HOPT Lecture 4 Conficius, Master Mo & Mencius Flashcards
Confucius (551 bc - 479 bc)
- probably the most influential thinker in human history if influence is determined by the sheer number of people ho have lived their lives and died in accordance with the thinkers vision of how people should live and die (roger ames)
Mandate of Heaven
- the ruler earns or loses the right to rule based on his political virtue or lack of virtue
- “when evil government spreads through the people, insect plagues will be generated on earth”
GPT: The “Son of Heaven” (天子, Tiānzǐ) was the title given to the Chinese emperor, signifying that he was the divinely chosen ruler of China and held the Mandate of Heaven (天命, Tiānmìng).
Virtue rule
-must have the virtue of “ren” (benevolence, humaneness, care)
- enlightened paternalism ( GPT: Paternalism involves making decisions for others, assuming they do not fully understand what is best for them. Enlightened means it is done with wisdom, fairness, and genuine care rather than purely for power or self-interest.)
- a good ruler must persuade, not coerce
Confucius
- Care (ren) with gradations
- ritual
GPT: “care (ren, 仁) is central to moral life, but it is not just general kindness—it follows gradations (different levels of obligation) and is expressed through ritual”
Mozi (Master Mo) (470bc-391bc)
- Founder of Mohism
- His followers are “Mohists”
- alternative to Confucianism
- believes in a fixed standart
- found in Heaven
- Impartiality (contrasts with conficusanism)
- radical extension of “ren”
- impartial caring
- universal love - thought experiments
- Human nature can change
- via rewards / punishments
Mozi s consequantialism
- belief that an action is good based on consquences
the goals of heaven:
- promoting material prosperity
- populusness: (abundent population, more immigrants)
- social order
empirical claim: if you act impartially, then good consequnecs follow
normative claim: so you should act impartially to produce beneftis to mankind
Mozi on the state of Nature
” When people first came into being and before there
were governments or laws, each person followed
their own norm [yi; or righteousness] for deciding
what was right and wrong…Within families, there
was resentment and hatred between fathers and
sons…Throughout the world, people used water, fire,
and poison to harm and injure one another, to the
point where if they had strength to spare, they would
not use it to help each other, if they had excess
goods, they would leave them to rot away rather
than distribute to another, and if they had helpful
teachings, they would hide them away rather than
teach them to one another….The chaos that ruled in
the world was like what one finds among the birds
and beasts.” Mozi, “
Mungzi (Mencius) (371bc- 289bc)
- believes world is unpredictable, doesnt make sense to be a consequentialst
- in china aka. “The second sage”
- rather than focus on consequnces, you should focus on being benevolent and righteous ( all we need is this not profit acc. to him)
- social causation
- with good governance people incline towards pro-social behavior
- deviations from this (natural tendency toward) pro- social behavior needs to be attributed to social casues and especially / ultimately bad governance. (cf. Rousseau) - mencius thinks mohist impartiality is against human nature therefore not practiable or desirable. for ex. some people claim that they impartial but when their parents die they make a huge funeral. we care more about our own then others.
Mencius on human nature
identifies 4 key virtues, each grounded in innate emotional reactions:
1- the heart of compassion
2- the heart of disdain
3- the heart of respect
4- the heart of approval / disapproval
he calls these sprouts because we have to nurture and take care of it
the heart of compassion
sprout of benevolence. we have natural benovelence we are naturally compassionate.
his proof is you see a child fall into a well. we feel an impulse to help them.
heart of disdain
sprout of righteousness. you disdain people that do shameful things.
heart of respect
sprout of “propriety” (means conformity to accepted / expected norms, behaviros and morals showing respect in general) in this context obeying rituals
heart of approval / disapproval
sprout of wisdom. being a good judge of characters for others.
Human Nature and empirical evidence (Mencius)
When we consider what is present in
people, could they truly lack the hearts of benevolence
and righteousness?! That by which they discard their
good hearts is simply like the hatchets and axes in
relation to the trees. With them besieging it day by day,
can it remain beautiful? -Mencius
Conficiusim and liberalism
liberalism is a tradition in the west, conficuainism in the east. methaphor for society between hobbes and locke is a contract. a contract between autonomous rights bearing self interested individuals.
conficiusim and their students think society is a family. conficuism focuses on social harmony in an ideal society - more than justice.
