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Of unswerving horses and immortal souls: a comparison of Confucius' use of the Book of Songs and Socrates' appeal to poets in the Meno.

From: East-West Connections  |  Date: 1/1/2006  |  Author: Arjo, Dennis

Abstract

Confucius' repeated appeals to the Book of Songs to establish and defend a moral point seem strikingly at odds with the argumentative and discursive methods of classical Western philosophers such as Plato. Easy contrasts on this point, however, are challenged when Socrates, a Western philosophical persona to whom Confucius is often contrasted, himself appeals to classical poets when making a point, as he does with a fair frequency. These poetic allusions are usually ...

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