Philosophy
c. 470 to c. 391 BCE, state of Lu, China
Impartial care, the arithmetic against aggressive war, and the test of every doctrine by its benefit to the common people - the first great challenger of Confucius.
Start learning Mozi →Mozi’s founding doctrine of jian ai - impartial, all-embracing care - which traces the world’s disorder to partiality (caring for one’s own and not for others) and prescribes concern weighed out equall…
Mozi’s argument that a war of conquest is mass theft and mass murder scaled up - so the same reasoning that condemns stealing a pig or killing one man condemns aggression a thousandfold; to praise it as glorious i…
Mozi’s method for deciding whether any doctrine is worth believing: test it by its root (does it accord with the precedent of the sage-kings?), its evidence (do the eyes and ears of ordinary people confirm it?), a…
Mozi’s twin doctrine: that belief in fate corrodes effort and is the invention of tyrants and the excuse of the idle, and must be rejected; and that in its place stands the will of Heaven - not blind destiny but a…
Mozi’s doctrine of frugality: every expense - on goods, on funerals, on the great court music the Confucians cherished - must justify itself by one test alone, benefit to the common people; whatever only gratifies…
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