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This lecture will explore the basic concepts and texts of Confucian and Daoist thought, which developed as a response to the crises of the Zhou order in the Warring States period. Confucianism is an essentially positivist approach to the world that seeks to understand the ways in which people can live together in social communities. Human relationships and a system of ritual are central to Confucius’s concept of a well-ordered society, and learning is the mechanism for maintaining that order. Daoism is, by contrast, a radically skeptical system, which doubts that knowledge is reliable and views all human action that is based on lofty ideals and theories as dangerous. The Daoist thinkers Laozi and Zhuangzi advocated a naturalistic, laissez-faire approach to life, which asserted, “by doing nothing, nothing is left undone.”
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