Q&A: What was Confucius's view of the Universe?

Confucius lived in ancient China when its people were still ignorant of much of the world we know today.  They even thought of themselves as the center of the world calling themselves ‘The Middle Kingdom.’  The Chinese kingdoms had little or no contact with Japan or the other Pacific islands.  China’s contact with the west did stretch as far as Rome, but knowledge of Europe must have been foggy at best.  It would seem extremely unlikely that Confucius or any other Chinese philosopher would theorize about planets, much less other solar systems and the prospect of alien worlds.  From the reading, it would seem that Confucius believed the universe existed only of the limited scope of the Earth that was known to them and Heaven. 

Altruism vs. Self-Interest

What makes up human morality?  Why is it that we help others?  It seems unlikely that we help others in need purely out of our self interest.  People may help the less fortunate because it makes them feel good about themselves.  But what about self-sacrifice? Do people simply give up their lives to feel good, even if just for a moment?  That doesn’t seem convincing.  So are people naturally altruistic?  Well, perhaps not.  If that was the case, wouldn’t there be more charity donations? Would the Red Cross still have a dire need for blood donations?  I would argue that people aren’t truly altruistic either.  It’s more like we are a mixture of both.  We aren’t greedy creatures or selfishless angels, at least not all the time.  We help others from time to time but sometimes we fail to extend a simple helping hand to those in need.

Q&A: Which philosopher, Mencius or Hsun-tzu, is correct about human nature?

Due to the fact that both Mencius's and Hsun-tzu's ideas appear to be mutually exclusive, logic would dictate that only one viewpoint can be correct.  I think that Mencius’s view of human nature is ignorant of many of the facts that surrounded him.  For one, Mencius lived during the Warring States Period, a time of near constant warfare that had already lasted for a hundred years by the time of his writings. That doesn’t discredit his ideas but it seems odd how he would theorize that humans are naturally virtuous during a time of great strife and violence.  But there are times that people do not act spontaneously to help others in need.  A 78-year old man was struck by a car in 2008 in Hartford, Conn.  No one, pedestrians nor drivers, on this busy street helped him.  In fact, some people walked up to him to get a closer check at the man but didn’t help him up.  It wasn’t until police, who were responding to another call, drove by him was an ambulance called.  The police chief even said: "we no longer have a moral compass."  In effect, humans are more closely akin to Hsun-tzu’s view of human nature of selfish, self-concerned beings.