HIST 11A Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Tao Te Ching, Mozi, Political Philosophy
Document Summary
Chinese philosophers were primarily focused on order and chaos: confucius was notably unsuccessful in finding a patron, eventually turns to teaching and mentoring his disciples, failure to achieve success did not cause confucius to lose faith. Mo zi : traditionally depicted as a self-educated man. May have began as a follower of confucianism. This idea is derived from his pure hostility to confucianism: one fundamental critique of confucianism is passivity. Diametrically opposed to confucian values: favoritism of family feeds into self-interest. Devotion to family is the fundamental problem of chinese society: universal love refers to the ends, not the means. Mo zi insists that self-interest governs all actions and love for fellow man is inconceivable: mo zi believed as soon as you have two people, conflict arises and is inevitable as self-interest and differing opinions exist between them. Social order is only possible through divine intervention: heaven is looking for an intelligent ruler, ruler must first overcome his own self-interest.
