Stoicism Vs Confucianism

This paper is a comparison between two major schools of thought from two different areas of the world and their intrinsic similarities through their approach to political philosophy. Each work chosen for comparison represent a different philosophy from different areas yet hold striking similarities. The two source documents for this paper are “Meditations” by Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and “Analects” by Chinese philosopher Confucius, both of which represent Stoicism and Confucianism respectively. These two works were chosen for this paper due to their similarities concerning subjects such as self-improvement thought self-judgment and parallels of what a good person is in order to rule as good leader. Aurelius was trained as a Stoic, a philosophy
Aurelius ruled as a Roman emperor ruled for 19 years and is regarded as one of the so-called “Five Good Emperors” whose death brought about the beginning of the end for Pax Romana. Confucius taught his disciples the knowledge of ren, which sought to cultivate through certain actions to elevate one’s own moral standing and de, an extension of ren but with an emphasis on leadership; both of these becoming highly influential components to Chinese philosophy. With more than 600 years apart from one another and on completely separate continents even; there are most likely few reasons as to how the aforementioned similarities could occur. One of these, however, was a similarity that the two cultures shared in their respective timeframes: the need for strong, morally capable person. Confucius emphasized “…a small minority of superior men was destined by their talents and sense of duty to govern and set an example for the common people.” A small group of people capable of leading China was needed and this political aspect of Confucius’ teachings acts as an important contribution to the paralleling philosophies. Moreover, while Aurelius did not consider him particularly superior to any other person, he did believe in leading his people by example using his knowledge of Stoicism as groundwork for his
Through Aurelius’ education as a Stoic and Confucius’ teachings from his wisdom, both authors had similar viewpoints with regards to allowing a strong morally capable to lead by example. If this leader could rule through their ability to discipline themselves, act calmly and with purpose and lead not by force but by their own characteristics to their society, then - that according to the authors - is how one should do it. Through the analysis of what each author means by their teaching and by interpreting the evidence in a historical context, the paper aimed to show that both writers take closely similar approaches to social philosophy. Taking the texts from a simple reader’s perspective both Stoicism and Confucianism are close to one another in how to chose the right ruler. From a historical context both texts came from roughly the environment, a declining empire which was starting to fragment. Thus in conclusion despite many differences, both writers as philosophers and leaders had a common dream and goal for how the leadership of their respective societies should be