AGENDA
- No office hours today
- Nietzsche vs. Confucius
- from the good life to the meaning of life
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Nietzsche--
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Rituals and ceremonies
- Values autonomy, self-definition, self-invention, self-affirmation, rebellion against "the herd"
- Not egalitarian: all that is only for higher people
- On autonomy: Ideal life is lived in harmony with your community
- On egalitarianism: harmony doesn't mean equality
Important virtues and practices
Xiao = Filial piety/family reverence
- Filial piety produces harmony within the family
- children must obey parents, care for them in old age
- younger children must obey older children
- there's a pre-existing practice--you don't choose it
- claim: it's important, not trivial, to go along, because it expresses respect for others, creates social harmony
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What does Li comprise, for us?
Etiquette, manners, politeness
- please and thank-you
- not interrupting
- opening doors for people
- waiting your turn to get off a plane
- other examples?
- family rituals (e.g. making tea)
- religious community's rituals
- whole society's rituals: watching the Super Bowl
Compare: Nietzsche praises "human beings with their own festivals, their own working days, and their own periods of mourning" (Gay Science 283)
Propriety, civility
- wearing appropriate clothes for the occasion
- When to swear, when not to swear
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Confucians teach us to take these things seriously instead of as trivial customs
- are they worth taking seriously?
- Are these things trivial?
- Or are they important?
- If important, are they repressive?
- Or do they express respect and create harmony?
- Amy Olberding, "The Moral Gravity of Mere Trifles"
- Podcast on Confucian ritual (start at 25:52)
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Next week we start talking about meaning, starting with the meaning of life. Jim Holt, Why Does the World Exist. Map of issues is below.
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