This episode examines the Mohist doctrine of impartial caring (jian'ai) via two arguments in the Mozi -- the Caretaker Argument and the Filial Piety Argument. We examine the arguments' logical structure, psychological plausibility, and practical applicability. We also discuss the importance of reciprocity, and competing interpretations of "impartial caring," from the less demanding don't-harm-anyone interpretation to stronger equal-concern readings, setting them against the Confucian model of...
All content for This Is The Way: Chinese Philosophy Podcast is the property of Richard Kim and Justin Tiwald and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
This episode examines the Mohist doctrine of impartial caring (jian'ai) via two arguments in the Mozi -- the Caretaker Argument and the Filial Piety Argument. We examine the arguments' logical structure, psychological plausibility, and practical applicability. We also discuss the importance of reciprocity, and competing interpretations of "impartial caring," from the less demanding don't-harm-anyone interpretation to stronger equal-concern readings, setting them against the Confucian model of...
This episode is our first on the classical Confucian philosopher Xunzi 荀子 (3rd century BCE), who was famous for arguing that human nature is bad and for casting doubt on the more supernatural or superstitious justifications for traditional Confucian rituals, among many other things. Since this is the first episode on an important philosopher, we spend some time in part I discussing his "big picture" philosophical worldview. In part II, we turn to the following question: does Xunzi think of th...
This Is The Way: Chinese Philosophy Podcast
This episode examines the Mohist doctrine of impartial caring (jian'ai) via two arguments in the Mozi -- the Caretaker Argument and the Filial Piety Argument. We examine the arguments' logical structure, psychological plausibility, and practical applicability. We also discuss the importance of reciprocity, and competing interpretations of "impartial caring," from the less demanding don't-harm-anyone interpretation to stronger equal-concern readings, setting them against the Confucian model of...
