analects 15 17 18

From book fifteen you can deduce that he was very independent in a way. Confucius didn’t let anyone or anything to change his ideals. I admire that because not many of us can say that they are influenced by what happens around them. Yet, I’m not saying that we should ignore other ideas or points of view but that we shall not take them for granted. For instance, if everyone likes blue and I like red, I should continue liking red instead of blue unless I my self think about it and end up liking blue.

Something that I see often in his passages is that he always questions everything. For example, he might say that gentleman aren’t trustworthy just because they are honest or if someone is smart doesn’t mean he is a good speaker or vice versa. I believe that those are the questions you have to ask if you want to keep your own ideals because if you say that everything that shines is gold, then you’d be following incorrect, misleading ideas or propositions.

I really liked a passage in book 17. The passage is 17.23 and talks about balance. He says that courage without righteousness would end up in being a criminal while righteousness without courage would end up in a political disorder. This makes me think that about all of what he has said on his past books and now I think that the most important thing for Confucius is balance because without balance you have nothing. I believe that he is very wise because I cant think about a philosopher or a successful person that carried an unbalanced life.