[Music] since the dawn of civilization the forces of nature and the whims of gods held sway over Humanity but two and a half thousand years ago humankind experienced a profound transformation suddenly there were new possibilities this is a time in rationality overrode Superstition and belief this is an ethic which does not rely on the gods the world is now explained in terms of natural forces we're now responsible for our own destiny upheavals across the globe sparked an ambitious vision of what humans could achieve spearheaded by three Trailblazers Socrates confucious and the Buddha great thinkers from the ancient world whose ideas still shape our own lives Is wealth a good thing how do you create a just aniy how do I live a good life by daring to think the unthinkable they laid the foundations of our modern world I've always been intrigued by the fact that these men who lived many thousands of miles apart seemed almost spontaneously within a 100 Years of one another to come up with such radical ways of thinking so what was going on I want to investigate their revolutionary ideas to understand what set them in Motion in this program I'm on the traal of that quintessential Eastern Sage confucious he had a mission but many people at that time did not agree with him his vision was modeled on the power of the past and the family he believed that education could transform both individuals and Society he's talking about your state of mind your feelings but in the 20th century confucious was declared an enemy of communism so now he should be out of favor but that hardly seems to be the case this is the longest continuous civilization in the world and confucious has a huge role in that it's so amazing to be so close to them my heart is beating [Music] in 551 BC an elderly ex soldier from the ancient state of Lou faced a grave predicament his family line was in danger of ending he needed a son to continue his name someone who'd be able to perform the vital rituals to honor him and his ancestors the old man took a young wife we're told that she went to a sacred mountain and prayed hard for a boy the sunshi bore would become known as Master Kong in Chinese Kong fudo in the west we call him confucious Confucius was born into one of the most advanced civilizations in the world the ancient Chinese were innovators in art metal work Agriculture and weap and from around 1,000 BC they developed a sophisticated political system a network of vassel Lords Who Bore allegiance to one king but by the time confucious was growing up stability had turned to chaos this was an age when all of ancient China was trapped in a ruthless cycle [Music] War tribal invasions from the West along with Rebellion amongst the Lords splintered the empire into independent [Music] states all vying for power spurred on by a kind of arms race now that cast iron meant that weapons could be mass-produced families attacked families this was Total War this collapse in society would become the Catalyst for confucius's groundbreaking [Music] philosophy the oldest record of confucious life and ideas the analects were compiled about a century after his death these fragments of his conversation ations along with other later histories give us Clues to his life story we're told that Confucius was just three when his father died old aristocracy he'd fallen on hard times one of the victims of the turmoil of the age leaving confucius's mother to raise her son on her own in a kind of gential [Music] poverty interestingly it seems that education was confusious Lifeline somehow probably through a mix of private teachers and homeschooling and you suspect the sheer grit and determination of his mother Confucius was taught history poetry and ritual while other children played with toys he said to have acted out sacred rituals by laying out cups and bowls now these weren't just empty gestures a bit of spiritual theater the kinds of rituals that confucious learned played a crucial role in the ancient Chinese world view a worldview in which order and Harmony both on Earth and in the cosmos were considered essential goals if life on Earth was to continue [Music] [Applause] [Music] the ancient rights that young confucious knew were performed here at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing right up until the 20th century the Chinese had a particular religious Outlook which meant that these rituals weren't directed towards a deity there is no Creator God there's nothing like the idea of a supreme power that dreams everything into being what it posits instead is this notion that there are two Cosmic forces they're not even really Divine they're just natural forces a bit like gravity in a sense and on the uh Temple here you have perhaps the most common the most powerful symbols of these two great forces and that is the dragon the Heavenly force and the Phoenix is the female the coal the Earthly force and they they are Locked In Perpetual struggle they try to overcome each other and and it's this incredible dance of power out of which all life pours so what's Humanity's role in all of this we're fundamental to this you've got these two great Cosmic forces and our role is to keep the balance and we do this through ritual and that's what this kind of Temple complex was built for this is where the ruler would come to make offerings to rebalance these two forces and it wasn't just for the rulers it took place in every single Temple every local Shrine right down to the household sounds like a potent and a pervasive worldview that confu is being brought up with AB it's the only worldview he [Music] knows as he reached adulthood it looks as though confucious grew to appreciate the gaping disparity between the ancient ideal of order and the reality of Life subject to the chaos that raged all around him his search for a solution to that intractable problem at the very heart of Chinese society would prove to be his life's [Applause] work fortunately conditions across the ancient world were nourishing new new ways of thinking improvements in agriculture increased trade and growing urbanization meant that something in society were less tied to a life of subsistence creating the opportunity for men like Socrates the Buddha and confucious to develop their ideas the scale of change economic and technological is reflected in archaeological remains like this monumental grain [Music] store advances in technology from the IR age onwards led to an increase in agricultural yields that was stored in massive pits like this suddenly for ordinary people because they had enough food life just wasn't a grinding cycle of a kind of hand to mouth existence obviously stores like this provided grain but they also gave another great gift time to think when Confucius was about 20 we're told he landed a bureaucratic job managing grain stores like this but his mind was occupied by the turmoil of the day looking around him it seemed obvious to confucious that Humanity needed help and how he responded is considered a first in Chinese history he began to engage in systematic philosophical [Music] inquiry one thing I like about confucious is the sense that you get that he had a kind of Natural Curiosity that he felt felt compelled to explore and to try to understand the world and in his early 20s he decided to leave his home state of Lou and get on the [Music] road traveling west he would have eventually met the great Yellow River I think we have to imagine him at this point in his life as a kind of ethnographer going from one place to another with open eyes and an open mind ga gaing together experiences and encounters the analects describ confucious meeting people who' renounced civilized society and lived amongst nature these recluses were the forerunners of Daoism that other great belief system of ancient China they believed in something known as the way could you explain to me what exactly the way is is it possible for humans to influence or or control the way sh [Music] sh the darst believed that developed Society diverted us from the way Society was artificial something people imposed on the natural spontaneous way of the universe only by reconnecting with the forces of nature could we achieve Harmony once again confusious reacted to dowi belief with a kind of frustrated indignation we can't go and live with the birds and the beasts am I not a man among men if the way prevailed in the world there'd be no need for me to change it confucius's search for solutions to the problems of his day took on a more practical political dimension for him the way wasn't an intangible Cosmic Force instead he saw it as the harmony that could be brought about by a perfectly ordered Society something attainable by Human Action it was a claim the dsts thought the height of arrogance this critical dispute is embodied in one legendary encounter confucious is said to have come here the city of L yang [Music] as he was studying in the state archives he met an older man and they struck up a philosophical [Music] discussion as confucious got up to leave the old man chastised him put away your proud air and many desires your insinuating habit and wild will these are of no advantage to you the enigmatic old man was none rather than l z credited as the founder of dosm whether it's true or not this pairing with such a great figure reveals the iconic status confucious would later reach and it tells us something else that setting in the archive gives us a clue to confucius's methods for him solutions to contemporary problems lay in a close study of what had gone before the past was a kind of reservoir of [Music] Truth ever since he was a boy he'd been schooled in ancient texts now as a man they became the inspiration for and the Very Foundation of his philosophy recent discoveries have shed new light on these classic texts of Chinese history 800 bamboo slips which contain the earliest evidence of confucius's words they were found in 1993 in the term of a old nobleman amazing yes and and they date back to when oh the these were dated to um the 4th Century BCE um roughly 100 years after confuscious and um it says something like set your mind on the way and be virtuous do everything in accordance with Humanity not only the earliest words of confuscious but beautiful words too wow and they were so amazing because they provide us new information on uh early Classics that were very important to confuscious himself and um for example this particular SLP mentioned about the classics he would have read uh the book of oats ritual and music The Book of history is very important because it recorded figures such as the Duke of Joe uh and early Kings of the western Joe uh that was about 500 years before confucious time and these men were able to lead a society of Harmony [Music] confucious found in the words of the book of History what he was looking for an ideal model where social and political Harmony had prevailed engineered by the almost superhumanly Sage rulers of the early Joe Dynasty in particular the Duke of Joe when his brother King woo died the Duke could have seized the throne but it's reported that instead he acted loyally ruling as a regent for his nephew the King's son and then when the boy grew up fairly and Faithfully he handed over the Reigns of [Music] power whether these accounts were entirely true is a moot point but confucious saw huge potential in them this golden age was robust evid that social order was possible by following the practices and the examples of the early Joe by Reviving the past there could be solutions to the problems of the present it is the great thing about Golden Ages they're very comforting we believe that if Humanity was capable of wonderful things in the past we can achieve them once again [Music] confucious believed that early Joe Society was the ideal manifestation of his concept of the way to recreate that Harmony Society needed to return to their high standards especially in terms of ritual confucious was convinced that the ancient rights had been corrupted in order to restore the golden age he would have to reinstate proper ritual here in confucius's hometown of chuu is a Temple dedicated to the master it's the ultimate place of pilgrimage for many of his [Music] devotees Mr Kong traces his ancestry back to confucious and often leads rituals that his illustrious relative set such store by [Music] [Applause] for [Applause] but ritual here has always meant more than just ceremony it's an all-encompassing ethos that shapes every aspect of people's behavior including what we might call etiquettes and customs hello hello hello hello no good hello yeah it seems that confucious through himself into understanding and perfecting the rights of the early Joe confucious was nothing if not a stickler for detail we hear he wouldn't even sit on a mat unless it was dead straight but there seems to have been a kind of Beauty in his Precision just listen to these wonderful words describing him his expression was serious his step brisk when with his clasped hands he bowed to his colleague on left and right his robes moved evenly in front and back his hurrying Advance was a Glide confucious set out to transmit the importance of proper ritual promoting his ideas right across the land One account describes his rather hostile reception from a government adviser from the state of Chi confucious lays such stress on appearance and costume elaborate etiquette and codes of behavior that it would take generations to learn his rule one lifetime wouldn't be enough to this day confucious is often criticized for his pedantic attachment to intricate forms of antiquated ritual but what his critics didn't understand and is that he discovered something radically new Within These ancient rights something which marked a critical shift in his [Music] thinking when Confucius was in his mids his mother died for three years he dutifully carried out ancestral rights in her honor but he would Breathe new life and new meaning into these Traditions yes wow how beautiful so so these are things that would actually have been used in ancestor worship exactly ancient Chinese believe that ghosts and and Spirits continue to exist after the ancestors died so it's important to offer them food and wine in these kind of vessels in particular those made of very expensive bonds and uh everyone will be really engaging in the ritual to continue a kind of relationship they had before do we know what confucious thought about all of this well confucious still believed that ancestors were still very important part uh but he started to shift emphasis towards the living by saying that it it means that it's important for us to develop this kind of reverence and the proper relationship while they're still alive as he said in the analect very clearly that if you don't know how to serve the living how would you know how to serve the dead that's really interesting he's saying actually Focus first on the Here and Now on on on those who are still around you in the dayto day before you start to to think about those who are long dead you were so right it's no longer just about objects like this it's about your state of mind your feelings your love and sincerity from inside that you would have towards these people around you confucious realized that ritual brought out positive emotions in us but his really big Revelation was that this could permanent ly change who we are habitually performing the rituals of history with the right attitude and sincerity could transform our mindset virtuous feelings could make virtuous beings rual poim was not just the way you do things exactly follow the traditional and this and rules but you more importantly and you got to have something inside youve got to have reverence respect because this was the way to cultivate your inside goodness inside these kind of and qualities and the whole person would be transformed down inside I mean that sounds really radical so he's saying you you need to do things properly but they're not just a mechanical action it affects who you are inside s psychologically yes yeah exactly not only just you know bring order to this social and life but also this to create a new psychological and this meaning there and try to cultivate these good human qualities yeah it's interesting because he doesn't sell himself as an innovator but he was yes he was I think confusious said you know he was the only transmitter the transmitted the an old ancient culture to today to the future but actually what he did was innovation this new things really coming from his reinterpretation of something already exist such as rual nourishing virtue lay at the core of confucius's vision and he saw transformative opportunities and everyday rituals how we speak how we dress and how we eat but one that was particularly close to his heart was Music He said have played the zither and the sounding [Music] Chimes this was a time a place where music was all around played on totally wonderful things like this Monumental set of bells that dated to just after confuses of death music was played to a company ritual in temples and homes so if you listen to these then you'll be hearing the sounds that would have surrounded confusious during his [Music] lifetime Confucius was convinced that music had the power to harmonize to transform and perfect an individual basically this is artist therapy 2 and a half thousand years before we invent the phrase [Music] this practical application of philosophical ideas in day-to-day life is something that really marks out confucious as well as those other gamechanging philosophers the Buddha and Socrates as a philosopher you don't just indulge in abstract musings you develop a robust deliv y mechanism for your theories ideas have to have traction and they have to have tangible impact Confucius was a practical man he'd been spurred into action by the bellicose times into which he was born his philosophy would only truly be a success if he could affect change on a grand scale confucious came to think this that shaping and cultivating moral indiv uals was the key to creating a stable social and political order by figuring out what made a good person you could make a good society and so his mission was this to teach people how to be virtuous in a world of political disorder and moral decay [Music] Confucius had given himself a mountain to climb how to instill virtue in society when society's moral contract was so broken was confucius's Big Challenge he was to find inspiration from a familiar and enduring institution the family hello thank you wow that was quite some welcome thank you sh confucious noted how families are organized along hierarchical lines with fixed responsibilities from birth we learn our place within key relationships husband wife father son older brother younger brother recognizing oh thanks yeah thank you very much recognizing your oh Shi recognizing your place within these relationships and fulfilling your Mutual responsibilities within that hierarchy towards essential moral values from the family we developed a sense of loyalty of honesty Duty of respect of filial responsibility basically to love those around us confucious saw that the concept of family was a potent model and a potential solution for society's ills the family showed how Authority could be both exercised and submitted to fairly and productively not through intimidation but through mutual ascent [Music] the moral values learned in the family affection and Care directed downwards and loyalty and obedience directed above had the potential to transform everyone but confucious saw that arguably their greatest value lay in relation to the glaring problem at the heart of society the waywardness of its rulers [Applause] [Music] This Magnificent sword embodies what for confucious was the fundamental problem with Chinese leadership this was made when confucious was alive and it tells us all about itself there's an inscription here that reads belonging to King God xen of UA May for his personal use now this is obviously a fabulously Deluxe object and confusious wouldn't have had a problem with that per se he wasn't puritanical he enjoyed the good things of Life swimming in rivers singing with friends and and he understood the need for worldly Goods but he did not think that good men should devote their time and energy to the pursuit of personal gain and he didn't believe in IM moderate action anyone where any time from anyone in confucius's opinion Kings who commission swords like this often abandoned virtue if it got in the way of worldly success he saw the way to transform Society was to instill the values at work in the family in the rulers of his day to understand the power they with wielded you only need look at the way they were honored in death this ruler from around the time of Confucius was buried along with 26 expensive chariots and 70 sacrificial horses what kind of connection did confucious see between the relationships that he'd observed between Father and Son in the family and what's going on here well he he looked at the fact that if you had a good father he could bring up a good son and a good son could then respect the father and and this could work so he said well look if it works at this level let's just take it to the Top If the ruler views those beneath him as his children and treats them with love but with firmness with compassion but with Integrity that it would then kind of roll down through the system and and the confucianist could say look you see how the ruler living like this you should live like this and literally it it would it would roll down like like the clouds from the mountain and bring blessing to everyone so for him might in and of itself wasn't a problem but if you had might then you also had to have a kind of philosophical responsibility to your people yes confucious continued the Joe tradition that a ruler has the right to rule because heaven has clearly given them the power and the authority and that's why the top top ruler was called the son of Heaven however that mandate that right to rule can be taken away by heaven and a sign that heaven has taken it away is natural disasters massive earthquakes floods confusa said if a ruler becomes corrupt and people are suffering through this cruelty then the people have the right to rebel and so confucious at one level tells you respect honor Duty loyalty and he also said and if that fails you have the right to overthrow amazing trick [Music] [Music] confucious tactic was very direct he set out to influence those in power by getting a governmental post one snag was his personality he was often seen as arrogant too blunt in the way he delivered his advice but he also faed a bigger problem with enemy armies numbering as many as 300,000 camped on their borders and disloyal Sons plotting behind their backs perhaps it's no surprise that the rulers of the day failed to take confucious seriously cultivating moral character and virtuous actions in such precarious times was just not a priority [Applause] with rejection upon rejection confucius's faltering political career looks set to fail and his ideas in danger of being lost to history but he was tenacious and resourceful in his early 50s it looks as though he decided to change his strategy he gathered together a few belongings and hit the road once again to continue his moral Crusade only this time he wasn't alone he was traveling together with a group of devoted [Music] students his ability to attract motivated young men put his mission to transform self and Society back on track by all accounts confucious possessed a kind of compelling raw Charisma now combine that with intellectual rigor with bold exciting new ideas and inspiring moral instruction and you've got a potent mix whilst confucious had failed alone a band of around 70 students could infiltrate the corridors of power at many levels and in many states they could be a moral Vanguard to advise and instruct rulers on how to rule virtuously and for this vital role Confucius was scrupulously meritocratic accepting students even from the poorest of backgrounds in the analex confucious said I have never refused instruction to anyone if of his own accord becomes to [Music] me this in itself was a truly innovatory moment marking an historic shift he was urging that Chinese Society should no longer be governed by a hereditary Elite people who owed their positions simply to their bloodlines rather it was those who were most virtuous most concerned about the well-being of others who should lead his way was open to people from any background to rise to positions of authority confucious sh his groundbreaking commitment to kind of egalitarianism with Socrates and the Buddha their Solutions were in theory available to everyone but to a greater or lesser extent when it came to women they all seem to have struggled um none of them were exactly model family men the Buddha left his wife and child Socrates treated his young wife pretty cursorily but at least those two included women in their thinking and suggested they could be part of a solution to s's problems however when it comes to confucious it seems that he had next to no time for the female of the [Music] species the ultimate goal for confucius's students was to become a juner now this wasn't a title he'd made up just as with Rich ual he took something traditional and gave it a potent new twist jiner was an aristocratic word meaning a son of the Lord denoting qualities that could only belong to a privileged social Elite now as part of his shift towards a moral Elite confucious appropriated it and changed it to mean the ultimate moral person a superior a new kind of gentleman in its most literal sense [Music] for confucious Education was crucial drawing on his own life experience he saw an unswerving commitment to critical learning as the path to self-cultivation he likened the process to polishing Jade crafting one's virtuous character to become the perfect moral person you had to know the Books of History to live by the example of the sage Kings and to enact correct ritual but what was essential was to be morally alive to your environment to understand how to behave intuitively in any situation to think for [Music] yourself confucius's students joined their master moving across War torn China to try to influence its erant rulers they were attacked beaten and almost starved but these testing times sharpened their education the challenges they faced forced them to engage in Urgent moral debate they proposed solutions to their problems and then interrogated those provoking the intense intellectual discussions between master and students that you find in the analects they ask questions like should the jinza accept office in degenerate times can you serve a corrupt Master if you think you can make a difference confucious encouraged this open-ended freethinking discussion yet his students still look to him for definitive answers ultimately they wanted to know what was the essence of goodness for confucious there was one all embracing virtue the most essential to cultivate and yet the most difficult to attain something called Ren Ren is a very Splendid word idea but what does it actually mean what what quality does it imply uh many people try to translate it differently it's being translated as human heartedness as good or goodness but uh we prefer now to use the word simply Humanity because virtually all confusion values are are linked to this notion courage with run then it's real courage rather than just simply bravery Justice with run then it's a Humane Justice rather than just harsh punishment wisdom with run then U it's being wise not just being smart and is this something that you achieve or is looking for Ren a constant Quest every person by definition of being a person embodies Ren in other words every human being is capable of sympathetic response to uh the external world but at the same time to realize R fully which means human flourishing in the most uh comprehensive sense of the term that requires learning a learning of course it's not simply acquisition of knowledge or internalization of skills but basically learning to build one's character and in that sense it's like the highest ideal at the same time it's the minimum requirement to be human I mean do you think that confucious felt that he'd achieved Ren no and the interesting thing is uh many students or followers of confucious also said no run requires continuous process of struggling even to the end of your life this is still a task incomplete so no matter what the struggle to be fully human continues there's something in confusion philosophy a core message that I find really genuinely inspiring it's his Golden Rule taken from the analex one student said is there a single word that I should use as a rule to live my life by and the master replied that would be empathy perhaps what you do not wish for yourself don't do to others it's this focus on human relations and being compassionate that I think comes closest to defining what confusious meant by the term Ren I do love this about all three of the philosophers whose stories I'm investigating they made it clear that none of us operate in isolation it isn't that man is the measure of all things but man's relationship with man [Music] [Music] Confucius continued to travel and to teach into his later years but only a handful of his students went on to hold political [Music] office when confusus was 73 he fell ill unable to fulfill his mission his final words seemed defeated and bitterly disappointed no intelligent Monarch arises there is none who will make me his master it is my time to [Music] die confucious was buried here in his hometown chuu the great transformation he'd worked for his entire life had not been fulfilled but his devoted students planted trees around his Gra Brave and kept his dream [Music] alive for 300 years confucius's ideas continued as just one of many Chinese schools of thought competing with the likes of Daoism it was unable to affect real change in a chaotic world but once China was reunited under all powerful Emperors stability changed the political landscape the first emperor of the Han Dynasty was convinced by his principal advisor that ruling by brutality had served his predecessor badly allying himself with Confucianism and its ideal of rule by virtue would lend his dynasty greater legitimacy many of the values that confucious set great store by the importance of Education a shared cultural heritage an ethical government had seemed an irrelevance during the chaos of his lifetime but these would prove hugely effective in holding the new empire together successive Emperors enthusiastically took up confusion ideas and education was Central [Music] The Poetry Arts and Music of the early Joe were revived as a means of cultivating the goodness and virtue within school children learned the confusion Cannon by heart meticulously writing it out in their best [Music] calligraphy knowledge of the books of history and rituals of the Joe Dynasty became a prerequisite to be part of the Civil Service [Music] confusion education and confusion texts became a powerfully integrative force in Chinese history and of course it was very useful for rulers to have all that emphasis on obedience and respect and top- down structure even those who didn't get the chance to go to school learned his words it's actually why we've developed that rather crash form confucious says because for 24 centuries right across China people were all quoting [Music] confucious bells ring out [Music] ofe when love delay so honey hold me tight tonight's the night remember what [Music] say but all that changed in the 20th century confusion ISM came under attack in 1919 students who wanted China to modernize and become Democratic condemned confucious for holding them back but it was chairman mau's cultural revolution of the 1960s that tried to annihilate all vestages of his legacy his Red Guard destroyed statues temples and texts they even came here to his burial place in a telegram to Chairman ma they wrote we have dragged out the statue of confucious we have torn down the plark extoling the teacher of 10,000 Generations we have leveled confucius's grave we have [Music] destroyed it is really chilling coming here to see how a raging rigid form of an ideology try to obliterate the memory of a man of ideas [Music] but thousands of years of ubiquitous Confucian education particularly the exam system had embedded his principles deep within Chinese culture by the start of the 21st century the government began once again to embrace his ideals [Music] today confusion ism is undergoing a Renaissance and education remains at the Forefront this is a confusion School in chuu 120 pupils from the ages of 6 to 18 study the confusion texts and classical Arts here it's just one of around 3,000 schools in China that teaches confusion values and [Music] philosophy so what is your favorite confucious quote why do you like confucious why did you decide to send your daughter to a confus school it is just fascinating seeing these kids being brought up with an ancient philosophy at the heart of everything that they think and say and do and actually they seem to be having a great time it's it's also even more incredible though if you think that just a few decades ago Confucius was considered an Enemy of the State and none of this would have been allowed to happen or if it did it would have had to have happened in secret behind closed doors and the risk of really severe punishment in modern China greater individualism is seen to have undermined a collective sense of right and wrong confucius's Resurgence can be explained by the desire for a clearer sense of moral purpose but I wonder if confucius's appeal is very simple he tells us that whatever our character whatever situation we're born into being good living a good life is a possibility and that the root to goodness is wisdom now that means that as a species in our finest form we are all philosophers in the true sense of the word lovers of [Applause] wisdom across this series I've examined the ideas of three inspiring minds of the ancient world Socrates brought philosophy down from the heavens and into people's homes so that through the training of our reason we can achieve happiness for ourselves what does came the question from is there God to questions like how to agree on good action without necessarily agreeing on what happen after death confusa said you know ritual is a way to bring out the inside good qualities like the benevolence like this reverence and if more people possess this good qualities and become real human then the social life Family Life Community Life would become [Music] peaceful But ultimately what do they have to teach us in the Here and [Music] Now although these were ideas that were developed 25 centuries ago do you think they have as much relevance to our world as they did to ancient China ancient Greece ancient India if I want to exaggerate probably even more so they were confronted with a world in dis integration little rationality little compassion and we are in a world that's much more serious because uh it's not simply the human world is in trouble the planet is in trouble and uh we have in our power the destruction of all civilizations including the planet itself so a change has to be made not just the change of a political system or economic system uh these are absolutely necessary but a change of a mindset and the retrieval of the wisdom of Socrates of Buddha and confucious it's not a question of relevance is a question of human survival these extraordinary thinkers aren't remote historical figures they are pioneers of human consciousness whose ideas have informed and enrich the lives of countless people to this day their radical responses to the social upheaval of their age have in many ways determined who we are now their message was inspiring and challenging that the world isn't unknowable unchangeable by engaging with it fully we can lead better and more meaningful lives we have agency our minds can shape the [Music] world if the mind of confucious has made you think then explore further with the open University to discover how great minds have influenced our world today go to the address on the screen and follow the links to the open University [Music] [Music]