Quotation
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“If everyone in the world would love others impartially — states not attacking one another, houses not disturbing one another — then the world would be well ordered.”
Mozi · Mohism · Ancient · c. 5th–3rd century BCE (school text)
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that partial love, care only for one's own, is the root of theft, feud, and war, and impartial care would remove the root. A competing reading stresses the Mohist standard of benefit: impartiality is argued because it profits the world, not only because it is a purer feeling. The passage is from the chapters on impartial caring, in a book compiled by the school, with three versions that do not match word for word. Confucians answered that graded love is not the same vice.
Did Mozi really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. A condensed but recognisable rendering of the Mohist argument for jian ai, impartial care. The book is a school compilation. Wording varies across the three versions of the chapter.
Where it comes from
Mozi, chapter 16, 'Impartial Caring'
Approximate date: c. 5th–3rd century BCE (school text).
How to use it
When you weigh a benefit, a budget, a referral, or a favour for a cousin, ask who falls outside 'us' and whether the exclusion is a reason or a habit. The street that is not your street still counts on his argument. Impartiality here is not coldness: he thinks it is a more consistent care, and he also thinks it pays.
A mindset reading
Notice the border of 'us' before you call a choice moral. The habit is to ask whether the border is doing argumentative work or only repeating who you already like. Mozi wants the first exposed.
Understand the philosophy
Mozi is answering Confucian partiality toward family and ruler. Jian ai is impartial care or inclusive concern, and the school argues that if everyone practised it, states would not attack and houses would not disturb one another. Confucians reply that love has degrees and should. Later Chinese thought keeps the argument, in a text that is a school book rather than a diary.
- love
- justice
- society
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that partial love, care only for one's own, is the root of theft, feud, and war, and impartial care would remove the root. A competing reading stresses the Mohist standard of benefit: impartiality is argued because it profits the world, not only because it is a purer feeling. The passage is from the chapters on impartial caring, in a book compiled by the school, with three versions that do not match word for word. Confucians answered that graded love is not the same vice.
Did Mozi really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. A condensed but recognisable rendering of the Mohist argument for jian ai, impartial care. The book is a school compilation. Wording varies across the three versions of the chapter.
Which work is it in?
Mozi, chapter 16, 'Impartial Caring' Approximate date: c. 5th–3rd century BCE (school text).