Han Fei
c.280–233 BC · Hundred Schools · Known
Han Fei was a third-century BC Chinese Legalist. His essays, the Han Feizi, told rulers to drop Confucian virtue and rely on three things: published law, techniques for keeping officials in check, and the raw authority of the throne. People act from self-interest, so plain rewards and punishments do the work that moral example cannot. He studied under the Confucian Xunzi.
Signature
The position Han Fei is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Order
- leans Vertical
- Authority
- Might Makes Right
Positions on the 7 axes the sources answer
- Order
- leans Vertical (16 on a 0–100 scale from Vertical to Horizontal)
- Nature of Reality
- leans Multiplicity (75 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Ground of Being
- leans Immanence (25 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Nature
- leans Mastery (25 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
- Polity
- leans Illiberalism (25 on a 0–100 scale from Illiberalism to Liberalism)
- Ethics
- strongly leans Ends (6 on a 0–100 scale from Ends to Means)
- Ignorance
- mildly between Bondage and Bliss (50 on a 0–100 scale from Bondage to Bliss)
13 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Han Fei refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Government
- Autocracy / Totalitarianism
What is your ideal form of government? - Highest Good
- Power / Honor
What is the highest good? - Knowledge
- Pragmatic Test / Power-Knowledge
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Utilitarian Calculation
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Hard Determinism
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Economy
- Mercantilist
What is the ideal organization of economic life? - Authority
- Might Makes Right
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Language
- Representation
What is the fundamental nature of language? - Law
- Legal Positivism
What is the ultimate source of legitimate law? - Human Nature
- Evolved Animal / Irredeemably Corrupted
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- Nation
What is your primary bond and loyalty?