Abstract
Confucius and Plato suggest with their Sage-king (sheng ren 聖人) and Philosopher-king theory, respectively, a model of political management which dissociates from the old political example and introduces new elements on governance. Descent, power and wealth seize to constitute criteria for participating in governance. By introducing virtue, education and value for those who are called to assume leadership positions, they advocate the coupling of power and knowledge through ethics.
Living, today, in an ever changing world where the phenomena of poor financial management, corruption, lack of transparency and ideals, negative moral models and reduced moral resistance are constantly increasing, and the skills of those who are called to assume leadership positions are placed under questioning, the need for a moral reconstruction of our society becomes a de facto dominant issue.
In this context, the return to the origins of the Eastern and Western civilization can offer an activation of thought and a new political approach that always remains inseparable from ethics. Both Confucian and Platonic thoughts could contribute to the renewal of political thought in the West and the East and the commencement of a meaningful dialogue between two distinct worldviews.
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Notes
- 1.
“Jan Jung asked about Goodness. The Master said, (…) Do not do to others what you would not like yourself” (Analects, 12.2.Waley 1996).
- 2.
“The Master said: So long as the ruler loves ritual, the people will be easy to handle” (Analects, 14.44).
- 3.
“The Master said: He who rules by moral force (te) is like the pole-star, which remains in its place while all the lesser stars do homage to it” (Analects, 2.1).
- 4.
“The Master said: A gentleman in his dealings with the world has neither enmities nor affections; but wherever he sees Right he ranges himself beside it” (Analects, 4.10).
- 5.
“Fan Ch’ih asked about wisdom. The Master said, He who devotes himself to securing for his subjects what it is right they should have, who by respect for the Spirits keeps them at a distance, may be termed wise” (Analects, 6.20).
- 6.
“And surely proper behavior towards parents and elder brothers is the trunk of Goodness” (Analects, 1.2).
- 7.
“He who is clement can get service from the people”(Analects, 17.6).
- 8.
“When the Master was going to Wei, Jan Ch’iu drove him. The Master said: What a dense population! Jan Ch’iu said: When the people have multiplied, what next should be done for them? The Master said, Enrich them. Jan Ch’iu said, when one has enriched them, what next should be done for them? The Master said: Instruct them” (Analects, 13.9).
- 9.
“The Master said: How transcendent is the moral power of the Middle Use! That it is but rarely found among the common people is a fact long admitted” (Analects, 6.27).
- 10.
“Is there any fault, then, that you can find with a pursuit which a man could not properly practice unless he were by nature of good memory, quick apprehension, magnificent, gracious, friendly and akin to truth, justice, bravery and sobriety?” (Republic, 487a 2–6. Shorey 1969).
- 11.
The word junzi 君子was inextricably connected with a social status, no one could become junzi, he is the junzi by birth. Creel compares the word junzi 君子 with the English word gentleman which originally signified the one who belongs to a high social class by birth, whereas later on, as its meaning was detached from any heredity connotation, it was generally used to characterize the one who had good manners and good behavior.
- 12.
“The Master said: The knight of the Way who thinks only of sitting quietly at home is not worthy to be called a knight” (Analects, 14.3).
- 13.
“…but shall assign to each the status due to his nature” (Republic, 415c), “the other citizens too must be sent to the task for which their natures were fitted, one man to one work” (Republic, 415c).
- 14.
“…but that they possess also the gifts of nature suitable to this type of education”, (Republic, 535b).
- 15.
See also the Aristotelian view: “Thus also the city-state is prior in nature to the household and to each of us individually. For the whole must necessarily be prior to the part;” (Politics, I 1253a 19–21).
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Avramidou, E. (2012). Sage-King and Philosopher-King: A Political and Moral Approach to Confucius’ and Plato’s Leadership. In: Prastacos, G., Wang, F., Soderquist, K. (eds) Leadership through the Classics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32445-1_4
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