Mozi and Mohism

Mo Di  (480-390) becomes Master Mo—Mozi or Zimozi—Master Teacher Mo.

•         Given name means “tattoo.”

•         May have been a disciple of Confucius.  If so, he soon became an opponent. 

•         Mozi’s support came from the lower classes not the ru (literati).  Ruists=Confucians

•         Mozi was a militant pacifist. Chinese Robin Hood.  His 10 day/night walk.

Kongzi and Mozi

•         Both thought that the sage kings should be our model.

•         The sage kings favored the worthy, not the rich or the well connected.

•         The poor and the lower classes could be worthy, even rule if qualified.

•         Yi Yin the cook and King Wen’s gamekeepers (I&N, 60).

Kongzi vs. Mozi

•         Confucian focus on ren* and li.

•         Mohist focus on impartial care (jian’ai) and yi as the Will of Heaven via Son of Heaven.

•         Confucius: moral life was an end in itself.

•         Mozi: only for the benefits it brings.

•         Confucius graded love vs. Mohist unconditional love.  Chinese “agapeism.”

Mozi’s Three Tests

•         Precedent: Does it conform to the will of Tian and the testimony of the sage kings?

•         Evidence: Does it conform to the witness of the common people?  Empirical test.

•         Application: Does the action have utility? Does it bring benefit?  Does it work?

•         Music, long mourning periods, and li do not pass the last test.

Consequentialism

•         Moral value lies only in consequences not in intentions.

•         Utilitarianism: consequentialism plus hedonism (the highest value is pleasure).

•         Mozi’s “state consequentialism”: highest values are wealth, population, and order.

•         Shi=right=approve; fei=wrong=condemn.  Compare with Hume’s pleasure is what be approve and pain is what we condemn.

•         Ivanhoe’s “character consquentialism”: virtues have the highest value.

•         Pure Virtue Ethics: virtues have intrinsic not instrumental value.

Mozi’s Consequentialism

•         ren* persons “promote what is beneficial to the world and eliminate what is harmful” (Chap. 16, I&N, 63).

•         Partiality is the greatest source of harm, and the family is the center of partiality.

•         Enforcement of the Golden Rule will establish impartiality.

•         Golden Rule will also lead to caring.  The result is impartial care (jian’ai).

•         Wouldn’t the Silver Rule do this better?

Mozi on yi

•         Chap. 11: Ivanhoe: “norm”

•         These norms were not

•         Chaos similar to the beasts?!  Daoists?

•         Humans are superior because they

•         Hierarchy of worthy superiors

•         Everyone spies on one another? (I&N, 63)

•         Yi is definitely

Mozi on Punishment

•         Order maintained by.

•         Sage kings and the five punishments:

•         Heavenly punishments:

•         Hierarchy of authority topped

•         Shang Di commanded King Tang to destroy his armies (Chan, 225).

Shang Di and spirits

•         Chap. 31: ghosts and spirits enforce.

•         Just a “regulative concept” as in Buddhism?

•         No, there is

•         The case of Du Bo and Duke Mu “shining virtue” (mingde) (I&N, 91-92).

•         Why doesn’t Mozi follow the li of the sage kings, upon which the shen insisted?

•         The spirits are watching you wherever you go!

The Will of Heaven

•         Zhi is the same character

•         Mandate of Heaven vs. Will of Heaven.

•         Mozi charged the Confucians

•         Fatalism:

•         Predeterminism vs. determinism,

•         With certain characteristics and personality,

More on Heaven

•         Chap. 26: Tian used as a way

•         Ivanhoe: Mozi’s Tian

•         Tian desires

•         Cycles of nature based on death? 

•         The supreme example of impartiality:

Mozi and Jesus

•         Both gained support

•         Will of Heaven and spirits

•         Focus on

•         Both were pacifists;

•         Agapeism—from agape, unconditional love.

•         An extreme form of altruism: one must value others as much as you do yourself.

Two Forms of Agapeism

•         Theological Agapeism: God commands

•         Rational Agapeism: reason requires

•         Mohists and Michael Scriven.

•         Scriven: If a person can save the lives of at least two others by giving his own life, he is morally obligated to do so.

•         Goes beyond the Golden Rule?

•         Scriven’s proof: the foxhole scenario.

•         Mozi’s scenario similar to Scriven’s  (I&N, 66)?