Confucius taught a moral wisdom that would become a predominant social force in China from the second century BCE until the mid-twentieth century. It would appear that his aim was to turn his pupils into good government officials, but his quaint humanistic platitudes, maxims, and quasi-enigmatic anecdotes made spiritual fodder for the next two thousand years of the culture.
In Confucius in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of Confucius’ life and ideas and explains their influence on man’s struggle to understand his existence in the world. The book also includes selections from Confucius’ work, a brief list of suggested readings for those who wish to delve deeper, and chronologies that place Confucius within his own age and in the broader scheme of philosophy.
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" "When I was 15 I was only interested in studying. When I was 30 I began my life; at 40 I was self-assured; at 50 I understood my place in the vast scheme of things; at 60 I learned to give up arguing; and now at 70 I can do whatever I like without disrupting my life." "
— Bogdan, 5/22/2012" Kind of dry. May have been more fun in book format as opposed to audio. "
— Heather, 1/28/2007Paul Strathern earned a degree in philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin, and has lectured in philosophy and mathematics. The author of many nonfiction books and of articles for numerous publications, he has also written several novels and has won the Somerset Maugham Prize. He lives and writes in London.
Simon Vance (a.k.a. Robert Whitfield) is an award-winning actor and narrator. He has earned more than fifty Earphones Awards and won the prestigious Audie Award for best narration thirteen times. He was named Booklist’s very first Voice of Choice in 2008 and has been named an AudioFile Golden Voice as well as an AudioFile Best Voice of 2009. He has narrated more than eight hundred audiobooks over almost thirty years, beginning when he was a radio newsreader for the BBC in London. He is also an actor who has appeared on both stage and television.