So I'm going to start off the conversation with a semi-obvious question, but as I muddled through Confucius' Analects I was struck by the very basic question: "What are we supposed to take away from this reading?" I usually have this problem when reading any text that is broken up into fragments, such as Pascal's Pensees. Is each statement meant to stand alone, or can we glean some cohesive strand of thought from all of them together? I assume there is something greater to be learned than the simple statement "obey your parents," because Confucius is one of the few Eastern philosophers we study in PLS, but the organization of the writings throws me for a loop. What do you all make of the structure of this work? Advantages, disadvantages?
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