When Socrates Meets Confucius
I believe that many people are not sure what will happen if Socrates and Confucius meet at the same time. Both Socrates and Confucius are outstanding in their philosophy of human beings. Perhaps there are many similarities and differences between them, but I am more interested in their perspective in education. Now let me use an example.
If Socrates and Confucius were participating in the skills competition for teachers in Sichuan province.Confucius was asked by a student judge,“if a man is drowning , I save him .Then his families will prepare to send me a head of cattle, and should I accept it or not? " Confucius answered him, "You should accept. After saving him, what will his families think about this? and then what will they do? "The judge replied, "they will appreciate me and then would give me something to express their gratitude to me.” Confucius said:"You accept her gifts and what do other people will think about this? and then how will you deal with it? "The judge added, "everyone can see my rewards and it will raise the enthusiasm of rescuing others, and later on seeing a man drowning, they will rush to rescue him. “Confucius nodded.
The student judge put the same question to ask the other teacher,
Socrates. Socrates asked him, "What is your own opinion? and why do you think so? "The student replied, "it is wrong to receive people's gifts because saving others is a good deed .After all, receiving other people's stuff is not my intention"."What you say does make sense."Socrates said. The student went on to say," but I think I should regard it as our duty, and in this case will everyone know the importance of saving others and volunteer to do this. "Socrates clapped to praise him.
From the conversation mentioned above, it is observed that Confucius' heuristic methods of teaching is so practical to enlighten students. He proposes that students should learn and think organically, acquire knowledge independently, and develop cognitive abilities. That is a prominent feature in his teaching process.
However, when Socrates is teaching, he likes keeping students putting forward various questions by their own. When his students are unable to come up with the correct answers to the questions, he was not anxious to correct mistakes. Instead, he asks a question in reply to the mistakes so that they become more pronounced and students are trapped into a confusing situation. Then the students think there is
something that turns out to be wrong or flawed, which makes their original ideas disintegrate completely.
Needless to say, it will be more significant if we could integrate Confucius 'and Socrates’methods with each other and finally establish a new and all-embracing one during global times. However, one of the indispensable prerequisites for this integration is that we ought to discern the similarities and differences between them carefully and then ascertain their spirits and distinctive advantages and disadvantages in practice. Therefore, when Socrates Meets Confucius, they are likely to collaborate to manage a school well. Do you think so?
