“Competitors in the Most Momentous of Contests”: Education for Leadership in the Republic and Analects

It is a surprising feature of the Republic’s educational curriculum that the cultivation of its guardians involves extensive participation in physical training and contests. The cultivation of leaders in the Confucian Analects seems also to involve physical training and contests. Indeed, in the traditional Zhou culture that Confucius admired, success in ritual archery competitions served to identify men who were fit for government service. However, in contrast to Plato, the Analects point to this participation as “an illustration of the fact that the exemplary person does not compete.” (Analects 3.7)

This paper, then, brings the Republic program into conversation with both the Analects and recent work in the philosophy of sports to illuminate a potential role for physical training and competition in the development of political leaders. What traits might be developed through these kinds of physical training? How, ultimately, should we think about the role of competitive practices in the cultivation of virtuous and philosophical leaders?

About Elizabeth Schiltz

Elizabeth Schiltz earned her doctorate in philosophy from Duke University and holds the Purna Rao, Raju Chair of Philosophy at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. Her research interests are in world philosophy, with a focus on the self and its flourishing in ancient Greek, South Asian, and East Asian traditions. Her current projects focus on issues in philosophy as a way of life in general, and on bodily practices in classical philosophical traditions in particular.