Legalism
The state rests on strict laws, rewards and punishments, not on virtue
Key ideas
- One law for everyone except the ruler
- Rewards and harsh punishments
- Strong farming and a strong army are the basis of power
- The ruler keeps his intentions hidden
- Became the ideology of the Qin empire
Key thinkers
- Shang Yang — Qin statesman and Legalist, 390 BC–338 BC
- Han Fei — Chinese Legalist philosopher, 280 BC–233 BC
Grew out of
- Confucianism c. since 500 BC · Asia
Meanwhile elsewhere
- Pythagoreanism Europe
- Eleatics Europe
- Sophists Europe
- Ancient atomism Europe
- Cynicism Europe
- Platonic Academy Europe
- Peripatetic school Europe
- Pyrrhonism Europe
- Epicureanism Europe
- Stoicism Europe