Schools of Philosophy
Mohism
MOH-iz-uhm
Also Known As Universal Love The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's own entry cautions this popular rendering of jian ai overstates the doctrine's emotional content: jian carries the sense of including everyone within a whole, and ai here typically refers to a dispassionate concern for welfare rather than passionate attachment, so the entry judges inclusive care the better translation.
Ethics
Mohism was an influential philosophical and social movement in ancient China, founded by Mozi and flourishing from roughly the late fifth century BCE. It defended a consequentialist ethics grounded in impartial concern for everyone's welfare, opposed offensive warfare, and argued for meritocratic government, believing moral standards could be objectively established through explicit, step-by-step reasoning rather than inherited custom.
Facts
Disputed
End YearNo single year is given by either encyclopedia. Wikipedia states Mohism had almost disappeared as an independent school of thought in the wake of the cultural transformations of the Qin dynasty, after 221 BC, and SEP states the movement had vanished altogether by the middle of the Western Han (206 BCE-24 CE). -221, the Qin unification year, is used as the marker year the sources agree the decline began, not a precise end point. Start YearDated to Mozi's own floruit, circa 430 BCE; no more precise founding date is attested. Connections
Associated With
Mohism argued for meritocratic government and against offensive warfare, placing it in dialogue with political philosophy as well as ethics.
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Founded By
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
In Branch
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Sources
1. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and Informationentry: Mohism, Section 7 Ethical Theory (Inclusive Care)
sometimes translated as 'universal love' but probably better rendered as 'inclusive care.'
SEP, "Mohism," decline section
Following the unification of China under the Qin dynasty (221-207 BCE), the Mohist movement declined, eventually vanishing altogether by the middle of the Western Han (206 BCE-24 CE).
entry: Mohism, Introduction
They were the first in the tradition to engage, like Socrates in ancient Greece, in an explicit, reflective search for objective moral standards and to give step-by-step, tightly reasoned arguments for their views.
Founded By: Mozi, entry: Mohism, Section 1 Mozi and the Mohists
One passage depicts King Hui of Chu (488-432 BCE) refusing to grant him an audience because of his low social status.
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