History of Philosophy: India, Africana, China HPC 27. Give Peace a Chance: the Mohists on War and Politics
Apr 6, 2025
Discussion of the Mohist principle of inclusive care and how it connects personal ethics to political order. Examination of Mohist reporting systems, meritocratic promotion, and moral officials. Debate over justifications for war, conditional acceptance of overwhelmingly beneficial campaigns, and strategies for defense and deterrence.
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Kurosawa Thief Calls Out Warlord Hypocrisy
- Adamson narrates a Kurosawa scene where a thief mirrors a warlord's crimes to shame powerful men.
- The thief tells the warlord a man who killed hundreds is no better than a petty thief, echoing Mozi's rebuke to rulers.
Righteous Individuals Depend On Unified Political Rule
- Mozi holds that individual righteousness depends on political order and a single enforced conception of righteousness to avoid conflicting norms.
- The Son of Heaven enforces one norm so people stop having many contradictory standards of right and wrong.
Get People To Identify Upward For Social Order
- Encourage citizens to identify upward: common people should take moral cues from village leaders up to the Son of Heaven.
- This reporting chain lets the ruler know local good and bad deeds as if he could see and hear everything himself.