, after Mengzi died he was recognized as the “second sage”
  • was a virtue ethicist and particularist like Confucius
31
Q

Mengzi and Human Nature

A
  • human nature is good

we have to cultivate and nourish the inner sprouts of virtue that all humans have

  • must fulfill our destiny to be good
  • bad environments make for bad people, but that’s no excuse
32
Q

Mengzi and Profit

A
  • calculations of profit/benefit are unnatural and don’t allow us to react sensitively in the way each particular situation demands
  • thought impartial caring (Mohists) was unnatural and therefore could not be moral
33
Q

Mengzi and Qi

A
  • Qi is the matter/stuff of the universe endowed by Heaven
  • different entities (people, animals, objects) have different kinds/amounts/ distributions of Qi
  • in addition to cultivating the sprouts of inner virtue we must balance and harmonize our natural store of qi by acting virtuously
34
Q

Mengzi and the Heart-Mind

A
  • honest, careful contemplation and reflection will lead us to moral acts because our human nature is good, we have to try no excuses
  • though not necessarily bad, we mustn’t let our desires for food, sex, etc. cloud our hearts and what we know is right
35
Q

Mengzi and Heaven

A
  • Heaven endows us with our qi and xing (nature)
  • Heaven is moral but not particularly active or predictable (closer to Confucius than Mozi)
36
Q

Laozi

A
  • political philosophy
  • not about peace, love, and understanding, it is politically engaging
  • Taoism
37
Q

Laozi and the Way

A
  • the Way of Laozi is the way: a cosmic entity that exists at the basis of all things in the universe, the source of life, death, and the universe itself
  • subtle, silent, formless, constant, but ever changing
  • must brings our minds bodies and actions into harmony with the Way
38
Q

Laozi and Water

A
  • pervasive water imagery in the Laozi
  • like water, humans should follow the natural course of things
  • water’s strength lies in its softness and fluidity; it transforms things over time
39
Q

Laozi and Wuwei

A
  • Wuwei: no forced action
  • advocates stillness, waiting,
  • don’t be proactive, act only in response, act with the grain of the world not against it
40
Q

Laozi and False Distinction

A
  • virtues such as ritual, wisdom, humaneness are not necessarily true virtue, they are man-made terms that lead us away from the Way
  • thinks they are self serving concepts that leads to hypocrisy and delusions
  • true virtue: harmonizing with the Way
41
Q

Laozi and Suspicion of Language

A
  • maybe all words are misleadings
  • don’t focus on words or external forms; focus on that which is silent and invisible instead
  • the Way cannot be fully communicated through language; it is ever-changing and cannot be pinned down
42
Q

Laozi and Embracing Stupidity

A
  • what passes for knowledge, learning, and wisdom is all fake; better to be foolish
  • better to embrace simplicity and even stupidity
  • refuses to participate in history — prioritizes cosmology, the beginning of the universe
43
Q

Laozi and the Feminine

A
  • the Dao gave birth to the universe like a mother
  • the Dao is soft yielding, dark, and quiet (yin energy)
  • vaginal imagery: empty spaces that accommodate and yield
44
Q

Laozi and Politics

A
  • subtle command and control
  • domination through manipulation rather than force
  • keep people ignorant and operate silently
  • respond and react don’t act willfully
  • exert influence without people realizing
45
Q

Zhuangzi

A
  • said to have lived in fourth century BCE but almost unknown outside of the text
  • not responsible for bulk of the text, could be entirely fictional
  • trying to shock us out of our old, stale routines and bad habits
  • alternative ways of understanding life
46
Q

Zhuangzi, the text, and polyvocality

A
  • not a sustained argument but a patchwork of themes, ideas, images, stories, and observations
  • different voices (historical figures, creatures, beggars, robbers, etc. engaged in conversations
  • poking fun at authority and mocking convention
  • humorous and sarcastic
  • takes citation of historical precedent and quotations from texts to an absurd extreme
47
Q

Zhuangzi - afterlife of the text

A
  • literary as well as philosophical influence
  • influenced poetry, painting, and fiction
  • later seen along with the Laozi as the fountainhead of “Daoism”
48
Q

Zhuangzi - and false distinctions and multiple perspectives

A
  • very reminiscent of the Laozi; abandon false distinctions such a success/failure, life/death, beauty/ugliness etc.
  • goal is not to achieve immortality but to live out one’s allotted lifespan in contentment
  • life and death are a part of the same unity, so death is nothing to be feared.
  • embrace all perspectives and see things from different angles
49
Q

Zhuangzi and language

A
  • follows Laozi’s suspicion of language
  • plays around with words, using language to mock conventional virtue
  • words are a means to an end, not the end itself
50
Q

Zhuangzi and Skepticism and Relativism

A

Skepticism: we can never truly know anything for sure

Relativism: objective truth does not exist, it all depends on your point of view

  • knowledge is not gained through words or doctrine but through practice in concert with the Way
51
Q

Zhuangzi and Transformation and Adaptability

A
  • the Way is in flux and we should follow it
  • go with the flow, not against the grain
  • be responsive, reactive, and adapt to change; don’t act forcefully
  • be open to the possibilities available to use in the world and find joy in them
52
Q

Zhuangzi and Uselessness and Muddle-headedness

A
  • being useless allows us to go unnoticed
  • standing out from the crowd can be dangerous
  • success has its downsides; does it really bring happiness
  • muddle your way through life and you might be happier for it
53
Q

Zhuangzi and Serving

A
  • ambivalence about government service
  • not about reclusions or disengaging politically, but engaging in the richest fullest way possible
  • keep your heart-mind open to the possibilities of constantly flowing Way
54
Q

Yang Zhu

A
  • Fourth Century BCE
  • we know nothing about him, except what is recorded in other texts
  • cannot even be sure he really existed
55
Q

Yang Zhu and Egoism

A
  • psychological egoism: we can only act out of self-interest (descriptive, not accepted by serious philosophers)
  • psych egoism describes a state of affairs as it exists
  • ethical egoism: we ought to act only out of self interest (prescriptive, more valid)
  • ethical egoism describes a state of affairs that should exist
56
Q

Yang Zhu and Human Nature

A
  • our human nature derives from Heaven and must be preserved at all costs
  • acting out of self interest is for everyone, not just ruler
  • Following the Way of Heaven means following our human nature, indulging in pleasure and putting ourselves first
57
Q

Yang Zhu and Human Nature v Mengzi and Mozi

A

Yang Zhu: out human nature is not to be nourished but followed and indulged

  • Mengzi: human nature should be nourished

Yang Zhu: pursuing profit/benefit is a good thing, not a bad thing

Mengzi: diagrees

Yang Zhu: it is about profiting/benefitting yourself not others

Mozi: consequentialist - believes it is more important to do cost-benefit analysis for the greatest amount of people

58
Q

Yang Zhu and Robber Zhi

A
  • contained in a chapter of Zhuangzi
  • takes aim at the hypocrisy of Confucius, with his insistence on ritual, ethics, and cultivation
  • better to follow our natural inclination towards pleasure and self interest, Egoism is the way to live long, happy lives
  • Robber Zhi: a man who pilages, murders, rapes and Confucius in the story confronts him with his ethics. Robber Zhi tells Confucius, you are a complete loser, why would I care? What are the benefits of virtue?
  • Robber Zhi has an anarchist view, more likely to live out a happy life of contentment and fulfillment
59
Q

Deontology

A

actions have inherent rightness and wrongness, murder is inherently wrong, no matter what the context is, no matter what a good person would do and no matter what the consequences are

60
Q

Confucius

A

Study and Practice

Ritual and the Past

Goodness and Humaneness

Heaven, Ghosts, and Ancestral Spirits

Individuals, families, society, and the state

The Way (Dao)

Human Nature??

61
Q

Mozi

A

Profit/Benefit

Three Gauges

Heaven’s Will

Rewards, Punishments, and Potential for Change

Impartial Caring and Hierarchy

Warefare

Rituals, Music and Expenditure

62
Q
A

Chinese Philosophy (1 decks)

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