Plato vs Confucius on Wisdom
Plato and Confucius on wisdom, side by side — 5 passages against 5, and what the disagreement is actually about.
Plato and Confucius both have a great deal to say about wisdom — 5 passages and 5 respectively in thinkr's library — and they do not say the same thing. Setting them side by side is more useful than reading either alone, because the disagreement shows you what each position is actually giving up.
Plato on wisdom
Student of Socrates, teacher of Aristotle, founder of the Academy. His dialogues — the Republic, Symposium, Phaedo — set the terms of Western metaphysics.
“Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.”
“Parmenides: It is impossible to conceive of many without one.”
“Parmenides: Just as things in a picture, when viewed from a distance, appear to be all in one and the same condition and alike.”
“The beginning in every task is the chief thing.”
“Socrates: The shoemaker, for example, uses a square tool, and a circular tool, and other tools for cutting?”
Confucius on wisdom
Kong Fuzi — Chinese teacher whose sayings, gathered in the Analects, shape East Asian thought on ethics, ritual, and learning.
“He who learns but does not think is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.”
“Man has three ways of acting wisely. First, on meditation; that is the noblest. Secondly, on imitation; that is the easiest. Thirdly, on experience; that is the bitterest.”
“By extensively studying all learning, and keeping himself under the restraint of the rules of propriety, one may thus likewise not err from what is right.”
“The superior man accords with the course of the Mean. Though he may be all unknown, unregarded by the world, he feels no regret — It is only the sage who is able for this.”
“Virtuous, worthy, wise and capable people are chosen as leaders.”
Where they part
Athens, c. 428–348 BCE and China, 551–479 BCE are not the same world, and the difference is not only historical. Plato treats wisdom as something to be wise men speak because they have… — a matter of practice. Confucius approaches it from another side entirely. Neither is refuting the other; they are answering slightly different questions, and noticing which question you are actually asking is most of the work.