The Comparative Study Of The Virtue Cultivation Between Xuncius And Aristotle

Xuncius in the end of the Warring States Period and Aristotle in ancient Greece epitomized ancient Chinese and Western thoughts respectively. Though their living space, environment and culture were distinct from each other, Xuncius and Aristotle are quite comparable with regard to their thoughts. Both of them drew merits from predecessors and brought forth new ideas from old ones. They denied the theory of fate but valued a lot on human strength. Because of these, this paper compares the thought of "morality" which is valued greatly by both of them. The study would contribute to the understanding of main content of morality and spirit of traditional culture. The paper is presented in three parts, namely: introduction, main body and conclusions.In the introduction, based on the fact that Xuncius and Aristotle are comparable in the thought of "morality".The body part consists of five sections. In the first section, social background and sources of moral cultivation of Xuncius and Aristotle are compared. The second section focuses on the metaphysics of moral cultivation. The concept of natural law by Xuncius and the real potential theory by Aristotle are introduced together with their rational cognition and social politics views, meanwhile, human nature of moral cultivation is the key theoretical base in this paper. The third section compares ways to achieve moral cultivation as far as Xuncius and Aristotle were concerned. The fourth section compares the theoretical achievements of Xuncius and Aristotle. It intends to enlighten people that the thoughts of two great masters still hold historical significance even though they lived far from our age and under different systems from our own. They have provided unique interpretations on moral cultivation on the stance of their class. The fifth section concludes the fundamental value and the universal value of moral cultivation of Xuncius and Aristotle. In the globalized world, with the advancement of economy, morality gradually becomes invisible for many people. They work for money and totally neglect the loss of morality. The moral cultivation theory of Xuncius and Aristotle was proposed under certain historical conditions but can still inspire us in building a socialist society ruled by law, educating the public and realizing a harmonious socialist society.