Revolutions in Thought Political turmoil and cultural change

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Revolutions in ThoughtPolitical turmoil and
cultural change
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Why do belief systems exist? What purpose do they
serve?
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Philosophy and Religion

• 800-300 BCE
• Came from advanced civilizations
• Born in crisis

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New types of thought

• Confucianism
• Daoism
• Hinduism
• Buddhism

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Political turmoil in China

• Leads to new ways of thinking
• A cultural flowering takes place
• People reflected on the nature of their society

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Chinese Worldview

• Cosmos is single and continuous
• Heaven
• Earth
• Humans
• All of these are in harmony together

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Confucius

• 551 BCE
• Teacher
• Strong willed
• Became angry if his rice was overcooked!
• While alive his ideas were rejected
• After death his ideas became popular

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Confucius

• Students compiled his thoughts
• The Analects

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Confucianism

• Analects (his teachings and sayings)
• The Master said
• Key principles
• Moderation
• Optimism
• Good sense
• Wisdom
• Humane
• Rational

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Confucius

• Practical man who did not deal with religious
  questions
• Ren
• Kindness, goodness
• Li
• Behave appropriately
• Xiao
• Family devotion, respect, care

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Confucianism

• Heaven is the author of the virtue that is in
  me.
• Junzi one of noble behavior
• Inner virtue
• Integrity
• Righteousness

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Confucianism

• His students studied
• Poetry
• History
• Human nature
• Book of Songs, Book of History, Book of Rites

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Confucianism

• 5 relationships
• Ruler/subject
• Father/son
• Husband/wife
• Older brother/younger brother
• Friend/friend
• Everyone has a status

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Confucianism

• Optimistic or pessimistic?

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Confucianism

• It is possible to improve human beings
• Education
• Proper behavior
• Be involved in society
• Harmony in public life

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Confucius

• You do not understand even life. How can you
  understand death?
• You are not able even to serve man. How can you
  serve the spirits?

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Daoism

• Laozi was the founder
• Understand the world and nature

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Daoism

• The Dao..The Way
• Creator of the universe is a force, eternal and
  unchanging
• It is cosmic.not humanand passive
• Critics of Confucius
• Daoists not as devoted to social activism

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Daoism

• Understand the world and nature
• Reflection and introspection
• Dao is unchanging and eternal

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Daoism

• Wuwei
• Do not become involved in competition or personal
  striving
• Counterbalanced activism
• LIVE AS SIMPLY AS POSSIBLE

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The Daodejing is the most important Daoist
workDao does nothing and yet it accomplishes
everything. Dao resembles water, which is soft
and yielding, yet is also so powerful that it
eventually erodes even the hardest rock placed in
its path.
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Hinduism

• The Brahman is the unchanging divine of all the
  universe
• The Supreme Cosmic Spirit

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Hinduism

• Dharma
• Obedience to religious and moral laws
• right order of things
• Moral action (dharma) will lead to a better birth
  in the next round of existence (kharma)

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Hinduism

• Promised salvation to those who are devout
• Dedicated to Vishnu and Shiva

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Hinduism

• Vishnu
• Preserver of the world
• Occasionally visits the human world

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Hinduism

• Shiva
• God of fertility and destruction
• Brought life and took it away when its season
  passed

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Hinduism

• Samsara
• Life is an endless cycle of existence
• redeath as animals, plants, humans, gods
• Karma
• Every action has an inevitable reaction
• Good deedsgood results

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Buddhism

• Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha)

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Buddhism

• Buddha
• Intense praying and meditation
• Saw past lives
• Cycle of existence
• Achieved full enlightenment

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The Four Noble Truths

• All of life is suffering
• Suffering comes from desiring
• Ending desire is the way to end suffering
• The path to end suffering is..

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The Four Noble Truths

• Right Understanding
• Right Thought
• Right Action
• Right Livelihood
• Right Effort
• Right Mindfulness
• Right Concentration
• Right Speech

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The Key To Buddhism

• Dharma
• Everything in the world is linked and connected
• Dukkha
• No pleasure is permanent

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Buddhism

• Compassion
• For all beings and people
• Nirvana
• Extinguished his karma

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Buddhism