Week 14 · Readings & resources

Week 14 — Readings & Resources

Introduction to Philosophy Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 14 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 11 items (5 readings and 6 videos). Allow 105–130 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more depth, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (16–21 min total)

① Ren, li, and xiao in the Analects

Chapter 14, Section “Learn goodness in relationships: Confucian ethics” · Session 1, Segment 1, “Confucian ethics and the Daoist way” · Remember: li is fitting conduct, and fitting is not the same as customary.

Confucian Analects, Book I, translated by James Legge — Wikisource — the first book of the Analects in Legge's English, with the Chinese text above each chapter. Read chapters 2 and 12: chapter 2 calls filial piety the root of benevolent actions, which is the chapter's link between xiao and ren, and chapter 12 pairs the rules of propriety with a natural ease, a good place to test the line between fitting and customary. Legge writes superior man where the course says junzi; the English words are the translator's, and the course pins no quotation from the Analects, so describe what you read in your own words. (reading, 10–15 min)
The Philosophy of Confucius — Let's Talk Philosophy — a narrated overview that sorts out which works are tied to Confucius, then explains ren as human goodness, li as ritual and etiquette, xiao as respect for parents and ancestors, and the junzi as the person who lives by them, before turning to Confucian ideas about government. It also adds two virtues, yi and zhong, that the course does not teach, and its birth date and other biography are the video's own, not pinned. Its picture of li as keeping a social hierarchy in place is close to the conformity objection; set it beside the chapter's reply that fitting conduct must express ren. (video, 12 min) (captions: creator)

② Wu wei and the way of things

Chapter 14, Section “Act without forcing: the Daoist way” · Session 1, Segment 1, “Confucian ethics and the Daoist way” · Remember: wu wei is effortless, non-forcing action, which is different from doing nothing.

Tâo Teh King (the Daodejing), chapter 2, translated by James Legge — Wikisource — Legge's English of the whole Daodejing on one page. Start at chapter 2, where Legge's English has the sage manage affairs without doing anything, a rendering to set beside the course's gloss of wu wei as effortless, non-forcing action, and read on through chapter 8, which compares the highest excellence to water that benefits all things without striving. The page header names Laozi as the author; the course says the text is traditionally attributed to him. Legge's wording is the translator's, and the course pins no quotation from it. (reading, 5–10 min)
The Philosophy Of Laozi (Lao Tzu) — Let's Talk Philosophy — a seven-minute account of the dao, de (virtue), ziran as naturalness, and wuwei, which the speaker renders as non-action and then says does not mean complete passivity, matching the chapter's point about the potter. It opens by calling Laozi half a myth, which fits the course's words traditionally attributed; its dates for the text disagree with each other and are not pinned. Use it while working through the Week-14 module overview. (video, 7 min) (captions: creator)
Understanding Wuwei: The Daoist Art of Going With the Flow — ReligionForBreakfast — a closer look at how different Daoist texts used the word, with a stone in a stream, a lost horse that turns out to be good luck, and a ruler who refrains from force. One of the three readings it describes is non-action as doing nothing; check that against the course's gloss, effortless, non-forcing action, and notice that its other two readings, not striving and natural action, fit the gloss better. It opens with a book about Winnie the Pooh and ends with a sponsor message; skip both. (video, 12 min) (captions: automatic)

③ Suffering, craving, and the chariot

Chapter 14, Section “Take the chariot apart: no-self, again” · Session 1, Segment 2, “The Four Noble Truths and the chariot” · Remember: no-self denies a permanent self, not that persons exist.

The Buddhist Theory of No-Self (Anātman/Anattā) — 1000-Word Philosophy — a short essay on what the teaching denies and what it does not: it says plainly that no-self is not a claim that there are no human beings. Its second section sets no-self beside Locke's psychological theory of personal identity, which is the chapter's comparison with the memory theory. This builds on Week 7's ship of Theseus and its first look at no-self. The essay's later points about rival Buddhist schools go beyond this week. (reading, 5–10 min)
Life, the Universe, and the Buddha: Crash Course Religions #6 — CrashCourse — an episode built around a stuck-in-a-video-game metaphor that walks through the Four Noble Truths: there is suffering, which it says means more than physical or emotional pain and can be rendered dissatisfaction; suffering has a cause in craving; it can end; and there is a path, with the Eightfold Path listed. It says outright that the Buddha was not a pessimist, the chapter's reply to the pessimism objection. Its biography, rebirth, and karma are the episode's own and not pinned, and the course studies the truths as philosophy without a verdict. (video, 11 min) (captions: creator)
Nagasena and the Chariot — Faye Mulholland — a spoken retelling of the chariot passage in the Questions of King Milinda: the king lists body parts and the 5 parts of a person, then the pole, axle, and wheels of a chariot, and finds no person and no chariot over and above the parts. Its translation says impulses where the course says mental formations, and its line that the monk is no real person means no permanent self; persons as a changing collection are real. Its crowd sizes are the retelling's own. (video, 9 min) (captions: automatic)

④ A person through other persons

Chapter 14, Section “Become a person through others: ubuntu” · Session 2, Segment 3, “Ubuntu and comparing without ranking” · Remember: relationships form the individual; they do not erase the individual.

The African Ethic of Ubuntu — 1000-Word Philosophy — a short essay explaining ubuntu as humanness and as a goal: becoming a real person by prizing communal relationships, analyzed as identifying with others and showing solidarity with them. It quotes several English versions of the maxim; the course's pinned gloss is a person is a person through other persons, and every English version is a gloss, not the Zulu words. Its contrast with Aristotle and with Western psychology is the author's own, and the course ranks neither side. Stop here before existentialism; next week takes that up. (reading, 5–10 min)
What is Ubuntu Philosophy? (African Philosophy) — Carneades.org — a longer video that draws three positions from the idea that a person is a person through other people: a relational view of personal identity, tested on a person whose personality suddenly changes; a view of rational choice; and restorative justice in South Africa after apartheid. It raises an objection about a person who lives in isolation, a good partner for the chapter's override objection. Its claim that Western philosophy has traditionally called for revenge is the speaker's own and too broad, and its income figures are not pinned. (video, 19 min) (captions: automatic)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Confucius, section 4: Virtues and Character Formation — online Encyclopedia of Philosophy (reference entry) — read section 4 for how the Analects treat benevolence, ren, as caring for others and tie it to filial piety and ritual propriety; it calls the junzi the gentleman, a different English rendering of the same word. Skip the later sections on the family, the state, and political authority. (reading, 10–15 min)

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