Sun Tzu (Sun Wu)
trad. c. 544-496 BCE · Hundred Schools · Renowned
Sun Tzu is the reputed author of The Art of War, the founding Chinese treatise on strategy, though whether one man of that name wrote the book is doubted. War is a grave instrument of the state, the book says, a thing a ruler takes up with care, so he should win fast, and better still win without fighting at all. Deception, calculation and knowing both yourself and your enemy settle the result.
Signature
The position Sun Tzu is most identified with in the Profiler:
- War
- leans Militarism
- Authority
- Rational Expertise
Positions on the 2 axes the sources answer
- Order
- leans Vertical (25 on a 0–100 scale from Vertical to Horizontal)
- War
- leans Militarism (75 on a 0–100 scale from Pacifism to Militarism)
18 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Sun Tzu refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Authority
- Rational Expertise
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Role of Emotion
- Obstacle to Reason
What is the proper role of emotion?