Confucius believed, as he said, that “it is not easy to find a man who has learned for three years without coming to
Them to question everything—even, or especially, themselves. He adopted as his own a motto inscribed on the walls in the temple at Delphi: "Know thyself." Likewise there was the statement, attributed to Socrates, "The unexamined life is not worth living." He believed that knowledge, and particularly self-knowledge, was the key to excellence in all things, but he did not believe that he himself possessed any great knowledge. The one thing he knew, Socrates claimed, was that he knew nothing—and that, of course, made him the wisest of men.
Just as he questioned himself, Socrates questioned the society around him. This attitude finally got him into trouble. After the loss to Sparta in the Peloponnesian War, Athens took on something of a witch-hunt atmosphere. It was in this climate in 399 b. c. that Socrates was arrested and charged on two counts: not respecting the gods, and corrupting young minds. The only truth to the first charge was that Socrates had encouraged people to think for themselves. As for the second, it was true that several of his pupils, among them Alcibiades (al-seh-BY-eh-deez), had turned out to be dishonorable men. But there is no reason to blame Socrates for this, since he taught that reasonable argument and discussion— not violence and treachery—were the solutions to problems.
The leaders of Athens condemned Socrates to die by drinking a cup of poison called hemlock. Though Socrates could have saved himself, he chose not to. He used his trial as an opportunity to criticize his society one last time. "Athenians," he said, using a sarcastic tone, "I am not going to argue for my own sake. . . but for yours, that you may not sin against God by condemning me, who am his gift to you." He went on to compare Athens to a horse, and himself to a fly—specifically, a gadfly—who stirs the horse to life. Then he drank the poison. While he waited for it to take effect, he talked with his pupils, Plato among them. After that, he died.
Be good." This idea is similar to Socrates's identification of virtue with learning. The two men's methods of teaching shared similarities as well. As with the Socratic dialogue, the Confucian method of teaching was based on asking questions rather than on pounding a point home.
Neither Confucius nor Socrates was merely a teacher to their students; they were like fathers and friends to them as
Well. Of the 3,000-odd young men who studied under Confucius during his career, the ones most eager to learn lived with the master and ate and drank with him. They also joked with him; it appears he had a great sense of humor. He loved to hear his students tell a story about a man who had described him (Confucius was apparently rather odd-looking) as having the downcast appearance of a stray dog.
Confucius and Socrates both favored the spoken word over the written word. Each left no writings of his own. The famous Analects (AN-uh-lektz), and other Confucian Classics, were actually compiled by students. Also like Socrates—or at least, the Socrates of Plato's Republic—Confucius believed that an education in music was essential to cultivating a well-developed mind.
World History
