ABSTRACT
To survey some of the main practical and philosophical ideas about virtuous rulership and successful government in ancient times, this chapter moves from east to west, from China to India to Greece, surveying thinkers from Confucius to Socrates and important texts that continue to stimulate our minds. These ideas aren’t treated in the abstract, however, but are described within their historical and political contexts. And yet they’re enduring ideas. The Chinese desire for unity and harmony, the pragmatism of India’s manuals of statecraft and the rational optimism of the Greeks remain with us. While these are cultures that are alien to us, we find that the ethical and political problems that occupied the finest minds in those times still make sense to us today. We still struggle with the questions of unity and diversity, political leadership and constitutional design that the ancients had to confront. So much has changed since ancient times, and yet so much has stayed the same.
