2 3 14 Mozi 480 390 BCE o We don t know much about his life Some argue that he came from Arguably the first true Chinese philosopher in the western sense of philosophy o Wasn t just a philosopher he was a political radical o Some people suggest that he was a former convict Mo ink perhaps he humble origins had a face tattoo All that said he s relatively insignificant in terms of Chinese philosophy Mozi Collection of essays and anecdotes attributed to Mozi Originally consisted of 71 books 18 of which are now lost Mozi has a lot to say in this text we ll focus mostly on his ethical system o Has theories of gov robust views on metaphysics epistemology etc Mozi asks what is the problem with society o The problem is that we show partially to our friends and family but not everyone else How do we restore peace and stability to society o Mozi says Practice universal impartiality This is sometimes translated as universal caring o We need a structured government and a unified sense of morality Subjects are expected to conform to the examples set by virtuous superiors Chapter 16 On impartial caring The business of the benevolent person is to promote what is beneficial to the world and eliminate what is harmful pg 68 Mozi is one of the first recorded consequentialist thinkers o The moral status of an action is determined by the sate of affairs the action o Can be considered in contrast with virtue ethics that virtues guide what brings about we should do o Also contrasted with deontology the moral status of an action is determined by rules or principle that tell us what we ought to do Mozi is a consequentialist and so uses this sort of reasoning in all of his o Don t have ranking or preferences in how we care about people Notice how this contrast with Mengzi s hierarchy of consideration o We must replace partiality with impartiality To be impartial is to consider everyone as equally worthy of moral consideration sometimes called universal love Worry This impartiality while nice in concept is WAAAAAY to hard in arguments practice o 1 It is literally impossible Pg 72 it is not literally impossible to practice universal impartiality The sage king did it Counterexample This expresses my meaning o 2 It is practically impossible We do super crazy hard insane macho thing all the time Being universally caring is comparatively easy Running into burning buildings doing things to impress superiors and others etc 2 5 14 Mozi Part Deux Continued Discussion of Impartiality o It is rational to be universally impartial o For example if we want to practice xiao we have to be impartial to others If we don t practice universal impartiality others might attach our families o You want others to treat YOU impartially it only makes sense to treat others impartially as well Nice things for Mozi o He seems better positioned to tell someone what to do in particular circumstances than perhaps Confucians are What sorts of problems can arise here What about scapegoat cases o The Ones who walked away from Omelas o Intentionally lying about the serial killer o Give the last loaf of bread to the doctor rather than your mother The Manifestations of Impartiality A Condemnation of Aggressive War massive scale is much much worse o Analogy to Black and White Ch 20 For moderation in expenditures o If you agree that killing is wrong then you should agree that killing on a o Don t buy fancy clothes clothes are only for keeping you warm in winter and cool in summer Anything else is excessive and shows partiality o Houses same thing hoes o Pg 80 Any form of excess is morally unjustifiable and should be eliminated o Peter Singer Famine Affluence and Morality Giving to charity helping others etc is a basic expectation 2 7 14 Mozi Continued Pg 80 Eliminate everything that is not useful in order to benefit the world No fancy clothes house or advanced weapons Mozi s Two Key points here o Excessive expenditures show partiality to yourself o That money time resources is better spent helping others Chapter 25 For moderation in funerals Mozi is VERY sparse in his ideal funeral o Take care of the body cry a bit move on Continue sacrifices Pg 82 Mozi describes traditional ritual practices the li with quite a bit of disdain o He says let s get rid of these stupid practices and focus our time money and resources on benefiting the world Confucians say How can you just throw the li to the side like this o First Reply Let s look to the Sage kings They did not have lavish funerals so neither should we o Second Reply So much the worse for the li If the li don t benefit the world we should get rid of them o Both of these replies show Mozi s belief with Confucians If spent so much resources on rituals you re killing your people slowly When all people died no one is worshipping the ancestors and that bad Chapter 32 A Condemnation of Musical Performances The money and time put into musical performances diverts from feeding and clothing the people o We should get rid of musical performances o Modern Era view music in two ways 1 Music for charity to do good things some people make a living by producing music related industries Keep the blind people occupied 2 Music can be wasting time and distract you from other work o Mozi is super practical no time for enjoyment we re dealing with problems like starving and war now Once everyone is materially comfortable then we can proceed to mental enjoyment Another possible concern Mozi is not concerned enough with the living of a good life o Things like music provided goods but not benefits in the way he describes them Chapter 31 On Ghosts Ghosts exist we should appropriately respect them sacrifices and whatnot and they are important for running a peaceful society o Oh yeah and if they don t exist worship them anyway When people think ghosts are watching they are more likely to behave Metaphysical problem Do ghosts exist Epistemological problem can we know appropriately that ghosts exist o Even if the answer to the metaphysical problem is NO ghosts don t exist we should continue to act as though they do because of the benefit that this belief providers We can only do this because we don t have an answer to the epistemological question