Side by side
Compare two traditions
The quickest way to see what a school actually commits you to is to set it against one that answers the same question differently. Choose any two.
In one line
Confucianism
Ritual, humane conduct, education, family roles, and exemplary rule.
Epicureanism
Tranquility through friendship, prudence, and modest pleasure.
Origin
Confucianism
Confucianism begins with the teachings associated with Kongzi in late Zhou China and develops through Mengzi, Xunzi, Han statecraft and later Neo-Confucian metaphysics.
Epicureanism
Founded by Epicurus in the Garden at Athens, c. 307 BCE.
Central claims
Confucianism
- Ethical life is formed through relationships, ritual and cultivated attention.
- Good government depends on exemplary persons more than coercive law alone.
- Learning is a lifelong practice of self-correction and humane conduct.
Epicureanism
- The absence of disturbance, not indulgence, is the highest pleasure.
- Death is not an evil, because it is not experienced.
- Friendship and modest self-sufficiency are central goods.
Thinkers
Essential reading
Confucianism
- The Analects · Confucius
Also Mencius, Xunzi.
Epicureanism
- On the Nature of Things · Lucretius
Also Letter to Menoeceus.
The standing objection
Confucianism
Critics challenge its historical entanglement with hierarchy, patriarchy and bureaucracy; contemporary defenders stress reciprocity, moral education and obligations of rulers.
Epicureanism
Opponents in antiquity accused Epicureans of withdrawing from civic duty, and later critics questioned whether tranquility is a sufficiently demanding ideal.
This page adds nothing to what the two school pages already say. It only sets the same headings against each other, so the disagreement is easier to find than the agreement.