Confucius, Machiavelli and Rousseau: Studies in Contrast

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Confucius, Machiavelli and RousseauStudies in
Contrast

• Presented by Group 6
• Klaus , Alison C, and Qing

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Outline

• Purpose
• View of basic human nature
• Sources of power and authority
• Society structure and governance model
• Contemporary evidences
• Applicability
• Point of views
• Confucius
• Machiavelli
• Rousseau
• Conclusion

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Confucius

• Born in a turbulent time
• Warring states
• Dissipated authority
• A time of great intellectual activities
• Aristocratic family reduced to poverty
• A philosopher, not a religious leader
• Humanistic
• Rational
• Moralistic

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Basic Human Nature

• Born to be benevolence
• To love all men
• Virtue
• Gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity,
  earnestness, and kindness
• By nature, men are nearly alike by practice,
  they get to be wide apart

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Source of Power and Authority

• Prefect virtue vs. shame
• Rites
• Lead them with excellence and put them in their
  place through roles and ritual practices, and in
  addition to developing a sense of shame, they
  will order themselves harmoniously

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Societal and Organizational Structure and
Governance

• Government by personal virtue
• Reciprocity
• to govern others one must first govern oneself
• Loyalty and Filial Piety
• Obligation to the rulers
• Duties in family lineage

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Contemporary Views of Confucius

• A perfect gentleman
• Virtue and moral
• Humaneness
• Concerned with individual development
• Outdated
• Rituals
• Blind obedience to rulers / structure
• Promote corruption (relationships vs. laws)

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More Tidbits on Confucius

• When I walk with along with two others, they may
  serve me as my teachers.
• A man can enlarge the principles which he
  follows those principles do not enlarge the man.
• Choose a job you love and you will never have to
  work a day in your life. 
• No matter where you go, there you are. 

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Niccolo Machiavelli

• Cunning, duplicity and utter ruthlessness in
  politics
• Role as ambassador exposed him to politics
• 'Prince' dealt with acquisition and maintenance
  of power

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Basic Human Nature

• Remains constant over time
• Essentially evil and self-serving
• Best friends during good times can quickly
  disappear in times of adversity

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Source of Power and Authority

• Fortune, virtue, force
• Support of the people or the great
• Ability to capitalize on opportunity
• Ability to manipulate the people and their
  perceptions

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Societal and Organizational Structure and
Governance

• Support of the people more important than the
  great
• Avoid middle managers as they can turn against
  you
• Dictatorship with no governance is preferred.

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Truth or Falsity of Machiavelli's Views

• Availability of information may render some views
  obsolete
• Global politics reduce risk of 'nice' leaders
  being overthrown
• Global economics exert pressure on leaders to be
  'nice' to their populace

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More Tidbits on Machiavelli

• Being nice often leads to failure
• Evil is ok to achieve a goal
• Bundle evil into short period of time so people
  forget sooner
• Better to be feared than loved
• Better to appear to be faithful, merciful, humane
  and honest that actually be those things.

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Jean- Jacques Rousseau
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Swiss Philosopher
• 1712 1778
• Lived during the Age of Enlightenment
• Turbulent personal life
• Brilliant contributions in music, political
  theory, philosophy and literature

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Basic Human Nature

• Sees people as basically good
• Rousseau contended that man was good by nature, a
  noble savage when in state of nature, but was
  corrupted by society and institutions.
• Famous quote Man is born free, but is
  everywhere in chains

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Source of Power and Authority

• Positions of leadership are decided through
  election
• The leader has legitimate power (i.e. unanimous
  consent by the people)

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Societal and Organizational Structure and
Governance

• Most of his ideas in this area come from his
  work entitled The Social Contract
• An ideal society is one in which a mans contract
  is between himself and his fellow man, not
  between he and a government.
• A perfect society would be controlled by the
  general will of the populace.

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Contemporary Views of Rousseau

• Rousseau revered spontaneity and emotion over
  artifice and reason.
• He sought to restore a proper respect for the
  creativity and worth of individual human beings.
• This ties in well with current thinking about
  level three leadership.
• Rousseau felt that human beings are basically
  good. If a contemporary leader shares this belief
  it will influence his/her leadership style.

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Conclusion

• Contrasted Point of View
• Various levels of leadership concepts
• VABEs
• Morality, ethics, and legality
• Behavior guidance
• Models of humaneness, society, governance
• Lead by influence
• Lead by example

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Questions