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Notes on video lecture:
Mozi's Idea of Ideological Unity
Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on June 20, 2017 (go to class or lectures)
Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
efficiency, convinced, virtues, Worthy, ordered, Confucius, stairs, pay, standards, class, superficial, gentleman, specialist, unify, performance, fighting, virtue, connections, reward, Ren, fear, moralizes, verify, rational, ineffective, objectively, Hobbes, neighbors, unity, measure
Mozi's ideological
the importance of
getting people together on the same page in terms of what the right thing to do is
job
chapter: Honoring the
get worthy officials running the state
"When a worthy man is given the task of ordering the state, he appears at court early and retires late, listens to lawsuits and attends to affairs of government."
"As a result the state is well and laws and punishments are justly administered."
someone who works hard and does his job well
he's productive
you can measure what he does
he uses the word "de"
but he means not mystical power, but job efficiency and honesty
a very pragmatic view
but uses much of the same terminology that used
How do you increase the number of worthy men in your state?
"It is analogous to the case of wanting to increase the number of good archers or charioteers in one's state, one must and esteem them, revere and praise them."
there is not any mystical about this, you simply them well
rewards based solely on performance, not social class or reputation
make sure they are worthy by measuring their job
"Now the rulers and high officials know that if they cannot cut a suit of clothes for themselves, they must employ the services of a skilled tailor, if they can't slaughter an ox or a sheep for themselves, they must employ the services of a skilled butcher."
you have to hire a competent to do it
"and when they see the state in confusions and their altars of the soil and grain in danger, they do not know enough to employ capable men to correct the situation, instead they employ their relatives, or men who happen to be rich and eminent or pleasant-featured or attractive."
Confucians have an idea that competent people have to have and know people
for the Zhou Dynasty, was the physical appearance of a gentleman: handsome, well-shaped, an aristocrat, you look nice
Confucius this term, so Ren becomes an internal moral quality of a gentleman
but it's still intangible, you just have to know who has Ren and who doesn't
Mozi believes this is just as bad as the Zhou dynasty
it's too prone to mistakes, to nepotism, and favoritism, and so filling government position comes down to people you like or people who look like you
Mozi is worried about corruption in terms of self-selection, people who appoint those who look like them or sound like them
Mozi believed the government should have to hire people based on objective criteria
measure them on objective outputs
virtue in the Confucian sense is
if you want to run a state, you have to have professionals who know what they're doing
a very different conception than the Confucian gentleman
the dark side of virtue ethics
you go by gut reactions, random, and unreliable
the good thing is what the good person thinks the good think is, which turned out to be these leaders such as Confucius
what if the so-called good people are bad?
what if they don't have society's best interests in mind or your best interests in mind?
Mozi had a similar reaction to ethics as the consequentialists and deontologists did in the West
we need to replace all this good-person stuff and virtue-stuff with objective
we want an objective, rationalist ethic that we can guide ourselves by
we want to level the playing field: it shouldn't matter what family you are from, who you know, how much money you have
we need to protect people from social exploitation
we have to make sure that the people in power are actually looking out for the interests of society as a whole and not just their own interests
we need to hold everyone to the same standard
you see his craft background coming out
what is he measuring job performance by
"I hold to the will of Heaven as a wheelwright holds to his compass and carpenter his square."
coming from a trade background
you don't consult the good person, your intuitions, or your
you take a plumb line and you it
Mozi believes that the problem with the world is the failure of people to have objective standards
"The books of all the gentlemen in the world today are so numerous that they cannot be exhaustively catalogued and their teachings and maxims are more than can be counted...I measure them with the clearest standard in all the world: Heaven's Will."
Mozi is that he can perceive heaven's will
he believes it is an objective standard like a scale or a plumb bob
he believes we don't have to eyeball it, we have tools to tell you if something is correct
he believes it is something public that other people can is correct
chapter: Identifying with One's Superiors
an account of the state of nature
everyone is against each other
as in thought: there are limited resources which everyone is persuing and so they fight
for Mozi, the chaos in nature arises because people have different ideas about what is right
yi, n. explicit ideas about what is right
their external standard of conduct conflicts with one another
for Confucius, yi refers the unformalizable sense of rightness that the has
it's ok to change the material that you make the ritual cap out of
but it's not ok to bow when you are going up and down the
it's a virtue that enables you to judge when things are right and wrong
for Mozi, yi is an external and public set of standards about what the right thing to do is formalized in words
if you have different sets of yi, you are going to have chaos
so the goal in society is to people's sense of yi
the people above impose this sense of yi on those below them
those below them follow this sense of yi if they want to keep their jobs and the lives
"whenever your superior approves of something as right, you too must approve of it, whenever your superior condemns something as wrong, you too must condemn it"
order arises from a strict social hierarchy and a unity of belief which is all enforced by harsh punishment, "
for Confucius, punishment and reward are ultimately because it doesn't change people's inner commitment, which for Confucius is the goal of societal change, i.e. to change people, you need to make them feel internal shame
for Mozi, you want to get people to punishment
he believes that the only force people respond to reliably is external pressure, i.e. external rewards and punishments
he doesn't believe that instilling , shame, or principles in people is an effective way to get social order
Spelling Corrections:
committment ⇒ commitment
disobediance ⇒ disobedience
Ideas and Concepts:
Governmental leadership wisdom via Mozi, from this morning's Ancient Chinese Philosophy class:
"Now the rulers and high officials know that if they cannot cut a suit of clothes for themselves, they must employ the services of a skilled tailor, if they cannot slaughter an ox or a sheep for themselves, they must employ the services of a skilled butcher.
But when they see the state in confusions and their altars of the soil and grain in danger, they do not know enough to employ capable men to correct the situation. Instead they employ their relatives, or men who happen to be rich and eminent or pleasant-featured or attractive."
"Now the rulers and high officials know that if they cannot cut a suit of clothes for themselves, they must employ the services of a skilled tailor, if they cannot slaughter an ox or a sheep for themselves, they must employ the services of a skilled butcher.
But when they see the state in confusions and their altars of the soil and grain in danger, they do not know enough to employ capable men to correct the situation. Instead they employ their relatives, or men who happen to be rich and eminent or pleasant-featured or attractive."
Mozi on the dark side of virtue ethics, via this evening's Ancient Chinese Philosophy class:
"Mozi based his ethics on a reaction to the virtue-ethic philosophical movements of his time such as Confucianism. The problem with virtue ethics is that it is based on gut reactions.
In virtue ethics, what is good is what the good person thinks the good thing is, which of course turn out to be the sages such as these leaders such as Confucius. But what if these so-called good people are not so good? What if they don't have society's best interests in mind or your best interests in mind?
In this way, for Mozi, virtue ethics was often random and unreliable.
His idea of was to replace all this good-person stuff and virtue-stuff with objective standards. In society, we need an objective, rationalist ethic that we can guide ourselves by. We need to level the playing field:it shouldn't matter what family you are from, who you know, how much money you have, and we need to protect people from social exploitation.
We have to feedback mechanisms to make sure that the people in power are actually looking out for the interests of society as a whole and not just their own class interests, and we need to hold everyone to the same standard."
"Mozi based his ethics on a reaction to the virtue-ethic philosophical movements of his time such as Confucianism. The problem with virtue ethics is that it is based on gut reactions.
In virtue ethics, what is good is what the good person thinks the good thing is, which of course turn out to be the sages such as these leaders such as Confucius. But what if these so-called good people are not so good? What if they don't have society's best interests in mind or your best interests in mind?
In this way, for Mozi, virtue ethics was often random and unreliable.
His idea of was to replace all this good-person stuff and virtue-stuff with objective standards. In society, we need an objective, rationalist ethic that we can guide ourselves by. We need to level the playing field:it shouldn't matter what family you are from, who you know, how much money you have, and we need to protect people from social exploitation.
We have to feedback mechanisms to make sure that the people in power are actually looking out for the interests of society as a whole and not just their own class interests, and we need to hold everyone to the same standard."
Conflicting interpretations of yi, via this evening's Ancient Chinese Philosophy class:
"The concept of yi in Chinese culture and philosophy is generally defined as rational explicit ideas about what is right. But this concept has been interpreted in various ways through Chinese history.
For Confucius, yi refers the unformalizable sense of rightness that the gentleman has. For instance, it's ok to change the material that you make the ritual cap out of, but it's not ok to bow when you are going up and down the stairs. Yi is a virtue that enables you to judge when things are right and wrong.
For Confucius, punishment and reward are ultimately ineffective because they don't change people's inner commitment, which for Confucius is the goal of societal change, i.e. to change people's internal desire to act according to yi, and for that, you need to make them feel in the short term, shame, and in the long term, commitment.
For Mozi, on the other hand, yi is an external and public set of social standards about the right thing to do, which has as it's goal the containment of chaos and the strict ordering of societal behavior. Mozi believes that if people in a society have different sets of yi, then there will be chaos. So the goal in society is to unify people's sense of yi. Yi is passed down from the top leader down through his subordinates.
At every level, people above impose the sense of yi on those below them. Those below them follow this sense of yi if they want to keep their jobs and their lives, or as Mozi says, "whenever your superior approves of something as right, you too must approve of it, and whenever your superior condemns something as wrong, you too must condemn it."
Order arises from this strict social hierarchy, which is enforced by harsh punishment and thus produces an orderly society. Mozi wants people to fear punishment. He believes that the only force people respond to reliably is external pressure, i.e. external rewards and punishments. He he doesn't believe, as Confucius does, that instilling virtues, shame, or principles in people is an effective way to bring about social order. Instead, one must create incentives for obedience and punishment for disobedience, all in accordance with the yi."
"The concept of yi in Chinese culture and philosophy is generally defined as rational explicit ideas about what is right. But this concept has been interpreted in various ways through Chinese history.
For Confucius, yi refers the unformalizable sense of rightness that the gentleman has. For instance, it's ok to change the material that you make the ritual cap out of, but it's not ok to bow when you are going up and down the stairs. Yi is a virtue that enables you to judge when things are right and wrong.
For Confucius, punishment and reward are ultimately ineffective because they don't change people's inner commitment, which for Confucius is the goal of societal change, i.e. to change people's internal desire to act according to yi, and for that, you need to make them feel in the short term, shame, and in the long term, commitment.
For Mozi, on the other hand, yi is an external and public set of social standards about the right thing to do, which has as it's goal the containment of chaos and the strict ordering of societal behavior. Mozi believes that if people in a society have different sets of yi, then there will be chaos. So the goal in society is to unify people's sense of yi. Yi is passed down from the top leader down through his subordinates.
At every level, people above impose the sense of yi on those below them. Those below them follow this sense of yi if they want to keep their jobs and their lives, or as Mozi says, "whenever your superior approves of something as right, you too must approve of it, and whenever your superior condemns something as wrong, you too must condemn it."
Order arises from this strict social hierarchy, which is enforced by harsh punishment and thus produces an orderly society. Mozi wants people to fear punishment. He believes that the only force people respond to reliably is external pressure, i.e. external rewards and punishments. He he doesn't believe, as Confucius does, that instilling virtues, shame, or principles in people is an effective way to bring about social order. Instead, one must create incentives for obedience and punishment for disobedience, all in accordance with the yi."