There are quite a few scholars who argue that the "Enlightenment" and democratic movement in the West would not have occurred if the Jesuits hadn't gone to China and started sending Confucian texts back to Europe. We aren't scholars, so we'll keep the argument amongst them.
Confucius' influence on the West, however, is certainly underated. Leibniz wrote several treatises on Confucius; Confucius was seminal to many of the "Great Western Philosophers," e.g. Hobbs, Locke, Voltaire and Jefferson. Some like Rousseau out-right plagiarized Confucius. Regardless, Confucius and his philosophical progeny present a world that in some places is starkly similar to what would otherwise be identified as, e.g. "Socratic" (its all the more cool that Socrates and Confucius were contemporary), but the similarities just help emphasize the differences, e.g. did Socrates ever cry? how did Socrates treat his family and friends?
Right now we have the complete texts of The Doctrine of the Mean, The Great Learning, and The Analects.
We will always be adding to our own book collection, but
one excellent online resource for books is at Project Gutenberg.
Enjoy!
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