Mohism
墨子哲学
温海明
Prof. WEN Haiming
2015/4/13
Associate Professor, School of Philosophy
Renmin University of China
中国人民大学哲学院副教授
Ph.D. University of Hawaii
Prof. Haiming Wen, School of Philosophy, Renmin
1
University of China
夏威夷大学哲学博士
Social Background of the Mohist School
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Founded by Mozi (479-381 B.C?)
Preached the ethics of “knights-errant”
Supported the hsieh, knights errant recruited from
lower classes
Criticized traditional institutions and their
rationalizers (i.e Confucius)
Mozi’s Criticism of Confucianism
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Four reasons why Mozi believed Confucianism to
be wrong:
Confucianism doesn’t believe in existence of God
Insist on elaborate funerals and practice of mourning the death of a
parent for three years, thereby wasting wealthy and energy of youth
Lay stress on the practice of music, leading to an identical result
Believe in a predetermined fate, causing people to be lazy and to
resign themselves to their fate
All-Embracing Love
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Agrees with Confucian ideas of ren and yi (human heartedness and
righteousness)
To Mohists, these symbolize all-embracing love
“enjoy equally and suffer equally”
Everyone should love everyone else without discrimination
“The human-hearted man whose task it is to procure benefits for the
world and eliminate its calamities, must establish all-embracing love as
the standard of action both for himself and for all others in the world.”
The Will of God and
Existence of Spirits
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In order to have people practice the principle of allembracing love, Mozi introduces religious/political
sanctions.
-”The Will of Heaven”, “Proof of the Existence of Spirits”
God exists, loves mankind, and His Will is that all men
should love one another, constantly supervises activities of
men
-punishes with calamity and rewards with good fortune
Seeming Inconsistencies
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Inconsistent for Mohists to have believed in existence of
spirits, but at the same time be opposed to elaborate rituals
and making sacrifices to spirits
Mozi’s proof of the existence of spirits is done in order to
introduce religious sanctions for doctrine of all embracing
love
In his “Economy of expenditure” section, Mozi shares his
belief that funeral and sacrificial services were also useful
Origin of the State
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Political sactions also needed to induce all-embracing love
According to the Mozi, authority of the ruler comes from the
will of the people and the Will of God
People must accept absolute authority because they have
no alternative
World would be in disorder if every person had his own
standard, therefore they must follow the person selected as
ruler
State must be totalitarian and the authority of ruler
absolute
The Later Mohists
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Mohists were philosophers of common sense
“Mohist Canons” -in order to have knowledge, the knowing
must be confronted with an object of knowledge
Knowledge can be classified into 3 types
-derived through personal experience of the knower
-transmitted by authority
-knowledge by inference
Point of view of various objects of knowledge-knowledge of
names, that of actualities, that of correspondence, that of
action
Discussions on Dialectic
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Serves to make distinction between right and
wrong, discriminate between order and disorder…
Methods of imitation and methods of extension
-imitation- sets forth a cause, deductive reasoning
-extension- taking and giving according to classes,
inductive reasoning
cause defined as “that with which something
becomes”
Clarification of All-embracing Love
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Maintain Mozi’s utilitarianistic philosophy
All human activities aim at obtaining benefit and
avoiding harm
Good = beneficial
-righteousness, loyalty, filial piety
2015/4/13
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Prof. Haiming Wen, School of Philosophy, Renmin
University of China