Comparing Aristotle's Politics And The Daodejing

Daoism has everything to do with nature. It plays the most important role in human development and knowledge . It states that humans should help

Daoism is a daily guide to living so a person can experience the most of their own self. Daoism teaches the follower to look inside and to gain knowledge through self-exploration and to connect with our inner nature. The yin and yang shows the complementary sides of objects and nature, even the human body. The Taoist Sanctuary of San Diego states, “All is Tao. All opposites are in actuality part of one whole, giving rise to one another. Neither is

Two of Aristotle’s most famous works, Nicomachean Ethics and Politics, offer an outline of his perfect society and how Athens could ascend to his ideals. According to Aristotle, the strive for the most good society starts with individuals and then collectively builds up to the Chief Aim through active participation in politics. He explains that an Athenian earns his freedom and citizenship by subduing his animal instincts and passions. Instead of succumbing to these urges,

The author of Document 7 encourages living a life of simplicity an being humble. Those two aspects follow the strong belief in this ethical system of finding the Dao, or the way, that represents a balance in life as brought up in Documents 6 and 7. In Document 6, there is a symbol that represents the balance between two forces, yin and yang. Yin represents females and the evil in the world, while yang represents all that is good and males. There is a circle in both yin and yang to represent the balance. Secondly, unlike Legalism and Confucianism, there is a strong belief in Daoism in not taking part in the government. In Document 8, the point of view is not interfering with the people in order to have success in taking over the empire. They believe that people will do better on their own without the government controlling them according to Document 8. Their beliefs against governing can be noticed in the Yellow Turban Rebellion against the government that lead to the end of the Han Dynasty. Also, because their beliefs have lasted to future time periods, Daoism was banned in China in 1949 under communism. In the Daoism perspective, there is a very different approach to government and society when compared to the other major schools of

Within the 81 verses of the “Daodejing”, there are two ways to understand them. One part being “The Way” and the other being “Virtue.” “The way” is “a natural and uncorrupted way of being that pervades everything in heaven and earth, from all beings in the cosmos to humans”. (Norton) In addition, virtue is “The power inherent in each thing in its natural state and the force that allows humans to reach their full potential.” (Norton)

Stated in the primary document of Daodejing, it dates back to 300 BCE when it was first produced. This work was attributed to Laozi, but has not been proven completely true that it is his work. The Daodejing was written after the Zhou Dynasty had lost its authority and the government was split into small states. This piece focuses on “the way” an idea of philosophy of Daoism. The Daodejing states that, “The way is empty. It may be used without ever being exhausted.” The Daodejing is in a poetic form, which is attractive to many readers. The text of the Daodejing can be hard to read and understand because it is written so deep with such profound thought. The first few sentences of the Daodejing are intriguing because it states, “The way that can be spoken of is not the constant way, he name that can be named is the not the constant name, the nameless

While the Way can be considered an intangible idea of how to live your life, others believe it is an omnipotent force that shapes all things and cannot be named. Confucianists believe the former, where they have a superior chance of achieving a better life through ritual. Daoists, however, trust in nonaction, in not interfering with nature, to have a better and longer life. Conversely, the Daoist idea can only hold true in an ideal society. The Confucianist idea instead relies on action, the use of virtue with rituals, and the overall betterment of the self for the community to reach the Way.

While Confucius and Laozi differed in their views about virtue with others, they both require some form of harmony. Confucius thought a gentleman enacted certain virtues such as benevolence, justice, filial piety, and loyalty, and these are important in order to reach the Way through ritual to avoid shame. He felt ritual depended on the harmony of these virtues, but it did not take precedence, because "harmony cannot be sought for its own sake, it must always be subordinated to ritual". Instead, ritual is equal to a love of learning, because there is no limit of knowledge to gain. While he recognized those who can act without comprehension, he felt learning trounced innate knowledge. In contrast, Daoists believe simplicity provides a better life for the people than wisdom from learning, because it can lead to artifice. Laozi felt "when the great Way is neglected there arises benevolence and justice". He felt virtue only arises after the harmony of the Way has disintegrated. According to Daoists, harmony arose from the Way in the form of yin and yang, which regulates everything on heaven, earth, and in humans. This principle, however, requires that our actions are already predetermined, and they cannot affect harmony. Each individual would have to have an immense amount of trust for this system to work. However, in Confucius' society individuals would be able to

Daoism means “Followers of the way”, although Dao does not means only “way”. According to the BBC religion, the word Dao or Tao can include several concepts such as “the source of creation”, “the ultimate”, “the unnameable” ,“the way of nature as a whole”, “the natural universe as a whole” and “the inexpressible and indefinable.” In Taoism they believe in way of living in which there were not many rules and believes in the philosophy of inaction. They say that you can find happiness through nature and harmony. Also this is where yin and yang come from. As we can see, there are major differences between Daoism and Confucianism, but one of them is very important, the life after death.

Before parallels can be drawn between ideals and paths in Daoism, Daoist philosophy and Dao must be defined. It is hard to put Daoist Philosophy into a nice, neat sentence because of the complexity and vast amount of information on the subject. For the intent of this paper, Daoist philosophy is defined as a Chinese philosophy that takes a more naturalist approach to religion and way of living. It is the connection between imitating nature and harmony. Dao is defined in Chapter 1 as the constant moving “everything” that surrounds us. It is not tangible, it is just what it is, and you do not know exactly what this something is.

Plato and Aristotle are philosophers that both have an idea of an ideal state but they have their differences. While there are benefits to each of their views on politics and society, there are also many negative things about their views. Some of their negative views were realistic at one point in time but few are the same in today 's society. Although I don 't fully agree with either philosopher, I would have to side with Aristotle overall.

A comparison can be drawn here, with Laozi’s Way being the force actually bringing about order once again by striking down the source of disorder. Often times the analogy of a stream is used when discussing Daoism, and the same analogy seems to fit with Mozi, at least to a degree. The stream represents the Way or guiding force, and no matter how much someone may try to push a stream uphill, it will always resist and find a method of righting its own

1. The common theme I gathered from both the web article and web video is Daoism's role in China's strategy in dealing with environmental issues and how it's philosophy relates to modern life. Bilhartz did well in explaining the Daoism philosophy of going with the flow of life and living in harmony with nature. "To these mystics, some who later would be known as Daoists, human needs were best met when individuals rejected all artificial restraints and lived spontaneously in harmony with nature" (Bilhartz, 2006, p. 267). The article explained that the Chinese government looked to Daoism to provide a moral and spiritual approach to the environmental issue, rather than engaging an economic approach. The growing environmental issues the Chinese

Dao simply means “the way”. For Confucians, tien bestows “human nature”, and in following our human nature we are in fact following the dao; by cultivating the dao we educate or civilize ourselves (from Doctrine of the Mean, in Chan, 1963:98). The Daoist school of Chinese philosophy has adopted it as its central concern; and its principal proponent, Lao Zi-whose ideas are set forth in the Dao De Jing (Book of the Way and Its Power)- speaks of the dao as eternal and nameless. To interpreters of the dao, it is “the way of man’s cooperation with the course or trend of the natural world” (Watts, 1992;xiv). According to the Dao De Jing (Lao Tzu [Zi], 1998: Chap. 37), “Tao [dao] invariably does nothing (wu-wei) and yet there is nothing that is done”.

According to Daoists, the Dao De Jing, written by Laozi, serves as a manual on how to operate in life. “Dao De Jing” translates to “The Book on the ‘Way’ and its Virtues” (Daoism 1, p. 4). This classic Chinese piece of philosophical literature was written during the Warring States Period in China, a time of political instability. The majority of the Dao De Jing provides ideas to strengthen the nation and bring it to peace, reflecting ideas that revolve around a chaotic kingdom.