HST 210 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1.2: Stoicism, Taoism
Document Summary
The history of confucianism, especially of the western confucians, is one of what might be called the triumph of the personal over the ideological. Confucians did not subscribe to a doctrine that a world-historical process is going on. To the contrary, they were convinced that things of the earth are of the world-historical, as is the human being. By this standard, confucians" theories on the nature of the human and of the world are in accord with the rationalism of the modern world. Confucians rejected the metaphysical and magical philosophy of the ancient stoics. And it is why their philosophies were very attractive to the modern mind in the first place, and still are. At this point, i should say, that it is an error to conclude that the philosophy of the stoics is "anti-rationalism. " Indeed, the stoics were a rationalist system, just like the west, which is why its moral rules are so attractive to rationalistic minds.
