Monday, September 26

Homework #3 is now posted; it will be due Wednesday, September 28.

Readings:  "Mohist Thought"; "Universal Love";
                   Burton Watson, trans., Mozi:  Introduction, 1-16; from "Anti-Fatalism," p. 122 (top par.)

Please bring the "Universal Love" text & Watson book to class.

The first response to Confucianism was given by the Mohist school, which countered the Confucian ritual focus with a focus on the notion of human welfare, or "the beneficial" (those who disliked Mohism stressed the sense of this key term as "profit" -- the term [lì] is described in the "Glossary"). Mohist philosophy closely resembles Western "utilitarianism," which resolves issues of doubt by asking which alternatives of action, belief, or moral disposition will produce the greatest net benefit to the human race. Mohist utilitarianism poses such questions about behavioral norms: which standards of values will maximize human welfare? Mohist doctrine consists of the answers to that question. (Mohists do not advocate that individuals weigh action alternatives according to their effect on human welfare, but rather that individuals act according to constant standards determined on a utilitarian basis.)

Your reading includes two introductory essays; you should read the Coursepack version now (it forecasts the direction I plan to go), but you should also at some point read through the introduction provided by your translator, Burton Watson (pp. 1-16). 

In class, we will begin by closely examining the famous chapter of the Mozi, "Universal Love" (a version also appears in Watson's translation; I have put a translation online principally so I could use annotation and section headers to make clear how the chapter is constructed).  Please read "Universal Love" with care.  In the course of our discussion on Monday, we will also look at a brief passage from the Watson translation of the chapter "Anti-Fatalism," which sets out a famous set of standards for argumentation.