Compare and Contrast Buddhist and Confucian Philosophies

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The Answer is Confucius responded to the political and social instability of the Era of Warring States. He looked to the early Zhou period as a golden age that could serve as a model for political success. As such, historians and educators became central figures in Chinese politics. He argued that the state should be modeled on the patriarchal society, a structure that would restore order and stability within a social hierarchy based on education rather than on birth. Soon, his ideas became a central feature of imperial China within an alliance between scholars and the state, even though Chinese philosophers debated how to interpret those ideas. As a result, the goal of Chinese philosophy became creating a framework for a stable, harmonious, and unified society. The Buddha was a contemporary of Confucius, and he, too, was responding to social chaos and disintegration, though philosophers in South Asia, unlike in China, did not exclusively serve the state or a particular ruler, allowing for freer speculation on a broader range of issues. He rejected the Brahmanic order. He invoked a logical interpretation of the order of the universe rather than invoking divine intervention. He elaborated the idea of karma, the universal principal of cause and effect. In both Confucianism and Buddhism, the role of a founding teacher stands out.

Compare and Contrast Buddhist and Confucian Philosophies

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