Abstract
The Confucian doctrine of the Mean teaches that too much is as bad as too little.
The Aristotelian doctrine of the Mean coincidently articulates that
there can be too much or too little of nearly every human passion and action
In neoclassical economics, it is assumed that people tend to
take any action at the optimal (not too much and not too little)
level to maximise the net happiness from the action.
This article argues that the Confucian doctrine of the Mean concurs
with the optimality principle,
and therefore that the optimality principle is a representation of human nature
and can be understood as universal human wisdom
It follows that people can adopt both the Confucian doctrine of the Mean
and the optimality principle as worldly common wisdom beyond the
blunt dichotomy of spiritual orientalism and materialistic individualism
Too much emphasis on the technical differentials between
the two has undermined the common wisdom embedded in them.