A conversation in Harvard
Last week I attended a conference in Boston so I stopped by Harvard to visit some professor friends there. Harvard University is one the most prestigious schools where many world leaders and top executives were educated. What they have learned at Harvard often had significant influence in the world because many of them occupied decision making positions in government and industry. What I observed there caught me by totally surprise: Currently there are three most popular classes that have the highest number of students' enrollment: Principles of Economics, Introduction to Computer Science, and Classical Chinese Ethical Theory. You can easily understand about the first two as economics and computer are popular but Classical Chinese Ethics? In fact, this semester there are over 500 students enroll in this course and it has been growing more popular in the past few years.
According to school official, Ethical Reasoning 18: “Classical Chinese Ethical and Political Theory” is Harvard's third most popular class with 532 students enrolled in 2013 school year. (Please note that in the U.S the average college class is about 25 to 50 students, over a 100 is a big class and over 500 is very rare.) You may think the reason American students are interested in China because of its growing in economic and political power but if you look closely to the course, it has nothing to do with China today but with China thousand years ago. In this class students learn about the Classical Ethical Theories of sages such as Confucius, Mencius, Lao Tzu, Chang Tzu and Zhuan Tzu etc. as well as their philosophies that influence important emperors and rulers of ancient time.
My friend, a professor in Computer Science explained: “This class is very popular among Harvard students. Many computer science students also take it as they are looking for something that help them to think difference about making ethical choices in their career and life from a broader perspective. For many years American students are told that the goal in life is about making money, the more the better, as money is the source of all happiness. From this belief some become greedy and behave in such a manner that is unethical. The past housing and financial crises have shook up the entire younger generation with so many unemployed graduates as victims of corporate greed and unethical behavior of few top executives. As the economy entered into the recession, many young people began to ask questions about their lives, their careers as well as the purpose of a good education. Suddenly the number of students enrolled in business, finance, stock trading, loan and banking dropped down as more students began to set their educational goals and career objectives toward a long term rather than short term. Rather than follow the foot step of previous generation that focus on being rich and famous but have miserable personal lives, full of controversies, divorces, drugs and alcohols, they are looking for something more meaningful and be more open minded.”
During our conversation in his office, a student came in so he introduced me to his student: “James took this course last year, he really like it as it changes his perspective in life.” So I asked James to tell me what he has learned. After a moment of hesitation the student said: “For a long time I set career goals and plan for my life the way I believe, just like any college students – study hard, get good job, make money, be rich then be happy. Now after this course, I think that I set it too short termed and too narrow about what I can do. I admire the ancient concept of “Improving yourself, improving your family, improving your country, then improving the whole world.” In the past we focus too much on getting ourselves rich and ignore our own self and that is why we have so many diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure. We ignore our own family just to get rich and that is why we have so many divorces in this country. We do not think about improving our country but only think about improving our pocket with money and ourselves with fames. This classical ethical concept gives me a clear roadmap to develop a new attitude about what I can do. As a young generation, we have enormous capacity and ability to change things and make it better for ourselves, our families, our country and the whole world.”
My friend said James is not the only one as the impact of the class is much more. There are many students in Computer Science also took the class and they told him that this class has helped them reevaluate their thinking about life, about relationship, about challenging the most fundamental of social structures. He told me: “Each year, over 500 students in Harvard have learned about classical ethics. Maybe some of them will get to the right position and make the necessary change. I have high hope that in the future Harvard will still be the education leader in the world. I also like you to incorporate these concepts in your training as you are also knowledgeable about Asian's philosophy too.”
We both agreed that as western students begin to understand and adopt eastern philosophy for their lives, eastern students also begin to adopt western concept of being rich and famous, greed, unethical, consumerism and selfishness etc. which western people begin to doubt and discard. My friend said: “That is unfortunate because they could learn a lot from what has happened here. The price of happiness that they will have to pay is high as they sacrifice everything to achieve these materials without knowing that they are merely an illusion. The sad fact is that they already have what they need but somehow ignore it and looking for something else. If they maintain their ethical culture, be responsible for themselves, filial to their parents, loyal to their country, and learn about technology to improve their country than they could achieve everything and be very happy.”
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
