Societal Goals Legalism

Back to History 8 China Review 100 Schools of Thought

Legalism is the idea that people are not good and they do not do any good and so the laws and punishment must be very strict. When someone does something wrong they get punished immediately, if the people do something good they get rewarded. The dictionary definition of legalism is strict adherence or the principle of strict adhesion. So Legalism is about maintaining strict law and punishment so they can keep the order.The societal goals of legalism are to keep the citizens of china following the law and to minimize the wrong in china but the main goal is to preserve the social order. Legalism was created by Xun Zi. He created this because he believed all humans were selfish and did no good. So he created legalism to keep social order. Sarah Grace Ritter CF Manuel pg. 11 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/legalism