Defeated on the economic field, will Germany beat China in the Virtua Philosopher™ arena?
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao urges German Chancellor Angela Merkel to exit the world ruler room.
Cover from the Economist [March 2009] “how China sees the world” echoing the New Yorker cover [March 1976]: yes… The Times They Are A-Changin’
Bod Dylan and Australians are certainly not surprised but Europe is: The Times They Are A-Changin’.
A few months after taking the lead of the car and steel maker world league, China just overtook Germany as the world largest overall exporter.
Defeated in the economic field, will Germany win the ideological & philosophical fight?
Let’s enter the Virtual Philosopher™ arena!
Both countries have summoned their national heavy-weights for a clash of the titans:
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche will compete for Germany. Confucius will represent China.
In the commentary box: your correspondents William of Baskerville and novice Adso of Melk.
Round #1
William of Baskerville: Confucius gently starts with considerations about Economic Growth that the Chinese Politburo would not reject: “When prosperity comes, do not waste all of it“. Nietzsche just blocks him with “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” Probably capturing the essence of European history in the last few centuries.
Adso of Melk: I can see that Nietzsche promptly counter-attacks with “To escape boredom, man works either beyond what his usual needs require, or else he invents play, that is, work that is designed to quiet no need other than that for working in general.” Pondering the role of making free choices, and how such choices change our nature and identity?
WoB: Confucius moves around and then throws “The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell“, which ends up being totally inappropriate.
So the first round goes to the German philosopher who nonetheless cannot help wasting “Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful” after the end of the countdown, showing a hint of European new found guilt about the misuse of power.
Further reading: Creative Destruction in Economics Nietzsche – Sombart – Schumpeter RF
Round #2
AoM: Nietzsche wants to make this short and immediately states “When a hundred men stand together, each of them loses his mind and gets another one.” Maybe alluding to the European Union project… ?
WoB: But Confucius is not senile yet and clears it off with “The more man meditates upon good thoughts, the better will be his world and the world at large.” : A tribute to China’s relatively recent involvement in world governance?
AoM: I see… Nietzsche seems to stagger for a while… but manages to fight back with “The secret of the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment of existence is: to live dangerously!” Well… that sounds like a scream from the cultural liberal revolutions of the 60s and 70s!
WoB: Confucius stakes his fortune on “The commander of the forces of an empire may be carried off, but the will of even a common man cannot be taken from him.” Prefiguring the return of individualism – even in capitalist communist China.
Nietzsche trips over and Confucius wins the second round!
Further reading: Economics of Confucius – Chen
So as China’s Vice Premier Wang Qishan reportedly said, somewhat elliptically: “The teachers now have some problems.”
Who will end-up being the disciple? Who will be Übermensch? We will have to wait for the third round.
In the meantime William of Baskerville and Novice Adso take the opportunity to discuss Nietzsche and Confucius in more details:
AoM: Master, I do have a question though. Why are Nietzsche and Confucius relevant for this fight?
WoB: This, my young friend, is because besides being inevitable national champions and candidates for this match, they both looked into the nature of Man and the relation between self-command and humanity. They are also fascinating to study in parallel because despite fundamental similarities between Nietzschean and Confucian philosophy, the differences between them are decisive.
- Confucius’ model of the most authentically civilized man is the the Superior Man. Rather like the Renaissance Man of European history, he was to be a well-rounded human being, conversant and skilled in all areas of life. He was to be polished, dignified, self-confident, and very well-mannered. He was to be the finest expression of his culture. He is idealistic before pragmatic. His mind and body should be equal. Confucius talks about THE CULTIVATION OF THE HEAVENLY GIFT.
- Similarly Nietzsche’s model of the self-perfected man is the Over-man or the one who has overcome or transcended himself.
He anticipated Sartre, and the 20th century existentialists, whom he profoundly influenced. What distinguishes the human from the beast lies in one’s creative activity: the creator of one’s “extranatural humanity” or “humanity” in the proper sense is not God, but the human him- or herself. Nietzsche talks of the AESTHETIC CREATION OF THE SELF: man is the novelist of himself.
AoM: hummm so Nietzsche sounds a bit darker, doesn’t he?
WoB: Yes, there is a sort of dark torment in Nietzschean philosophy. It is prompted by possessive-aggressive tendencies towards grasping, by the desire to take hold of one’s self in the persistence and independence of individuated ownness.
In contrast Confucian philosophy is ruled by the cohesive-empathetic tendencies towards bonding, by the longing to unite with others in the mutual belonging and harmony that characterizes the oneness of the greater whole.
So the harsh reality or – to borrow Nietzsche’s favorite term – “cruelty” of self-overcoming, which Nietzsche would spare no effort to convey to his readers, is clearly not paramount in “idealistic” Confucianism.
AoM: How important is Confucian thinking in today’s China?
WoB: Well… According to the paper published by the University of Innsbruck: ”Mao rejected Confucius and had tried to remove Confucian influence. The economic performance Chinas of the last three decades has been praised as a miracle just after the PRC said Goodbye to Marx, and Hello to Confucius. It is obviously that this ideological paradigm change class warfare Marxism to the Confucian economic liberalism has enabled the excellent economic performance.”
So you see, it’s like fashion and music. There is a revival…
Sources and references:
Reported from China: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-01/11/content_9295021.htm
Reported from Germany: http://www.thelocal.de/money/20100108-24441.html
{ original concept and script: NKN – editing: leLaissezFaire }
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