Mozi and the Mohists — Public standards, inclusive care, and office
The question that opens it
Can a standard checkable by all restrain a ruler's arbitrariness, or can it also suppress disagreement?
- 1
The received Mozi is a multilayered compilation of anonymous material from roughly the fifth to third centuries BCE, not a finished book securely attributable to Mozi alone.
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Mozi
Transmitted Mohist corpus; Chinese Text Project · Classical Chinese text with James Legge historical English translation
Locator: Chapter structure
Open sourceMohism
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: Section 1
Open source
- 2
Mohist fa are connected with the search for public models or standards by which conduct and rule can be checked, rather than relying on custom or rank alone.
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Mozi
Transmitted Mohist corpus; Chinese Text Project · Classical Chinese text with James Legge historical English translation
Locator: Book 4
Open sourceMohism
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: Section 3
Open source
- 3
Inclusive care and benefit-harm standards support arguments that excluding persons, families, or states from moral concern generates conflict and harm.
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Mozi
Transmitted Mohist corpus; Chinese Text Project · Classical Chinese text with James Legge historical English translation
Locator: Books 14–16
Open sourceMohism
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: Section 7
Open source
- 4
Promoting the worthy calls for office to consider moral and practical qualifications beyond kinship and for officials to exemplify consistent standards.
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Mozi
Transmitted Mohist corpus; Chinese Text Project · Classical Chinese text with James Legge historical English translation
Locator: Books 8–10
Open sourceMohism
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: Section 6
Open source
- 5
The Mohist discussion of upward conformity joins unified standards with hierarchical teaching, reward, and punishment, exposing a tension between constraining arbitrariness and centralizing authority.
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Mozi
Transmitted Mohist corpus; Chinese Text Project · Classical Chinese text with James Legge historical English translation
Locator: Books 11–13
Open sourceMohism
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: Section 6
Open source
- 6
Mohist social benefit includes material sufficiency, population, order, and reduced violence, but it should not be reduced to a single modern utility score.
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Mohism
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: Sections 2 and 7
Open sourceSocial and Political Thought in Chinese Philosophy
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: Section 2.2
Open source