hw(2)

Question One: Self and the Others

We have all read Aristotle’s famous line: “man1 is a social creature” (NE 1169b19).
In different terms and from different perspectives, many thinkers have discussed the
relationship between self and others. Choose two thinkers or texts, drawn from two
different parts2 of the course book, and examine their ideas concerning the relation
between self and others. Relate these ideas to your own experience: What is the most
prevalent kind of relationship in society? What is your ideal relationship between self and
others? What can contribute more to harmony in society?

The following may help you brainstorm your choice of thinkers/texts and the perspective
you will take:

Thich Nhat Hanh 一行禪師 sees the emptiness of self as the basis of inter-being 互即互入
. Confucius, on the other hand, regards humaneness 仁 as the innate disposition of caring
and concern for the others. For Aristotle, the love of friends is derived from the love of
self (NE 1168b3-6); the harmony within one’s own self is the basis of the harmony among
human beings. What about Socrates’s eros and Jesus’s love — in what ways do the two love
others? In what ways should their followers love each other? In The Social Contract, Rousseau
sheds a different light on the problem: as members of the Sovereign, I and others pursue the
same interests as expressed in the general will; as individuals, we may have different private
interests