Reading:  "Legalism"

The last of the major schools that we'll explore in this class is Legalism.  Legalism was a major intellectual stream in the persuader tradition, drawing from both Confucianism and Daoism in important respects, though distinctly different from them in overall thrust.  We will be surveying  the history and nature of Legalist thought only briefly, not because it was not important -- it could be argued that no school of early thought was more important, since Legalism was the basis of the Qin Dynasty reunification of China, and the design of the 2000-year long Chinese imperial state -- but because its interests do not dovetail elegantly with the dominant philosophies of contrast with the West: Confucianism and Daoism.