Confucianism

An Appreciation

In most arguments between Daoists, Confucians, and Mohists, I side with the Daoists. I prefer the philosophy of Daodejing and Zhuangzi to that of Analects and Mencius; at the level of concrete practice and engendered consciousness, I prefer the Daoist sage to the sophisticated Confucian just like I prefer the honesty of Diogenes of Sinope or the simplicity of Zeno to the luxury of an Academic scholarch, Aristotle, or Epicurus (even while I’m a Platonist, not a Cynic): in each case, I find the voice which challenges social mores as prejudicial and civic virtues as unnatural to be prophetic, the voice which seeks to reinforce the status quo nearly always compromised. Zhuangzi describes the Confucians and Mohists as frogs chirping around a pond: but what he looks to is the unfathomed vastness of Ocean.