Self-Awareness in the Mozi

Abstract

Instead of focusing on the authorial intention of the Mozi, this is a speculative and comparative project aimed at determining the philosophical, logical, metaethical, and ontological assumptions of some Mohist ideas. Particular attention is levied at the core idea of “equal love for all” (jian’ai). These ideas are analyzed through the lens of the Heidelberg School’s distinction of prereflective self-awareness and reflective self-consciousness. Prereflective, predualist self-awareness, which depicts human nature as potentiality, constitutes the implicit character of jian’ai. In this sense, Mozi’s criticism of Confucian “graded love” (ren’ai) argues from a position of prereflective self-awareness, while any reflective claim a priori as the foundation of a doctrine (favoring filial love that functions as the Confucian premise), inevitably falls into self-contradiction in theory and praxis.

Acknowledgments

This article is supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (No. 20BZX135).

I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their inspiring critiques and encouragments that substantially contributed to improving the argumentation of this paper. I would also like to thank the editor for her guidance and support.

Notes

1 Back, “Reconstructing Mozi’s Jian’ai,” 1092.

2 Loy, “On the Argument for Jian’ai,” 487.

3 Back, “Reconstructing Mozi’s Jian’ai,” 1093.

4 Mozi, The Mozi.

5 Hansen, A Daoist Theory, 112–15.

6 In the psychoanalytic context, the post-structuralist Julia Kristeva effectively redefined the individual through the re-positioning of the Lacanian determination of the development of the infant. The “Mirror stage,” as symbolized by self-recognition in the mirror and the imitation of the dualist other—the father, acted upon a symbolic, linguistic, reflective, and dualist level. Kristeva (Powers of Horror) proponed that the infant and thus, through relative correlation, the individual, is instead positioned at a prior, prereflective, prelinguistic, semiotic and correspondingly “motherly” stage, where it would already “abject” heterogeneric materials (rancid milk, etc.) in order to maintain a certain self-identity. This stage describes a predualist self-awareness, since the infant is still in a certain fusion with its environment and those within it. Particularly, the infant still identifies itself with the mother while already developing its self-identity via the “abjection.” Thus, this prereflective self-awareness comes prior to the “Mirror stage” as it has not yet been mediated by the radical opposition of the “Other/object” in the construction of the identity of the infant, even if this “Other/object” might be one of the closest family members, for example, the (Confucian) father.

7 Henrich, “Fichte’s Original Insight,” 15–55.

8 Frank,“From Fichte’s Original Insight,” 45.

9 Ibid., 40–44.

10 Ibid., 41.

11 Ibid., 7.

12 Henrich, “Fichte’s Original Insight,” 22.

13 Zahavi, “The Heidelberg School and the Limits,” 267.

14 Frank, “From Fichte’s Original Insight,” 36.

15 Zahavi, Self-awareness and Alterity, 31–35.

16 In the scientific field, this reminds of the discovery of the Unified Field and Quantum Entanglement.

17 Under this conception, prereflective self-awareness equally corresponds to the potentiality of melding, subverting or multiplying one’s reflectively intended ethical and political object (any determined, existing filial, cultural and social structures, habits of thought, traditions and authorities, predetermining fate, among others, as other Mohist themes demonstrate), as well as the unitary nature of the Mohist Heaven.

18 Confucius, The Analects, 31.

19 Mozi, The Mozi, 11.

20 Ibid., 93.

21 Ibid., 13.

22 Ibid., 57.

23 Ibid., 91.

24 Ibid., 15.

25 Ibid., 261.

26 Ibid., 13.

27 This “reality” is to be distinguished from what this papers names “facticity” of reflective self-consiousness. The “facticity” incarnated by reflective self-consiousness (e.g., graded love, the cogito) refers to the surface structure of our self-consciousness (dualism). However, this “reality,” in the emphatic sense, refers to the ontological ground for reflectivity and thus, to the deeper, unitary structure of self-consciousness. It has also been refered to as our hidden nature, or “potentiality” in contrast to the apparent “facticity” of reflection and dualism.

28 Mozi, The Mozi, 233. “Small matters” can relate to reflective self-consciousness which is apt at making all kinds of distinctions and gradings which govern human intelligence, while “great matters” can relate to the “wisdom” of prereflective, unitary self-awareness which is at the source of all apparent self-other/world distinction.

29 Ibid., 241.

30 Ibid., 243.

31 Ibid., 239.

32 Ibid., 269. “Force” is the practical expression for the arbitrary character of reflective self-consciousness. It lies in contrast to the impartial “love” of Heaven.

33 Ibid., 265.

34 This paper considers this interpretation to be an underestimation of the “Heaven’s Intention” chapters. In contrast, it attempts to highlight the ontological structure behind the metaphorical image of Heaven, relating it in a theoretical continuity with other core themes via prereflective self-awareness.

35 Mozi, The Mozi, 255.

36 Ibid., 27.

37 Ibid., 253.

38 Ibid., 343.

39 Ibid., 235.

40 Ibid., 263.

41 Ibid., chapters 11–13.

42 Ibid., 321.

43 Ibid., 101.

44 Ibid., 125.

45 Ibid., 96.

46 Ibid., 265.

47 Ibid., 91.

48 Ibid., 235.

49 Ibid., 147.

50 Ibid., 157.

51 Ibid., 150.

52 Hansen, A Daoist Theory,129.

53 Mozi, The Mozi, chapters 14, 15.

54 Ibid., 235.

55 Ibid., chapters 15, 16.

56 Ibid., 235.

57 Ibid., 131.

58 Ibid., 133.

59 Ibid., 146.

60 Ibid., 147.

61 Ibid., 149, chapter 16.

62 Ibid., 255.

63 Ibid., chapter 14.

64 Ibid., 263.

65 Ibid., 233. Understanding “small matters” corresponds to the perspective of reflective self-consciousness which is capable of making all sorts of “intelligent” distinctions, or only sees the surface level of Heaven’s functioning (e.g., seeing self-constradiction in graded love). However, understanding “great matters” refers to the perspective of prereflective self-awareness, which understands the true functioning of Heaven and sees unity and coherence beyond apparent contradictions (e.g., seeing that self-contradiction in graded love exactly belongs to Heaven’s impartiality).

66 Van Norden, “A Response,” 45.

67 In extreme cases of survival, such being trapped in the collapse of a mine, caring more for oneself, or one’s family and friends, would inextricably lead to violence and thus, destruction, whereas the equal sharing of the limited food and resources while waiting for rescue would maximize the chances of survival for all members. The successful experience of San José mine collapse (in Chile in 2010) indubitably demonstrates Mozi’s strong impartial reading.

68 Fraser, The Philosophy of the Mozi, 158–84.

69 Defoort, “Are the Three ‘Jian ai’ Chapters,” 35–68.

70 Mozi, The Mozi, 319.

71 Ibid., 331.

72 Ibid., 339.

73 Ibid., 105.

74 Ibid., 125.

75 Ibid., 269.

76 Ibid., chapter 2, “On Cultivating the Self,” 11.

77 Ibid., 46.4, 645; 46.6, 647; 46.13, 653.

78 Ibid., 48.18, 695; 48.20, 695.

79 Fraser, The Philosophy of the Mozi, 180–84.

80 Mozi, The Mozi, 161.

81 Ibid., 157.

82 Ibid., 719.

83 Ibid., 227.

84 Ibid., 327.

85 Ibid., 337.

86 Ing, The Vulnerability of Integrity.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

She Shiqin

She Shiqin is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Xiamen University in China. Her research interests focus on philosophy of consciousness, philosophy of art and literature, comparative philosophy, among others. Her papers include “Du ‘tournant’ dans la compréhension du tragique chez Hölderlin,” Laval théologique et philosophique, 2015; “Critique of ‘Judgment’ in Gongsun Long’s ‘Zhiwu lun’—A Comparative Reading in the Light of Hölderlin’s ‘Judgment and Being,’” Asian Studies, 2022; and “Pre-Reflective Self-Awareness and Polyperspectivity in Chinese Landscape Painting,” forthcoming in Telos.