Cultural Differences Between Chinese and Western Education Essay

There is a great difference between Chinese and Western cultures, and this difference is caused by many factors. Whether it is family education or school education, the content, mode, purpose and result of education, China and the West have great differences in the education system. Here is my recommended essay on the cultural differences between Chinese and Western education, I hope you like it! Through the comparative study of their educational thought, it helps to truly recognize the source of the differences between Chinese and Western educational thought, and helps us to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of the respective educational thought of China and the West, so as to take the best and get rid of the dregs.

Keywords: Confucius; Socrates; Educational thought; Difference; Influence

Confucius and Socrates are milestone figures in the history of Chinese and Western thought and culture, and their ideas have had a great influence on later generations, especially in educational thought, which can be regarded as the source of Chinese and Western educational thought, but under the influence of different geographical and cultural differences, their educational thought has essential differences. However, under the influence of different geographical and cultural differences, their educational ideas are fundamentally different. This difference is reflected in the purpose of education, the status of teachers and teacher-student relationship established in the process of education, as well as the methods of education. This difference has had a profound impact on the development of traditional Chinese and Western educational thought, as well as on the development of Chinese and Western education in the future.

I. Differences between the educational thinking of Confucius and Socrates

The differences between the educational thinking of Confucius and Socrates are mainly in three aspects: differences in the purpose of education, differences in the status of teachers and teacher-student relationships, and differences in the methods of education used.

(a) Differences in the Purpose of Education

Confucius and Socrates were born in different countries, but in a similar era. Both were born in a period of social transformation and transition. Confucius lived at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period in China, during the transition from a slave society to a feudal society, while Socrates lived in the decline of slavery in the Greek city-states. At the time of the war, when the rites and music were in ruins and morality was in decline, both of them desperately wanted to save this social crisis and reshape the status of morality in the hearts of people. Therefore, both of them coincidentally chose education as a way to reshape the human soul and enhance the moral concepts of human beings. Both gave education a sacred and great significance, and both hoped to solve the moral problems through education, so as to achieve the ultimate goal of social stability and prosperity.

From this point of view, the initial starting point of the two implementation of education is basically the same, and both of them affirmed that education should be used to achieve the moral upliftment of the people, but the specific purposes of the two are different, and it is precisely because of this difference that later caused the different directions of the traditional Chinese and Western educational thought, and the development of Chinese and Western cultures have had different impacts.

1. The purpose of Confucius's education

The purpose of Confucius's education is to enable people to have the specific moral cultivation of "benevolence", which is also the essence of Confucius's education and the highest ideal. "Ren" is the highest moral virtue that Confucius required his students to possess. Ren covers a wide range of moral virtues, such as loyalty, filial piety, cheng, faith, wisdom, courage, gentleness, goodness, respect, thrift, concessions, honesty, harmony, generosity, sensitivity, beneficence, love of people, etc. The two most important elements of Ren are the "goodness" and the "goodness" of the students. The two most important elements of benevolence are "filial piety" and "loving others", of which filial piety is the foundation for realizing "benevolence" and loving others is the core of "benevolence". The most important two elements are "filial piety" and "love of man".

Filial piety is the code of conduct for dealing with relationships within the family, and it is the basis for realizing ren. Confucius said, "filial piety and brotherhood are also the basis of benevolence." [1](P3) Confucius always believed that only through filial piety can one love others, and that filial piety is the origin and foundation of loving others. Confucius emphasized the emotional connotation of filial piety, and he believed that filial piety needs no other rational reason, and that it is based on the blood relationship between parents and children, and that the kindness of parents in giving birth to and raising their children is the ultimate reason for children to be filial to their parents. Confucius, on the other hand, linked filial piety with loyalty, arguing that "if one serves one's parents, one is able to exert oneself; if one serves one's ruler, one is able to fulfill one's duties." [1](P3) In his view, only those who can fulfill filial piety at home can fulfill loyalty to the ruler in the imperial court. This "filial piety" is extended to the governance of the whole country, the bloodline affection between parents and children into the relationship between the ruler and the ministers, the love of the family, the reason for the transfer of the state, the world's ambition, so that the whole national governance is also in the warmth of the human relationship.

Loving people is the core of "benevolence", Confucius has repeatedly emphasized the importance of loving people, in the "Analects", "Fan Chi asked benevolence. Zi said: ‘ love people ’" [1] (P114), meaning that people with benevolence should give love to others, and this is especially true for rulers. Therefore, Confucius asked the rulers to be able to "give to the people and help the people" [1](P56), that is, more from the people's interests, to achieve "its raise the people also benefit, its make the people also righteousness". [1] (P41) Confucius believes that a truly benevolent people to govern the country, must do "save and love people, so that the people to time" [1] (P2), "because the people of the benefit of the benefit of the" [1] (P192) and so on, it can be seen, Confucius in the rule of the country! This shows that Confucius in the governance of the country or the choice of love, asking the rulers to do to benefit the people, reminiscent of the people and support the people, to maintain this strong affection between the ruler and the people.

In this way, it seems that Confucius's purpose of education is ultimately to bring education to a moral and ethical height, which emphasizes benevolence and affection, and this is the fundamental difference with Socrates's purpose of education.

2. Socrates' Purpose of Education

Unlike Confucius, Socrates' purpose of education is the pursuit of the essence of "virtue". Virtue is goodness, and goodness is Socrates' highest moral ideal. In Socrates' view, the reason why evil exists is because of ignorance, and those who have knowledge must also be virtuous, and only those who are ignorant of the good will do evil. Therefore, as long as everyone possesses knowledge, everyone possesses virtue. This is the origin of his famous proposition "Virtue is knowledge"[2] (P232).

However, Socrates did not stop at the concrete manifestations of virtues such as piety and fraternity, but went beyond these formalized appearances to seek the essence of the eternal virtues. For example, in the Meno, when Socrates asks Meno what virtue is, and Meno immediately answers separately what the virtue of a man is and what the virtue of a woman is, Socrates sarcastically says to him, "When I ask you about only one virtue, you serve me up the litter of virtues that you keep" [3] (P153), which is not what not what he is asking, but "the virtues themselves". For virtues, "however many they may be, and however different they may be, have a ****same nature that makes them virtues." [3] (P153) In the case of virtues, Socrates needs to make known not just specific virtuous acts, but the nature of virtue. For he believes that the reason why certain people who seem to have a lot of knowledge are evil and have no virtue lies in the fact that there is no real mastery of the universal eternal virtues, or rather, there is no real mastery of knowledge. So Socrates devotes his life to educating his students to seek the nature of virtue.

Thus, Socrates ultimately led education to a philosophical height, where the ultimate goal of education is the search for virtue, for truth, as opposed to Confucius' choice of love, and Socrates' choice of wisdom.

(II) Teacher status and teacher-student relationship differences

In the process of realizing their respective educational purposes, Confucius and Socrates also established a different status of teachers in education, which at the same time led to two different teacher-student relationship. Confucius and Socrates educational thought in the status of teachers and teacher-student relationship there is a fundamental difference: Confucius established the teacher as the main teacher of the teacher's authoritative position, thus establishing a "teacher as the upper, the student as the lower; the teacher as the main, the student as a servant; the teacher as a respected, the student as humble" teacher-student relationship; in contrast, Socrates is in the basis of equality and democracy Established a student-centered view of the student as the main body, the establishment of the teacher-student relationship between teachers and students as equals.

1, the teacher's status and the establishment of teacher-student relationship in the educational thought of Confucius

For Confucius, "benevolence" is the purpose of his education, and "propriety" is the way to realize "benevolence". For Confucius, "benevolence" was the aim of his education, and "rites" was the way to realize "benevolence", so he asked everyone to regulate their behavior by "rites" and advocated "restoring the rites". [4](PP1-3) By "rites", Confucius mainly meant to abide by the moral norms and norms of life in a hierarchical society. Such norms, to a large extent, including the social system of respect and inferiority within the state; to a small extent, including the etiquette of people's daily life and inter-personal interactions with common sense. In this way, Confucius' "rituals" not only regulate the relationship between ruler and subject, father and son, brother, friend, husband and wife, but also regulate the relationship between teachers and students. As he said, "the ruler, the minister, the father, the son" [1](P111), another implied meaning is "the teacher, the student". For Confucius, the hierarchy implicit in the "rites" is absolutely certain, and because of this, Confucius emphasized the absolute status and authority of the teacher in the issue of teacher status. The absolute authority of the teacher's status requires absolute obedience from the students, as Confucius said, "A gentleman has three fears: fear of heaven's order, fear of the great man, and fear of the words of the sages." [1](P160) For his students, "fearing the words of the sages" is the absolute obedience to what he teaches, which results in the unconditional passive acceptance of the knowledge taught by the teacher, thus establishing the status of the teacher's authority as the main teacher. In the teacher-student relationship, Confucius and his students were harmonious but not equal. As Confucius himself said: "Different paths, do not seek each other" [1] (P154), meaning that different ideas, do not consult each other. At the same time, Confucius also believes that "just, perseverance, wood, na near benevolence" [1] (P126), in fact, is his "fear of the words of the saints," the performance of the idea. This is also a reflection of the teacher-student relationship in the educational thinking of Confucius, Confucius followed the teacher-student relationship is a "teacher as the top, the student as the bottom; teacher as the main, the student as a servant; teacher as a respected, the student as a lowly" relationship, although the harmony but not equal.

2, Socrates' educational thought of the teacher's status and the establishment of teacher-student relationship

In contrast, Socrates, who lived in Ancient Greece, was y affected by the democratic politics of the time, and at that time, "all are equal before the law," more so that he and his disciples, students, and the establishment of a democratic and equal relationship between them. The relationship between Socrates and his disciples and students was democratic and equal. Whether in the process of moral education for students or in the process of imparting knowledge to students, Socrates always regarded his students as the main body of education and teaching, advocated the equality of teacher-student relations, and emphasized the dialogue of multiple subjects, which was full of witty arguments, and in the process of argument, both sides were the main body of the dialogue, and both sides were in an equal position. justice as we can see in his dialog with Eusudaimus on justice. Throughout the course of the dialogue, Socrates employs a form of dialogue in which he asks questions and gives examples to prove the inappropriateness of the other party's thought, so that the other party realizes the wrongness of his thought, and then subsequently steps forward to finally make the other party realize his own ignorance. [5](PP140-154) The whole process of both sides of equal status, Socrates did not hold himself up as an authority like Confucius, in his entire educational process is the exploration of the truth, the truth is the highest authority, as he himself said: "We must not regard respect for the individual above the truth." [6] And this is exactly where Aristotle's famous saying "I love my teacher, I love the truth even more" comes from.

In short, Confucius in the process of education and teaching, the establishment of a teacher-oriented, overly superstitious teacher authority, status and role of the teacher's view, while Socrates on the basis of democracy and equality, the establishment of respect for students, students as the main body, not superstitious teacher authority, status and role of the teacher's view. And this difference in teacher-student relationship also creates a difference in the educational methods used by the two in practicing their educational ideas.

(C) the difference in educational methods

Because of the difference between Confucius and Socrates in the purpose of education and the status of teachers, teacher-student relationship on the fundamental concepts of the two in the realization of their own educational ideas in the process, but also used different methods.

1. Confucius' educational method

The ultimate goal of Confucius' education is to understand the way of benevolence, that is, to be benevolent, so in order to achieve this way of the saint, Confucius emphasized that education is not in the morning and evening, but the importance of enlightenment, so that we can learn from the past and learn from the past, to learn from the past and learn from the past, and to learn from the past, and to learn from the past and to learn from the past, and so the best exposition of the method of Confucius is the "Analects", which refers to the "Shuye", which is a "teaching method of Confucius". So the best exposition of Confucius's educational method is the one mentioned in "Analects? [1](P59) Confucius advocated that in the process of education, students must first have the desire to learn, that is, to strive to achieve the desire of "benevolence", and then at the right time, to enlighten the students. In the process of enlightenment, students are required to think over and over again, and to learn by example. If the student fails to achieve this goal, the education is forced to be interrupted, and here Confucius emphasizes the importance of the student's thinking in the education process. The Analects of Confucius is the best example of this. The question-and-answer session between Confucius and his disciples recorded that students raised a variety of questions and Confucius answered them promptly and appropriately with a strong focus, and through this question-and-answer session, he inspired the students' thinking and enhanced their knowledge. And in the "lift a corner not to three corners of the counter, will not be repeated," there is another layer of meaning implied, that is, the final result of this lift a counter to three must be consistent with Confucius himself insisted on the "benevolence" point of view and, so the knowledge acquired by the students can never jump out of the Confucius's Therefore, the knowledge acquired by the students can never go beyond Confucius' concept of "ren". In the process of education, Confucius is always in the position of a teacher, and students can only ever ask him for knowledge.

2. Socrates' educational method

The purpose of Socrates' educational thought is to seek the essence of "virtue" and to teach people to seek the truth. Therefore, Socrates used the method of education is a logical dialectical technique - maternity. The maternity technique is divided into four parts: ridicule, midwifery, generalization and definition. [2](P232) Specifically, "ridicule" is the practice of allowing students to present their own views on an issue in a conversation, and then exposing the contradictions in the student's conversation, forcing the student to become an adult who knows nothing about the issue. The so-called "midwifery" is the use of conversation to help students recall knowledge, just as a midwife helps to produce a baby. The so-called "induction" is to make the student's understanding through questions and answers to gradually eliminate the individual particularity of things, revealing the essence of things universal things, so as to arrive at the "definition" of things. Socrates did this because he believed that people would pursue knowledge only if they knew they were ignorant, so if they were to be educated, they had to know they were ignorant first. Although Socrates' maternity technique is also an enlightening method of education, he did not set up various restrictions like Confucius, and students can freely let their thoughts fly in the process of discussion, through different ways to Socrates' ultimate educational goal of obtaining the truth.

From this, we can see that there are fundamental differences between the educational ideas of Confucius and Socrates: the pursuit of "benevolence" and "virtue" in the purpose of education; the status of teachers and teacher-student relations between the two were established to emphasize the authority of the teacher and teacher-centered view and emphasize the equality of teachers and students. Teacher-centered view and emphasize the equality of teachers and students, the student-centered view of the student as the main body; in the education method, the two through the two different methods to inspire the students, so as to achieve the two pursuit of different educational goals. And it is because of the existence of these essential differences in the educational thinking of Confucius and Socrates, so that the two educational thinking on the later generations of educational thinking, cultural development towards a huge impact.

Second, the impact of the differences between the educational thought of Confucius and Socrates

(a) the impact of the differences between the two on the traditional Chinese and Western educational thought and cultural direction

Confucius and Socrates pursuit of "benevolence" and "virtue" of two completely different. Confucius' idea of "benevolence" was developed by Mencius and other Confucian successors, and eventually formed a tradition of moral education that emphasized moral cultivation and blood kinship, which filled Chinese culture with the spirit of humanism, and also formed a typical moral philosophy in Chinese philosophy. On the other hand, Socrates' pursuit of "virtue" was based on knowledge, emphasized the pursuit of true knowledge, and was full of rationality, leading to the Western tradition of knowledge-based education. This idea was developed by Plato and others to form a typical Western knowledge-based philosophy, which embodies the spirit of Western scientism.

(2) The impact of the differences between the two on contemporary education and its effectiveness

The status of the teacher, the teacher-student relationship, and the methods of education used by the two in the education process have also had a great impact on modern education. Under the influence of Confucius's teacher-oriented view of teachers and his excessive superstitious belief in the authority, status and role of teachers, school education in China has overemphasized the acceptance of learning by students, rote memorization of knowledge and worship. The superstition and worship of the authority of teachers, emphasizing the dignity of teachers, respect for teachers, thus resulting in our country in education and teaching only focus on the role of the teacher, while ignoring the initiative and enthusiasm of students to play. Teachers always teach, students are always taught; teachers are always omniscient, students always know little or nothing; teachers are always thinking, students are always passive thinking; teachers are always speaking, students are always obedient to listen to the lecture, the teacher has an active role, students are always around the teacher; teachers are the main body of the education and teaching process, the students are the object of the education process; teachers are the authority of knowledge, students can only listen to the teacher. Teachers. The student is like being in the middle of a drain, everything has long been decided by the teacher. Obviously, all of this is a great obstacle to the healthy, active, positive development of students, but also not conducive to the cultivation of innovative talents.

Unlike Confucius, Western education is more enlightened and advanced, based on the Socratic view of democracy and equality, with the student as the main body, and without any superstitious belief in the authority, status, and role of the teacher. The status of teachers and students is equal. In the process of education and teaching, teachers do not take themselves as the center, but take students as the center of education and teaching. In the process of teaching, teachers emphasize more on students' understanding and perception of knowledge rather than rote memorization of knowledge. Teachers and students learn by communicating, exchanging, and dialoguing with each other, rather than worshiping the teacher as the authority of knowledge, teachers and students learn from each other in the classroom. In this environment students are more like streams of water, exploring the path of knowledge without absolute conclusions. Just as the word education in the West means "to guide", the teacher is only a guide. This greatly mobilizes students' learning initiative and conscientiousness, not only cultivates students' creative ability, but also promotes students' healthy growth and development.

Conclusion

From this point of view, the educational ideas of Confucius and Socrates are fundamentally different: first of all, the difference in the purpose of education, the purpose of education is the origin of the two educational ideas, although both chose education as a means of shaping the soul of man, enhance human virtue to save the real society, but the two purposes are different, Confucius aimed to let people have Confucius aimed at giving people the concrete moral cultivation of "benevolence", while Socrates aimed at the pursuit of the essence of "virtue". Secondly, there is the difference between the status of the teacher and the teacher-student relationship in the two educational ideologies. Teacher status and teacher-student relationship is the basis for the realization of educational thought, Confucius in the process of education to establish the status of the teacher as the main teacher authority, while Socrates based on democracy and equality, the establishment of a student-oriented teacher-student relationship. Finally, there is the difference in educational methods. Educational method is an important means to implement educational ideas, the two used different heuristics and different methodological principles, and it is these differences that led to the difference in the direction of the later development of Chinese and Western cultures - the difference between humanism and scientism. At the same time, this difference has had a great impact on modern Chinese and Western education. The authoritative position of the teacher and the duck learning method of the students in Chinese education contrasts sharply with the equality of teachers and students in Western education, where knowledge is gained through discussion.

But we must also see that although Confucius and Socrates had different educational ideas, their fundamental purpose was to realize the development of society and human progress through education. In the study of the two educational ideas, we should see the respective strengths and weaknesses of the two, should be based on the principle of using the past for the present and the foreign for the Chinese, on the one hand, we should inherit and carry forward the valuable cultural heritage of the motherland, carry forward the characteristics of the traditional Chinese moral education, recognize and explore its practical value, in order to absorb its essence; at the same time, we should also critically learn from the essence of Western cultural resources, learning from the West in pursuit of the truth, At the same time, we should also critically learn from the essence of Western cultural resources, learn from the Western pursuit of truth, the courage to innovate thinking qualities, in order to make up for the shortcomings, and promote innovation. Take the essence, remove the dross, and better promote the intersection and integration of Chinese and Western cultures.

References:

[1] The Analects [Z]. Yang Fengbin, Yang Bojun. Changsha: Yuelu Shusha, 2002.

[2] Wang Linghao. History of education in China and abroad [M]. Changchun: Northeastern University Press, 2002.

[3] Peking University, Department of Philosophy, ed. Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy [M]. Beijing: Commercial Press, 1982.

[4] National Education History Research Association, ed. Research on the educational thought of Confucius [M]. Beijing: People's Education Press, 1985.

[5] Xenophon. Recollections of Socrates [M]. Translated by Wu Yongquan. Beijing: Commercial Press, 2004.

[6]Plato. The Ideal State [M]. Guo Binhe, Zhang Zhuming. Beijing: Commercial Press, 1986.387.

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