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EASTERN – PHILOSOPHY-ETHICS
INTRODUCTION TO EASTERN
PHILOSOPHY:
An Exploration of Eastern Philosophical Ideas
from Laozi to Han Feizi1
Section 1. Introduction
No one knows why philosophy started when it did. However, we have at least a
good idea when and how it started: Philosophy was born when man began to wonder.
The history of Philosophy is the story of man’s struggle to answer his questions, to
satisfy his curiosity. Philosophy, then, is with us long before the time of our
acknowledged first philosophers.
1
Based on Chapter 2 of Articulo, Archimedes C. The Experience of Philosophy. Manila: REX
Publishing, Inc. 2008.
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And this is what this paper/ lecture is all about. It contains interesting information
about famous Philosophers, of both biographical and philosophical nature, in roughly
chronoligical order, covering the Eastern tradition.
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Looking closely at the timeline, we could make few interesting observations. And
the most important of which is that the famous Greek philosopher Thales was a
contemporary of the historically obscure, but equally interesting figure, Chinese
philosopher Laozi (both are thought to have been menacing other people about their
peculiar ideas around 600-500 B.C.E.). This means that when Philosophy began to
flourish in ancient Greece (around 600-650 B.C.E.), philosophers in the Eastern world
have also started philosophizing about the nature of things, the meaning of their
existence, and their place in the cosmos.
With this in mind, we now begin our exploration of the Ancient Eastern
Philosophical tradition.
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When the Milesian philosophers (e.g. Thales, Anaximander, etc.) were busily
arguing about the reality of the universe discoverable through understanding its ultimate
stuff (the water versus the four elements), the Eastern sage Laozi (610-575 B.C.E.),
who once worked as a keeper of the archives at the Chinese imperial court (and
became dissatisfied because of corruption), made a debut in China (he started doing
Philosophy at the age of 80!).
Laozi’s interest lies in the study and teaching of the ultimate reality of the
universe, but discoverable by appreciating the essential nature of the Dao (which
literally means the “Way”), as exemplified in Nature (and so, the philosophical
movement Daoism).
Note that Laozi, like the Milesians, observe nature, but unlike these early Greeks,
he observes nature not to find the ultimate stuff of things, but to discover the way
humans should fit in their lives on how nature truly operates. What he discovered is the
fact that nature is full of opposites (life and death, health and sickness, male and
female, wealth and poverty, hot and cold, etc.) but at the same time, nature operates
harmoniously with these oppositions.
Laozi believed that the harmony of opposites, or Tai Chai, is achieved through a
blend of the yin (feminine force) and the yang (masculine force) and this harmony can
be cultivated through creative quietude, an effortless action whose power maintains
equanimity and balance (he calls it Wu Wei). Consistent to this is the foundation of his
teaching (which were recorded in his book, Daodejing), "the violent die a violent death".
Violence opposes the way of living, and whatever opposes life will soon perish.
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The East, as represented by Laozi, thus, first began with an interest of the
practical and of the ethical.
While Daoist philosophy was making waves of following in China, and while
Pythagoras was teaching his philosophy in Greece, a man named Siddhartha Gautama
(560-480 B.C.E.) was preaching another interesting system of thoughts, and was also
attracting huge followers, in India.
Gautama taught for many years and many conservative Hindus regarded most of
his teachings as heretical. For instance, he questioned the authority of the Brahmins or
the priestly caste or class. According to Buddha, each person can and must strive for
enlightenment through his own efforts. Buddha had also no interest in miracles and
rituals. He taught that there was no quick road to salvation or nirvana. Neither god nor
ritual can bestow salvation. Each person through self-discipline, practice, and
meditation must work for his own salvation.
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(4) The way to cease craving is to follow the eightfold way or path.
The fourth in the list includes right views, right intention, right speech, right action, right
livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.
There are no simple explanations of the Eightfold Way, but some brief comments
might be of help:
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(1) Right views: Though Buddha had little interest in complicated theologies
or doctrines, some beliefs are necessary. Quite simply, right belief is
acceptance of the Four Noble Truths.
(2) Right intention: One must dedicate himself wholeheartedly to
overcoming the dislocation of self-centered craving; one must want this
emancipation more than anything else. One must not let his heart wander
from this path.
(3) Right speech: One must stand guard over his speech, avoid lies and
deceptions, cultivate honesty and truthfulness. One must refrain from
unkind speech.
(4) Right action: One must examine his behavior, determine whether each
action is selfish or self-less. One must practice other-centered rather than
self-centered actions. Moreover, one must obey such precepts as: Do not
kill. Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not be unchaste. Do not drink intoxicants
(ibid.)
(5) Right livelihood: One must not engage in any occupation that opposes or
distracts one from the path. For example, since all life is sacred, one may
not become a butcher, etc.
(6) Right effort: One must pursue the path with the right exertion. On the one
hand, one must strive diligently in order to practice the cultivation of
virtues and the curbing of vices. On the other hand, one must not be
"over-zealous" and run the risk of burning oneself out and abandoning the
way altogether.
(7) Right mindfulness: One must elevate his thoughts, to see things as they
really are beyond the haze of moods and emotions. One must clear up his
mind, clean "the dust off of the mirror." One must rid his mind of self-
centered thoughts, thoughts that separate, and replace them with thoughts
that bind together, that see all beings together. One must make his
concentration objective rather than subjective. One must think in terms of
others as well as oneself. And,
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Finally, for reasons we previously noted, Buddha did not want to be prayed to or
worshipped, thus it’s a great wonder why the shaven monks pray to Gautama for
salvation. Nevertheless, Sidharta Gautama was the recognized founder of the world’s
third largest religion, Buddhism.
Sometime after the Buddha has captured the interest of India, Confucius (551-
479 B.C.E.) made his appearance in Chinese Philosophy. Throughout his life, Confucius
was best known as a teacher (he started doing Philosophy at age 30). In fact he was
considered as one among the first professional teachers in the ancient world (not for
any special reasons, but for having the record of the first in Asia to require a
professional fee for teaching his students). Three doctrines of Confucius are particularly
important.
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The second doctrine concerns the superior man (junzi, or chun-tzu). The superior
man is one who practices benevolence regardless of family background.
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Section 3.4. Mozi: Love in the way that would do for all
Around the peiod when Socrates was attracting many sons of influential families
in Athens, China gave the world another brilliant philosopher (this new comer shares the
same birthyear with Socrates). His name was Mozi (470 – 390 B.C.E.). He introduced
another way of doing philosophy, which scholars today called Mohism. It was a school
of thought that became a bitter opponent of Confucianism and Daoism.
"Let him who has strength be alert to heIp others; let him who has wealth
endeavor to share it with others: let him who possesses the Way teach
others persuasively. With this, the hungry will be fed, the cold will be
clothed, the disturbed will have peace.... This is procuring abundant life."
(De Barry, 1997)
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Mo-zi has also argued strongly against aggression and war. He claimed that by
not provoking war against other states, a country would be left in peace. Once, a
country is in peace, prosperity follows. Mo-zi believed that war and warfare are mass
murder, they are more of a crime than a single murder. During war the affairs of
government are neglected, the farms lie fallow, and many of the best men are lost.
Mo-zi concludes,
"Such is the injury which warfare inflicts upon men, the harm it brings to
the world. And yet the rulers and officials delight in carrying out such
expeditions. In effect they are taking delight in the injury and extermination
of the people of the world. Are they not perverse?"
During this period, an immensely influential book on military philosophy, The Art
of War, was published in China. The author was Sunzi, or Sun Tzu (450-380 B.C.E), the
thinker, who is widely considered by Political scholars as the earliest realist in
international relations theory. According to this military-philosopher, knowledge of how to
wage war is of vital importance to the State, “it is a matter of life and death, a road either
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to safety or to ruin.” Hence it is a subject of inquiry which should not be neglected. So,
how should war be conducted according to Sunzi? First, by understanding the nature of
war. And for Sunzi, all warfare is based on deception:
“…when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we
must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe
we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.
Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him…” (Art
of War, trans. Thomas Cleary, 1991)
This makes the leader of armies, “the arbiter of the people's fate, the man on
whom it depends whether the nation shall be in peace or in peril.”
Sunzi rejects appeals to the supernatural that were becoming popular among
rival groups of philosophers during his time (such as the Daoists and Confucians). For
instance, Sunzi claimed that war is governed by five constant factors, one of which is
“Heaven”. For other thinkers, “Heaven” may imply the supernatural or the divine will –
but for Sunzi, it simply signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons (Ibid.).
His mode of argumentation also moves in the direction of what we recognize
today as "scientific thinking." He avoids unnecessary assumptions, he emphasizes the
importance of observation and proceeds with systematic explanation of his ideas.
Aristotle’s Lyceum had already attracted brilliant minds in and out of Athens when
a disciple of Confucian philosophy became widely known in China. He was Mencius
(371-288 B.C.E.), a philosopher who has been recognized as one of China's greatest
philosophers, second only to Confucius himself. However, unlike Confucius, Mencius
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strongly believed that Human Nature is good, not evil. In his book, Mencius (Yes, the
book was named after his name), Mencius said:
“When left to follow its natural feelings human nature will do good. This is
why I say it is good…The sense of mercy is found in all men; the sense of
shame is found in all men; the sense of respect is found in all men; the
sense of right and wrong is found in all men. The sense of mercy
constitutes humanity; the sense of shame constitutes righteousness; the
sense of respect constitutes decorum (li); the sense of right and wrong
constitutes wisdom. Humanity, righteousness, decorum, and wisdom are
not something instilled into us from without; they are inherent in our
nature. Only we give them no thought. Therefore it is said: 'Seek and you
will find them, neglect and you will lose them.” (De Barry, 1997)
One might wonder, how come man, in the real world, demonstrates more evil in
his dealings then good? Mencius answers: “If it, referring to human nature, becomes
evil, it is not the fault of man's original capability” (Ibid.). The problem is not in man, but
in his society.
A corrupt society corrupts man; an evil society always produces evil citizens
(remember Plato?). But what makes a society corrupt? The answer, for Mencius, is a
corrupt and evil government.
The government must therefore strive to be good and help its citizens to realize
their potential as good persons. But how if the government, by reducing its subjects in
misery, turns them into evil? For Mencius, the people, who are by nature good, need not
tolerate a corrupt government. He believed that the people are the most important in the
state, and thus, if rulers reduce them to poverty and selfishness, the people always
have the right to depose them. He offers an ideal government which he calls “humane
government” – a government that places men of virtue and ability in positions of
responsibility and works to benefit the people. Mencius believed that a country with
such a government would be at peace and free of troubles.
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Another original contribution of Mencius was his unique idea of education. Unlike
Confucius, he did not perceive education as something that should aim at “correcting”
the evil nature of man, but to the “strengthening” of the goodness one could find in the
nature of man.
The development of these virtues to their original capability in man is the true
goal of education. And this leads us to his concept of equality.
Recall that leading philosophers in Greece, during this period, believed that
everyone is not equal to everyone else (Plato, and even Aristotle, adhered to the idea of
slavery). Thus, if you are the type of person who values equality, always remember that
the first voice, which proclaimed that all men are born equal, came from the East.
During the period when many Chinese leaders were mesmerized by Mencius’
brilliance, an equally brilliant, but a rival thinker was emerging in the philosophic scene.
Mencius offered equality among all men, his rival offered freedom.
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He has also espoused a peculiar idea of how to do philosophy, that is, by not
indulging in too much philosophizing. He thought that knowledge – the object of
Philosophy – is dangerous. He writes,
He also held the view that we cannot decide the truth of our statements with
absolute certainty. This is how he puts his assertion concerning the relativity of truth to
individuals who holds it:
“Suppose that you argue with me. If you beat me, instead of my beating
you, are you necessarily right, and am I necessarily wrong? Or, if I beat
you and not you me, am I necessarily right, and are you necessarily
wrong? Must one of us necessarily be right and the other wrong? Or may
we not both be right or both be wrong? You and I cannot come to a
mutual and common understanding, and others, of course, are all in the
dark. Whom shall I ask to decide this dispute? I may ask someone who
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agrees with you; but since he agrees with you, how can he decide it? I
may ask someone who agrees with me; but since he agrees with me,
how can he decide it? I may ask someone who differs with both you and
me; but since he differs with both you and me, how can he decide it? I
may ask someone who agrees with both you and me; but since he
agrees with both you and me, how can he decide it? Thus, you and I and
the others all would be unable to come to a mutual and common
understanding; shall we wait for still another? (Ibid.)
Like Laozi of Daodejing he also disavowed honor and wealth. Like Parmenides
and the other Eleatics, Zhuangzi also spoke in paradoxical terms and espoused the
concept of a great unity of things through the Tao:
And like The Buddha, and Western thinkers, like Plato, he believed that we all
live in the realm of mere appearances, illusions, or what he calls a dream:
“Those who dream of a merry drinking party may the next morning wail
and weep. Those who dream of wailing and weeping may in the morning
go off gaily to hunt. While they dream they do not know that they are
dreaming. In their dream, they may even try to interpret their dream. Only
when they have awakened do they begin to know that they have
dreamed. By and by comes the great awakening, and then we shall know
that it has all been a great dream. Yet all the while the fools think that
they are awake; this they are sure of. With minute nicety, they
discriminate between princes and grooms” (Ibid.).
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The period was third-century B.C.E. China was experiencing domestic problems
as local feudal nobles grew stronger than the king and as powerful warlords constantly
fought among themselves for wealth and territory. It was during this period when
another school of thought in Chinese Philosophy was born. It was called Legalism. Its
founder was Han Feizi (280-233 B.C.E.).
Like Confucius, Han Feizi believed that the nature of man is evil, and goodness
must be acquired. But unlike Confucius, Han Feizi insisted on the need for a
government to demonstrate concrete results rather than to merely follow customs and
tradition. What should be promoted are fear and obedience rather than benevolence
and ritual piety. The goal of governance, according to Han Feizi, is order, peace and
harmony. And the only way to achieve order, he argued, was through strict laws and
harsh punishments, the suppression of civil rights and democratic institutions, rewarding
the obedient and severely punishing the disobedient, equality of all (including the
ministers) before the law, and for the sovereign to subjugate his public officials under
the rule of able men who follows the law. He preached that only a powerful government
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Han Feizi also argued for extreme censorship to control dangerous ideas or
ideas that are critical of the government. Anyone who espouses dangerous ideas should
be swiftly terminated, and anything that records these dangerous ideas must be publicly
destroyed (when Han Feizi’s philosophy was officially adopted by the Quin dynasty, this
particular principle of extreme censorship led to the burning of books associated with
Daoism and Confucianism).
“The law does not fawn on the noble; the string does not yield to the
crooked. Whatever the law applies to, the wise cannot reject nor can the
brave defy. Punishment for fault never skips ministers, reward for good
never misses commoners. Therefore, to correct the faults of the high, to
rebuke the vices of the low, to suppress disorders, to decide against
mistakes, to subdue the arrogant, to straighten the crooked, and to unify
the folkways of the masses, nothing could match the law. … Hence to
govern the state by law is to praise the right and blame the wrong.” (Liao,
1998)
When Han Feizi’s philosophy was officially adopted by the rulers of the Quin
dynaty, they did what the past dynasties failed to do: to tame the unruly local feudal
nobles and powerful warlords, unite their greatly dismembered nation, and built the
Great Wall of China.
However, with the “crushing” success of Legalism came the demise of doing
philosophy in China.
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The emerging social and political conditions of the time did little to encourage
philosophical speculations. Men became precoccupied with the necessities of his
material existence, and found comforts in the once forgotten (and now rediscovered)
dogmatism. Thinkers have begun to measure their philosophical speculations against
the requirements of Religious doctrines.
However, it is hoped that the foregoing is more than sufficient to demonstrate that
both Western and Eastern worlds, not only the former, should be considered as the
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birthplace of Philosophy. Abstract thought about the ultimate nature of the world and of
human life began to appear in cultures in both worlds, as an urge to move beyond
superstition toward explanation.
This is the reason why the common conception that Philosophy is an “exclusive
product of the Western mind”, and the history of Philosophy is solely the “history of
Western Philosophy”, are both wrong.
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