Pre/co-requisite: The Law, the Classics, and the Scriptures

This one-credit course compares classical Chinese and Western culture on two basic points. The first is a remarkable convergence: The strikingly similar treatment in the basic writings attributed to Confucius and Lao Tzu, the Analects and the Tao Te Ching, respectively, and the works of Plato and Aristotle, particularly on the role of “scholar-administrators” or “philosopher-kings” in a just state and the importance of their pursuing the public good if they are to establish and advance such a state. The other point is an equally remarkable divergence: Classical Chinese thought has virtually no parallel to Western theism. Classical Chinese thought rests on secular classics very like those of the West, but China has no equivalent of the West’s sacred scriptures. Classical Chinese culture comes very close to the West’s “Athens,” even as it has nothing approaching the West’s “Jerusalem.” This course will explore the implications of these points – convergence in politics, divergence in religion – for the global law of the new millennium.