Revelation and Influence of Confucius and Socrates’Educational Thoughts

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Revelation and Influence of Confucius and

Socrates’Educational Thoughts

作者：张囡

来源：《校园英语·下旬》2015年第01期

【Abstract】With the rapid development of economy，our country is experiencing an all-round，multi-level social transformation.Thus the value orientation and moral standard are also

showing a trend of diversification.However，the problem is that the social morality of people began

to decline； the old value system used to accept by us is collapsing gradually，while new value

system has not formed yet.In such a situation，whether we can properly solve the problem will not

only affect the construction of a harmonious society，but also decide the destiny and future of our

country.Therefore，the key to solve the present moral education is to establish new order that fits our

current social development.As the originator of moral education，Confucius and Socrates' educational

thoughts have been exerting great influence on the later generations.Confucius，the founder of moral

education in ancient China，established a complete set of educational ideological system

with“humaneness”as the core and “ritual”as its form of education.Based on the concept of

“humaneness”，he proposed filial piety，love and loyalty etc.as the most important concepts

whenever at his time or that of ours.Socrates is also the father of western moral education who created

a set of system，in which“goodness”is the core of his thoughts.“Know yourself”and“Virtue is

knowledge”are the most famous concepts of his moral education.

【Key words】Confucius； Socrates； moral education； humaneness； goodness

Confucius and Socrates are both outstanding thinkers，whose ethics are the source of moral

educational thoughts，exerting a far-reaching influence on the later generations.Both of them set

ethics and morals as the highest standard to save people.However，due to different historical

background and geographic environment，their moral education ideas presented the characteristic of

harmony without uniformity.With the development of economy，especially when western and eastern

moral education ideas blend each other，Confucius and Socrates' moral education thoughts will be

extremely important to the theory significance as well as practice significance in our modern society

in such a cultural globalization era.

I.The Outline Educational Thoughts of Confucius and Socrates

1.The Moral Educational Contents of Confucius and Socrates.A hallmark of Confucius' thought

is his emphasis on education and study.The core and essence of his moral education

is“benevolence”，with“Li”as the main body.“Li”is the external form and the basic

conditions.“Li”refers to the specific social relationship including rites，norms and standards

etc.“Benevolence”is the spirit of“Li”，that is，love，loyalty and filial piety.He who learns but does 龙源期刊网

not think is lost.He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.Socrates thinks that “goodness”is

the most undoubtful truth as well as the origin of all things.In his opinion，goodness is the standard of

beauty，which is also the motivation for pursuit of virtue.Another famous saying “Virtue is

knowledge” aims to tell us that knowledge is the understanding of the nature and the concept of the

whole world.Knowledge is the ability to distinguish right from wrong，true from false，good from

evil，which is actually an internal state of consciousness of the individual soul.Just because of virtues

acting as a special kind of knowledge，Socrates believes that virtue is teachable，which means virtue

can be learned by human beings.

2.The Moral Educational Target of Confucius and Socrates.Confucius' goal is to create

gentlemen who carry themselves with grace，speak correctly，and demonstrate integrity in all

things.If Confucius’ moral education aims to cultivate the social norms and standards of the sage，a

gentleman，then to pursue the self soul of an individual is the target of Socrates’.His moral goal is not

specific，and is also unable to quantify.Socrates put forward “know yourself”and takes it as a motto.

3.The Moral Educational Method of Confucius and Socrates.Confucius had formed rich methods

of moral education in the teaching practice of his life.To sum up，there are mainly two aspects： one

is the moral self-cultivation methods，namely the pedagogue make the benevolence，righteousness，propriety initiative，wisdom，faith，moral norms into moral psychology and then

transformed into moral behavior of certain methods； the second is moral self repair，which means

that educatee themselves should promote each other，complement each other.The methods of moral