1001Philosophers

Confucius vs Plato

Confucius and Plato are the two most influential founders of philosophical traditions in the Eastern and Western worlds. They lived more than a century apart in entirely separate civilizations, but their philosophical concerns overlap so closely that the comparison has become a fixture of comparative philosophy.

At a glance

ConfuciusPlato
Dates551 BC – 479 BC428 BC – 348 BC
NationalityChineseGreek
EraAncientAncient
Movements Confucianism Platonism, Ancient Greek Philosophy
Profile Confucius → Plato →

Where they agree

Both held that the central question of philosophy is how a human being should live, both treated the well-ordered soul and the well-ordered city as mirror images of each other, and both took the cultivation of virtue through proper education as the foundation of political life. Both produced traditions in which the philosopher is also a teacher of public conduct.

Where they disagree

Plato held that the well-ordered city is governed by a class of philosopher-rulers whose authority rests on their knowledge of the eternal Forms, and that virtue is grounded in the rational soul's ascent toward what is universal and unchanging. Confucius held that the well-ordered society is sustained by the proper performance of ritual within graded social roles, with humanness (ren) realized in the relations of family, community, and state. Plato's politics is in important measure aristocratic and meritocratic; Confucius's is more thoroughly relational and conservative of inherited social form. The two traditions disagree on the role of metaphysics, on the place of family piety, and on whether philosophy aims at contemplation or at right action.

Representative quotes

Confucius

  • “Do not do unto others what you do not want done to yourself.”

    己所不欲，勿施於人

  • “Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.”

    學而不思則罔，思而不學則殆。

  • “The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.”

    君子欲訥於言而敏於行。

Plato

  • “The beginning is the most important part of the work.”

    The beginning in every task is the chief thing.

  • “Philosophy begins in wonder.”

    155d, The Dialogues of Plato , Volume 3, 1871, p. 377

  • “I shall assume that your silence gives consent .”

    435b

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