Modern ethical, political, and legal thought finds itself navigating between two unacceptable alternatives. One is to regard moral standards as absolute, eternal, and invariable. The truth of such standards, however, is impossible to demonstrate. Those who claim a privileged knowledge of them are dangerous since they may try to force their views upon others. The other alternative is to regard moral standards as individual and subjective, and so imperil any real distinction between right and wrong, and just and unjust institutions. The two classical traditions that we will study were viable and enduring because they were not caught in such a dilemma. One was founded in China by Confucius and the other in Greece by his near contemporary Socrates. For centuries, they were the starting points for serious thought about ethics, politics, and law.