西方文化论文英文版

分数：_______ 《西方文化概论》课程论文论文题目希腊神话的哲学思想及其与孔子中庸之道的比较专业_____ __________年级__ ____学号___ _____学生姓名_____ ______________Contents摘要 (ii)Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ i v Text (1)About the Confucius (1)His life experiences and the background he lives. (1)His philosophy and the doctrine of the Golden Mean (2)A short introduction about the Greek mythology (3)The expression from Confucius and the comparison between the two philosophy (4)Bibliography (6)摘要本论文通过对希腊神话的哲学思想及其与孔子中庸之道的产生原因和形成背景作简要的分析，对两种不同时代、不同地域、不同文明的两种文化思想进行了初步的对比。

文章先是对孔子哲学思想的产生的起源，当时的地理社会背景以及孔子的一生做了简要的介绍，并举例介绍孔子中庸思想的具体表现，让读者对孔子和中庸有一个比较熟悉的初步印象。

随即对希腊神话的产生、发展做简单提要（因为课堂上已讲了许多不做详述）分析其这哲学思想的体现，价值观和人生观、审美态度等进行浅析，进而对两中伟大的思想文明进行对比。

关键词：孔子众神文化奥林匹克精神中庸。

AbstractThis thesis is generally about the introductions and the comparisons between the philosophy of the Greek mythology and the middlebrow from the Confucius. Firstly, the thesis will give a brief introduction about the middlebrow philosophy, its social background, and the Confucius’s whole life. Tell the readers why does the the middlebrow philosophy come into being and give the detailed expression about it from Confucius’s saying. Then introduce the philosophy of the ancient Greek, its stories, and show how the philosophy come into being and develops, analyzing the embodiment of its value, esthetics. At the same time, do comparisons between the philosophy of the Greek mythology and the middlebrow from the Confucius which comes from the different times, areas, and civilizations. More emphasizes will be focused on the middlebrow from the Confucius and Confucius himself, because we have learn a lot about the ancient Greek from the class and the middlebrow and the Confucius are hard to understand.Key words: Confucius; the spirits of the gods; the Olympic spirit; middlebrow.TextAbout the ConfuciusHis life experiences and the background he lives.Confucius (born Kong Qiu, styled Zhong Ni) was born in the village of Zou in the country of Lu in 551 B.C., a poor descendant of a deposed noble family. As a child, he held make-believe temple rituals; as a young adult, he quickly earned a reputation for fairness, politeness and love of learning, and he was reputed to be quite tall. He traveled extensively and studied at the imperial capital, Zhou, where he is said to have met and spoke with Lao Zi, the founder of Daoism.Upon his return to Lu, he gained renown as a teacher, but when he was 35, Duke Zhao of Lu led his country to war, was routed and fled to the neighboring country of Qi; in the disorder following the battle, Confucius followed. Duke Zhao frequently came to him for advice, but upon counsel of one of his ministers, he decided against granting land to Confucius and gradually stopped seeking his counsel. When other nobles began plotting against Confucius' position, Duke Zhao refused to intervene, and Confucius returned to Lu. But conditions there were no better than before, and Confucius retired from public life to concentrate on teaching and studying.At age 50, he was approached by the Baron of Qi to help defend against a rebellion, but he declined. He was later made a city magistrate by the new Duke of Lu, and under his administration the city flourished; he was promoted several times, eventually becoming Grand Secretary of Justice and, at age 56, Chief Minister of Lu. Neighboring countries began to worry that Lu would become too powerful, and they sent messengers with gifts and dancers to distract the duke during a sacrifice holiday. When the duke abandoned his duties to receive the messengers, Confucius resigned and left the country.Confucius spent the next five years wandering China with his disciples, finding that his presence at royal courts was rarely tolerated for long before nobles would begin plotting to drive him out or have him killed. He was arrested once and jailed for five days, and at 62 he was pursued, along with his disciples, into the countryside by a band of soldiers sent by jealous nobles, until he was able to send a messenger to the sympathetic king of a nearby country, who sent his own soldiers to rescue them. Once again, Confucius was to be given land but was denied it upon counsel of another high minister. After further wanderings, he eventually returned to Lu at age 67. Although he was welcomed there and chose to remain, he was not offered public office again, nor did he seek it. Instead he spent the rest of his years teaching and, finally, writing. He died at 72.His philosophy and the doctrine of the Golden MeanAlthough Confucianism is often followed in a religious manner by the Chinese, arguments continue over whether it is a religion. Confucianism lacks an afterlife, its texts express complex and ambivalent views concerning deities, and it is relatively unconcerned with some spiritual matters often considered essential to religious thought, such as the nature of the soul.Confucius' principles gained wide acceptance primarily because of their basis in common Chinese tradition and belief. He championed strong familial loyalty, ancestor worship, respect of elders by their children (and, according to later interpreters, of husbands by their wives), and the family as a basis for an ideal government. He expressed the well-known principle, "Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself" (similar to the Golden Rule). He also looked nostalgically upon earlier days, and urged the Chinese, particularly those with political power, to model themselves on earlier examples.Because no texts survive that are demonstrably authored by Confucius, and the ideas associated with him most closely were elaborated in writings that accrued over the period between his death and the foundation of the first Chinese empire in 221 BC, many scholars are very cautious about attributing specific assertions to Confucius himself.The Confucian theory of ethics as exemplified in Lǐ is based on three important conceptual aspects of life: ceremonies associated with sacrifice to ancestors and deities of various types, social and political institutions, and the etiquette of daily behavior. It was believed by some that lǐ originated f rom the heavens. Confucius's view was more nuanced. His approach stressed the development of lǐ through the actions of sage leaders in human history, with less emphasis on its connection with heaven. His discussions of lǐ seem to redefine the term to refer to all actions committed by a person to build the ideal society, rather than those simply conforming with canonical standards of ceremony. In the early Confucian tradition, lǐ, though still linked to traditional forms of action, came to point towards the balance between maintaining these norms so as to perpetuate an ethical social fabric, and violating them in order to accomplish ethical good. These concepts are about doing the proper thing at the proper time, and are connected to the belief that training in the lǐ that past sages have devised cultivates in people virtues that include ethical judgment about when lǐ must be adapted in light of situational contexts.In early Confucianism, yì () and lǐ are closely linked terms. Yì can be translated as righteousness, though it may simply mean what is ethically best to do in a certain context. The term contrasts with action done out of self-interest. While pursuing one's own self-interest is not necessarily bad, one would be a better, more righteous person if one based one's life upon following a path designed to enhance the greater good, an outcome of yì. This is doing the right thing for the right reason. Yìis based upon reciprocity.Just as action according to Lǐ should be adapted to conform to the aspiration ofadhering to yì, so yì is linked to the core value of rén. Rén is the virtue of perfectly fulfilling one's responsibilities toward others, most often translated as "benevolence" or "humaneness"; translator Arthur Waley calls it "Goodness" (with a capital G), and other translations that have been put forth include "authoritativeness" and "selflessness." Confucius's moral system was based upon empathy and understanding others, rather than divinely ordained rules. To develop one's spontaneous responses of rén so that these could guide action intuitively was even better than living by the rules of yì. To cultivate one's attentiveness to rén one used another Confucian version of the Golden Rule: one must always treat others just as one would want others to treat oneself. Virtue, in this Confucian view, is based upon harmony with other people, produced through this type of ethical practice by a growing identification of the interests of self and other.In this regard, Confucius articulated an early version of the Golden Rule:"What one does not wish for oneself, one ought not to do to anyone else; what one recognises as desirable for oneself, one ought to be willing to grant to others."A short introduction about the Greek mythologyGreek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece. Modern scholars refer to the myths and study them in an attempt to throw light on the religious and political institutions of Ancient Greece and on the Ancient Greek civilization, and to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself. Greek mythology is embodied explicitly in a large collection of narratives and implicitly in representational arts, such as vase-paintings and votive gifts. Greek myth explains the origins of the world and details the lives and adventures of a wide variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines, and other mythological creatures. These accounts were initially disseminated in an oral-poetic tradition; the Greek myths are known today primarily from Greek literature. The oldest known Greek literary sources, the epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, focus on events surrounding the Trojan War. Two poems by Homer's near contemporary Hesiod, the Theogony and the Works and Days, contain accounts of the genesis of the world, the succession of divine rulers, the succession of human ages, the origin of human woes, and the origin of sacrificial practices. Myths are also preserved in the Homeric Hymns, in fragments of epic poems of the Epic Cycle, in lyric poems, in the works of the tragedians of the 5th century BC, in writings of scholars and poets of the Hellenistic Age and in writers of the time of the Roman Empire, for example, Plutarch and Pausanias. Archaeological evidence is a principal source of detail about Greek mythology, with gods and heroes featuring prominently in the decoration of many artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the 8th century BCE depict scenes from the Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles. In the succeeding Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence. Greek mythology has had extensive influence on the culture, thearts and the literature of Western civilization and remains part of Western heritage and language. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in classical mythological themes.The expression from Confucius and the comparison between the two philosophy1、To learn without thinking is labor in vain, to think without learning is desolation.2、To acknowledge what is known as known, and what is not known as not known is knowledge.3、Men live with honesty. The dishonest live, spared by fortune.4、Knowledge is not equal to devotion. Devotion is not equal to joy.This chinese man was a well-known leader in philosophy and he also made many wise phrases and theories about the law, life, and the government. Philosophy is a kind of a system of ideas and thoughts that talk about the human's behavior, the rules that you should follow to make a successful life, and about the government.In other words, it's about thoughts and theories that teach other people lessons about principles, or rules, about life and it also teaches you a moral ( sort of like the morals that are at the end of a fable). Confucius is famous for his philosophy because he made many wise sayings in ancient China that helped many people learn about nature, the world, and the human behavior. He also helped the government and the emperor by teaching them lessons on how the emperor should rule his kingdom successfully.A sage once reduced all virtue to the golden mean. Push right to the extreme and it becomes wrong; press all the juice from an orange and it becomes bitter. Even in enjoyment never go to extremes.You should learn to seize things not by the blade, which cuts, but by the handle, which saves you from harm; especially is this the rule with the doings of your enemies. A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends. Their ill will often levels mountains of difficulties which one would otherwise not face... Flattery is more dangerous than hatred because it covers the stains which the other causes to be wiped out. The wise will turn ill will nito a mirror more faithful than kindness, and remove and improve the faults referred to.Everyone would have excelled in something if he had known his strong point. Notice in what quality you surpass, and take charge of that. In some, judgement excels, in others valor. Most do violence to their natural aptitude and thus attain superiority in nothing. Time disillusions us too late of what first flattered the passions.The contrast between light and darkness was the first mental germ that developed afterwards into the contrast between good and evil.And by slow degrees that lead inevitably to the highest abstraction of religion, morality and philosophy. And the culture of today is nothing else than putting old thoughts into new words, old wine into new bottles. That is the answer to those who ask: why do we study ancient religions and philosophy? Because all what we think and do today was written long ago in the ancient books of mythology and philosophy. The greatest of all arts is the art of life, and the best of all music is the harmony of spirits. It is on this view that is looking for great creative writers to compose high quality articles on Greek Mythology and General Philosophy. Greek mythology was the Greeks' religion and the fundamental of every religion of the past, and also of the religions of the present. Because the past is not passed, it belongs to us more than the present; we feed on it as long as we live. All religions had the same purpose; all were links in a chain which connects heaven and earth. The Gods in the Greek mythology were much more human than the God of the actual religions, but in the Greek mythology there are old stones that we cannot reject. The same and even more so for Philosophy. How actual is Aristoteles? Man is the measurer of all things, and what is science but the reflection of the outer world on the mirror of the mind? Or Plato? All here on earth tends toward right, and truth and Perfection, nothing here on earth can ever be quite right, quite true, and quite perfect. 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