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Notes on video lecture:
Mozi's Doctrine of Impartial Caring
Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
livestock, heaven, spontaneously, warring, benevolence, impact, materially, emotional, pyramid, Moism, eternal, not, respect, rewards, force, everyone, wrest, punishment, overriding, opposite, desires, inevitable, partial, parents, logical, worthies, objective, wrong, Singer, intellectual, objective, consequences, right, disturbing, behavior, superseded, love, benefiting, horrify, fact, inside
Mozi wanted                    standards of rightness
believed this was modeled on             
the central principle of           : jian ai
usually translated as impartial caring
sometimes has been translated as universal         
both terms are           
jian = impartial
distribution that is done in a fair and                    way
we need to get away from our                view
for the Confucians, on the other hand, we are naturally partial to our families
you obey your parents
for Mozi it is the                 
it is the partiality to family members that creates the chaos of the                states
ai = caring/                    
caring for someone materially
ai does not describe an emotional state of love, but a                 
e.g. you ai                   
feeding them, making sure that they are safe and warm
it's not an               , emotional feeling
it about an external behavior of benefiting someone                     
this goes along with a broader theme in Mozi, that he doesn't care about                    states
he doesn't care what you are feeling on the             
he's not trying to change the way you are feeling on the inside
what he wants is to modify your behavior by making you materially content
this would                Confucius
filial piety is about inner               , not just e.g. making sure your parents have enough food, as Mozi suggests
Mozi would say, you care for horses and dogs, and you also care for your               
for Mozi, ren means                       
not goodness in the general sense
someone who is ren benefits other people, someone who behaves benevolently and compassionately in a physical sense, not in a emotional sense
Mozi is concerned with external                         , with regulating your external behavior, and he doesn't really care what you feel on the inside
in fact, he expects that you're        going to like it
he expects you to not like acting in accord with impartial caring
but you have to suppress your internal feelings, adopt this standard, and            yourself to do it
it's very much about                      your hot cognition by using these cold insights
the cold insight being that impartial caring is the only                way to behave toward other people if you're going to be a moral human being
Wu-wei is not an idea for Mozi
practicing impartial caring is not something you can do                           
it's never going to become something that is natural
you don't follow your heart's               
your hot tendencies will be to favor yourself and your family
you have to consciously counter this
spontaneity has nothing to do with morality, in fact, spontaneity leads to immorality
the Mozian                of persuasion
people aren't going to like impartial caring
it goes against our nature
it is counter-intuitive
that you should care for                 
and not just yourself and your family
persuades people in different levels
1. the                 
they get the logic of his argument
they simply adopt his ideas
when heaven sends down rain, it rains on people impartially
act toward other people's fathers the way you want them to act toward your father
he sees these arguments as verifiable         
practicing impartial caring leads to the best benefit for the state
these are the highest level
2. not quite self controlled enough to understand it, but are motivated by               
people who practice impartial caring get rewards and they want rewards
Mozi sees this as inevitable
3. mass of people who lack the                          capacity and self control to put it in the practice
you have to use                      and the threat of punishment to motivate them to practice impartiality
this is how you            order out of the chaos of the warring states
Confucian vs. Mohist ethics
reason
Confucius: virtue involves feeling the            thing
Mozi: emotion has not place in morality at all
he doesn't care what you feel, and he believes what you feel is going to be immoral
human partiality
Confucius: it's                     , an organic virtue is grounded in the feelings of partiality that we have
Mozi: the family can be                     , family ties can be overridden
looks very much like modern views of ethics
Peter             , Australian moral philosopher
utilitarian
consequentialist, rationalist, morality is about rationality
deeply suspicious of human partiality
he has a site that shows the              of charities
it's                      how our psychologies are set up to favor ourselves and our families

Spelling Corrections:

spontenaityspontaneity
supercededsuperseded

Ideas and Concepts:

Mozi's concept of impartial caring via this evening's Ancient Chinese Philosophy course:

"The central principle of Moism is jian ai which is usually translated as impartial caring. Sometimes it has been translated as universal love, which is incorrect.

Jian means to be impartial, or to distribute goods in a fair and objective way. With this term, Mozi insists that we need to get away from our partial view. For the Confucians, on the other hand, we are naturally partial e.g. to our parents and our families. Confucius teaches that we must obey our parents, and our families, and after establishing this obedience, we learn to be obedient to others in society.

For Mozi it is the opposite:he believes that it was partiality to parents and family members that created the chaos of the warring states in the first place.

The term ai means caring, but more in the sense of benefiting someone materially. The term ai does not describe an emotional state of love, but a behavior. For instance, you ai your livestock, i.e. you feed them, and you make sure that they are safe and warm, but you don't have any deep emotion for them. Ai is not a an eternal, emotional feeling, but simply indicates the behavior of providing for people materially.

This goes along with a broader theme in Mozi, that he doesn't care about emotional states. He doesn't care what you are feeling on the inside, he's not trying to change your emotions, but rather he wants to produce in you reasonable behavior by making sure you are materially content."
Mozi's concept of ren (benevolence) via this evening's Ancient Chinese Philosophy course:

"For Mozi, filial piety is not about inner respect for your parents, or any inner feeling at all. It's simply about making sure your parents have enough food and are properly cared for.

This would horrify Confucius, who suggests that this is how we care for horses and dogs. Yet Mozi would say, yes, you care for horses and dogs by providing them with the food and warmth they need, and that is how you care for your parents as well.

For Mozi, ren means benevolence, not goodness in the general sense. Someone who is ren simply benefits other people. A person who is ren is someone who behaves benevolently and compassionately in a physical sense, not in an emotional sense.

Mozi is concerned with external consequences, with regulating your external behavior, and he doesn't really care what you feel inside. In fact, he expects that you're not going to like it. He expects you to not like acting in accordance with impartial caring, but you have to suppress your internal feelings, adopt this standard, and force yourself to do it.

In today's psychological terminology, it's very much about overriding your hot cognition by using these cold insights, namely, that impartial caring is the only logical way to behave toward other people if you're going to be a moral human being."
The Definition of Religion
Mind/Body Dualism and Cognitive Control
Deontology, Utilitarianism, and Virtue Ethics
Wu-Wei, Dao, Tien and De
The Shang Dynasty (1554-1045 BC)
The Beginnings of Written Chinese History
Eastern Holistic Thinking and the Paradox of Virtue
The Golden Age of the Western Zhou (1046–771 BCE)
Philosophical and Conceptual Innovations in Zhou Thought
Confucius and the Analects
Confucius: I Transmit, I Do Not Innovate
Confucius' Use of Ritual as a Tool
Confucius' View on Learning vs. The Enlightenment
Confucius and Holistic Education
Confucius and the Art of Self-Cultivation
At Home in Virtue
Non-Coercive Comportment, Virtue, and Charisma of the Zhou
The Transition to Becoming Sincere
The Primitivists in the Analects
Laozi and the Daodejing
Laozi: Stop the Journey and Return Home
Laozi and The Desires of the Eye
Laozi: He Who Speaks Does Not Know
The Concept of Reversion
Laozi on Shutting Down the Prefrontal Cortex
The Guodian Laozi
Mozi and Materialist State Consequentialism
Mozi's Idea of Ideological Unity
Mozi's Doctrine of Impartial Caring
Mozi's Anti-Confucian Chapters
Mozi's Religious Fundamentalism and Organized Activism
The Language Crisis in the Warring States Period
Yang Zhu and Mid-Warring States' Focus on the Body
The Guodian School of Confucianism
Qi and Self-Cultivation