Educational Thoughts of Aristotle and Confucius

Abstract

This study examines the educational principles and aims of Aristotle and Confucius. Through a descriptive analysis, the research questions of the study are assessed. Both philosophers subscribed to the common educational principles that emphasize ethical education for building individual cultivation, social harmony, and the ideal state. The individual and social aims of education are: (a) to provide the proper method of training the virtuous persons who have ideal characters through self-cultivation, and (b) to build the harmonious community and the good state through development of a gentleman or a nobleman. On the other hand, differences include: Confucius emphasized his ethical and political principles without supporting the metaphysical and epistemological theories, which was unlike Aristotle's approach; he did not use a set of tools like Aristotle's Organ on to justify his ethical and political thought. Finally, the article claims that Confucius generally stressed self cultivation through humanity and ritual, while Aristotle primarily emphasized self-actualization through habit and reason.