Socrates and Confucius: An Encounter.

31.10.2022.

Here I am, in the Ancient Agora, the commercial, social and political hub of Classical Athens, standing between two of the world’s wisest philosophers: Socrates (the father of western moral philosophy) and Confucius (the father of Chinese ethics). A bit further to the right lies the Acropolis, cradle of democracy, illuminated by Apollo’s sun and blessed by Athena’s gift of wisdom, intelligence and peace.

I feel gratitude, excitement, and my stomach full of butterflies!

And I wonder, how would the world look if innovation, entrepreneurship and finance were influenced by philosophy, by love of wisdom? If we acknowledged the importance of building knowledge, sharing knowledge and using knowledge for the common good? If we engaged in deeper reflection and philosophical enquiry? If we studied history’s great thinkers, like the two men in this photo, to turn knowledge into wisdom, into consciousness?

Both Socrates and Confucius thought learning was an integral part of acquiring moral virtue. They inspired their students (and future generations of philosophers) to pursue learning for the sake of their moral and intellectual development.

Strongly influenced by Socrates, the Stoics believed that to live a life of virtue (a life of arête) we should aim towards excellence not just in the moral domain (the heart), but also in that of reasoning (the head, logic) and natural philosophy (the world around us, science). I.e., we cannot live an eudaimonic life by simply being ethical, we must develop a strong reasoning capacity and study how the world works.

Seneca insisted on the importance of sharing our knowledge as well (see letter 6 to Lucilius).

According to Wu Weishan, the creator of this beautiful sculpture and the curator of the National Art Museum of China, Socrates and Confucious are talking about the global pandemic, about how human beings can conquer the virus crisis.

We could engage in similar conversations, build knowledge, share knowledge and use knowledge for the common good. We could make every academic institution collaborate to develop a long-distance power transmission technology, to satisfy the world’s energy demands with renewable energy. We could share experiences and best practices for remote learning to help eradicate poverty, or remote health models to diagnose people in isolated locations. And so on.

Paraphrasing Isaac Newton: If we have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. We could climb onto the shoulders of these two giants in the picture, and the many that followed, to make intellectual and moral progress and make this world a place where everyone is free and able to seek an Eudaimonic life.

#philosophy #sustainablefuture #ethics #innovation #collaboration