Mote describes Confucius as the first self-conscious philosopher that we know of in the Chinese tradition. Following his establishment as an intellectual figure, others soon appeared who held more or less different philosophical views, which together formed a spectrum, with Confucius and his school dominating one side, characterized by social conservatism and reminiscence of days long past. The school of thought itself was known for its strong ethical sense, social responsibility, and constructive, rational undertaking of the problems of man at that time. Confucianism made its mark in the history books with three important innovations that did not exist prior to Confucius. Firstly, Confucius is heralded as the founder of private teaching, as the Zhou society had yet to develop one.
As we see in this segment of Document 6 “Reason is in the estimation of the philosopher what grace is to the Christian. Grace determines the Christian's action; reason the philosopher's.” the philosophers of the Enlightenment strove to explain everything by means of logic and reason which was a mindset that was pioneered during the Scientific Revolution. Essentially, Enlightenment thinkers took the rational mindset from scientific discoveries of the Scientific Revolution and began to apply it to society. Isaac Newton's discoveries established the principles of the Enlightenment. At the time, discovery was looked at with skepticism as people had become accustomed to the bible being the only source of information about the world.
Hist. Sci., xlix (2011) HOW THEOLOGY, IMAGINATION, AND THE SPIRIT OF INQUIRY SHAPED NATURAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE LATE MIDDLE AGES Edward Grant Indiana University, Bloomington Historians of science have long debated historiographical issues and have even come to regard some of them as rather passé. The issues I shall consider will be applied to the late Middle Ages and, where necessary, extended to the early modern period, or, as I shall refer to it, the Scientific Revolution. In the broad range of medieval science and natural philosophy, I shall focus almost exclusively on natural philosophy, because, as we shall see, natural philosophers posed questions that probed “into all aspects of the world: nature, the supernatural, and an imaginary world of the hypothetical and possible”.1 It included bits and pieces of virtually all of the contemporary sciences, as well as thoughts and ideas that would be appropriate to sciences that only came into being in the modern era. It was not until the sciences of astronomy, optics, and mechanics — the exact sciences, known as the “middle sciences” to Aristotle and his followers in the late Middle Ages — became fully integrated with natural philosophy in the seventeenth century that early modern science emerged.
Though it is hard to excuse Kipling’s attitude towards this decade in history, we cannot ignore the historical fact in which this book possesses. This book is told with the main character going on a journey as one of the lama’s guides. Kim is used as a symbol of the Eastern and Western spheres of influence. Every character in this book plays a role. The lama is of the most extreme case of Eastern thinking, including the idea of finding enlightenment and thinking against logic while the soldiers playing the role of the logical western thinkers.
The Dao of Daoism Around the sixth century BCE, Lao Zi (老子), originally called Lao Dan, worked as an archive keeper at court. While working there he taught Confucius (孔子) about a version of ritual that would become known as the Daoist version of ritual. However, being unhappy in court, Lao Zi left. Some historians have said that as he tried to leave the country to go west, a guardian of the border stopped him and asked for a book. There he wrote the 5000 character ‘book’ called Dao De Jing (道德經), which became the foundation of the Daoist movement.
The classical theory is a product of the Enlightenment period which is a period of history spanning roughly from 1517 to 1789. The Enlightenment period, or Age of Reason period, was charachterized by a direct intellectual challenge to the theological worldview. This challenge to the theological view was brought about by Enlightenment thinkers who promoted a more scientific view. Most Enlightenment thinkers drew many of their ideas from the Greek or Classical philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. These classical thinkers derove their reasonning from personnal observations.
History of scientific method We consider the scientific contemplation of nature and poetry as two complementary forms of observation, with which it is said that both are justified, each on its own, but one should not be confused with the other. -----Niels Bohr. The man from the beginning has remained interested in the discovery of things but even more logical explanation of all of them to the point of what we now understand as 'science'. All science, is the product of knowledge that have changed over the years, from ancient times until today. These constant changes are the result of ideologies of great scientists and philosophers who have contributed their very particular perspective, bringing these claims to a set of different points of view in which specific criteria are spelled out.
These Sages, who were given “Zi” at the end of their names, went around the kingdoms, explaining to the ruler what they thought the best solution was for uniting China. The most prominent ideas were usually any of the three sects, Daoist, Confucianist or Legalist. Daoism was based on the ideas of Laozi and Zhuangzi, Confucianism on those of Confucius (Kongzi) and Mencius (Mengzi), and Legalism on those of Han Feizi. Confucianism was not adopted in Confucius’ life time. It developed later,
Not until Edo period did Confucianism in Japan flourish and entered its peak era, becoming what is known as Japanese Confucianism (Ping & Lili 2010). The three dominant schools of philosophy in Japan were led by Yamaga Sokou, Ito Jinsai and Ogyuu-Sorail. Although the leaders were separated by the differences in their thoughts, they all agreed that Japanese society should be guided by the theory and philosophy of classic Confucianism (Ping & Lili, 2010). While the essence of Confucianism was absorbed by Japanese thinkers at that time, it adopted some unique factors of Japan’s folk customs in order to make it closer to Japanese society. Classic Chinese Confucianism stressed the harmony among social members.
Christina Politis Mr. Lambropolous HZT4U1 Sunday, April 10, 2011 The Ideological Shift From Metaphysics to Ethics Like most things in life, philosophy been evolving throughout history. One of the original, well-recognized philosophers was Plato who was mostly concerned with the metaphysical. His beliefs extended beyond the perceivable world. At one point in time, Plato’s philosophy was the standard viewpoint of society. However, as philosophies such as Epicureanism started to develop, the opinions of society were revolutionized.