Puett teaches this course at Harvard and it’s among the most popular. Easy to see why when so much of today’s mindfulness, meditation, yoga etc clearly is based on the philosophers who Puett discusses.  From Confucius through Laozi, six philosophers who wrote between 600-100 BCE and their guiding principles are presented, and Puett makes the connections between their times of upheaval and change in the social order and our own.  Confucius and his as-if rituals providing the basis for goodness and strong relationships; Mencius and the capricious world view providing the basis for decision making in this contingent world; Laozi and the generating worlds providing the basis for influence through non-action and weakness against strength; Inward training and the Way (Dao) and achieving action and agency through connecting rather than dominating; Zhuangzi and the world of transformation transcending our own experience; and Xunzi and creating a better world through artifice which patterns our actions.  Engagement and daily self-cultivation to improve our life in this world.