Thoughts on Session #5 (Monday, April 23)

[Anonymous]

It is also helpful to think about Confucianism alongside other cultural belief systems, such as Greek rationalism, Hinduism, or even our American "family values"......

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Dear Colleagues,

Please share your thoughts on the debate and Clay's discussion on Chinese philosophy.

Best,
Yingjia

[Anonymous]

This debate was truly the highlight of the course for me. I was disappointed and relieved when the original date for the debate was rescheduled as I was excited but still felt a bit unprepared. I truly enjoyed reading and learning about the different philosophies as I only knew the scarcest bits and pieces of one or two prior to this course. The ideals of Confucianism felt very familiar to me as I could immediately sense parallels with my own Hindu upbringing where respect for elders is sacrosanct.

I remember being really offended by something my dad's elder brother said to me on a trip to India when I was a teenager. Albeit my uncle was indisputably disrespectful by the American standards I had grown up in, my father could not stand up to him and rebuked me for complaining about the remark. The mixed signals of right and wrong being raised by traditional Indian parents amongst the ideals of individualism in American society threw me for a loop.

I realize now that many cultures have gone through evolutionary shifts and I was just caught between two worlds, much as Chinese are often caught between adherence to Confucian ideals which often clash with the imperatives of modern society in which Legalist philosophy appears best suited. The Daoist and Mohist beliefs appear far too impractical for the global society we are so compelled to create, and yet it is the Mohist principles of universal love and cooperation that appeal most to me. As a dabbling Trekkie , I often wondered when we would embrace the values that exist on the Starfleet Enterprise where everyone is respected and valued, oblivious to accidents of birth or perceived barriers of language. I believe Gene Roddenberry must have either read or by some other means consumed the values of Mohism as the abhorrence toward war as wasteful and the high regard for mathematical logic and engineering prowess are the hallmarks of the imagined world of Star Trek, in all its permutations.

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