2.2.2. The “Golden Rule”

One widespread ethical principle is what English speakers sometimes call the “Golden Rule”:

• “Tsze-kung asked, saying, ‘Is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one’s life?’ The Master said, ‘Is not reciprocity such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.’”

  • Confucius, Analects 15.23 (~500 BCE China)

• “There is nothing dearer to man than himself; therefore, as it is the same thing that is dear to you and to others, hurt not others with what pains yourself.”

  • Gautama Buddha, Udānavarga 5:18 (~500 BCE Nepal/India)

• “That which is hateful to you do not do to another; that is the entire Torah, and the rest is its interpretation.”

  • Hillel the Elder, Talmud Shabbat, folio 33a (~0 CE Palestine)

• “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

  • Jesus of Nazareth, Matthew 7:12 (~30 CE Palestine)

• And many more…