The Comparative Study Of Confucius And Plato's Concept Of Knowledge

What is knowledge? This is an ancient and ever-lasting topic. On the thinking and enlightenment of this issue thinkers differ at all times, no consensus views or opinions, but there are also some similar views and stances.In the so-called "Axial Period" of Karl Jaspers, China's Confucius and the ancient Greek Plato have conducted expositions of the "knowledge" or "knowledge is what?" If Karl Jaspers "Axial Period" is a reasonable theory, then that we make the comparative study of Confucius and Plato's "What is knowledge?" doctrine is not just a scholar research but also means a history of social civilization.A comparative study of Confucius and Plato's "What is knowledge?" is not only the issue itself or "knowledge scope", it also involves the relationship between China's traditional Confucian culture and Greek Philosophy. So it is a more complicated issue. This study attempts to state Confucius and Plato's different understandings of "knowledge" in social and cultural history of both China and western countries, and to give a fundamental analysis of Confucius and Plato's "What is knowledge?" or " What knowledge should be?"In fact, the ancient China did not exactly expose "knowledge", but there was the so-called "know scope". But as for the implied significance, the ancient Chinese "know scope" includes the meanings of the so-called awareness, perception and knowledge. Therefore, as to the study of Confucian concepts of knowledge, we mainly study his "know scope". In ancient Greece, Plato's "knowledge" was much closer to the so-called "knowledge" concept we are discussing today.We believe that knowledge is the result of realization activities of human beings and it is a main difference between humans and other animals. The concept of knowledge means the basic understandings and fundamental perspective views, and it is different with the Western Philosophy of "Theory of Knowledge". "Theory of Knowledge" is a specific research area with a series of scope and system concepts of Western Philosophy. "The concept of knowledge" is a relatively broad concept, and in its extent itself, it contains such issues as the sources and ways, the subject and object, the content, the nature and forms of knowledge.Basically, knowledge can be studied from different angles. We choose the concept of knowledge of Confucius and Plato's ideas to make a comparative study of the sources and ways, the subject and object, the content, the nature and forms of knowledge. By this comparative study, we attempt to reveal Confucius and Plato's different ways of thinking in the "knowledge" issue, and these different ways of thinking are extremely important impacts on the development direction of the Chinese and Western cultural traditions.