Hsun Tzu Encouraging Learning Analysis

Hsun Tzu, a follower of Confucius, believed that human nature was to be fundamentally evil. Tzu, in “Encouraging Learning, wrote to Confucians questioning why should they be educated and what human nature really was. Since Confucius never stated his thought on human nature, some people suspect that humans needed to be educated not because they were evil, but because it was moral, and that way they could become into the person Confucius taught them to be. Tzu disagrees with this because of his belief, that humans, in fact, were born with wrong ideals. Tzu considers human nature to take its course on people, and that is why some people are inferior to others. But, with proper training and education, Tzu agrees Confucians can become a better person, and not just that they are becoming into the people that they are meant to be. It could be that Tzu wrote this to straighten out the mystery of what human nature was and how to fix humans evil nature.

Seneca made a name for himself by being a scholar, philosopher, scientist, and politician. In “On Liberal and Vocational Studies” Seneca writes a letter to people who want to know what he thinks is education, and more specifically, liberal studies. He responds to what the purpose of such studies are and if education makes someone a better person. Seneca agrees that one should be learning, but there is no point to learning unless it serves a true purpose. People should not merely learn how to do, for example, a math problem, but rather how to apply that math problem to life. If there is no purpose to the education, it is useless. What might of motivated Seneca was people trying to teach him and others information that served no importance to