Living the Sage Life: A History of Chinese Ethics

Catalog description

How does a sage live their life? What do we have to do to become sages? Chinese philosophers throughout history have answers to these questions. In this course, we investigate the ethics of (ancient) Chinese sagehood and how they relate to a good and moral life, with a special focus on different variations of Confucianism and Daoism. We will start with Confucius, Mencius, and Zhuangzi in the Warring States, to Laozi in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and end with Wang Yang Ming in the Ming Dynasty. Crucially, the course involves an experimental element: students will be asked to not only think about sagehood, but also experiment with living like a sage. We will thus be experimenting with several meditation methods, reflection methods, and discussion methods. This course will also involve a field trip to an art museum.