Are the later Mohists preference-satisfaction consequentialists? A discussion of Daniel Stephens’ “Later Mohist ethics and philosophical progress in ancient China”

The Mohists may have been the first consequentialists on earth. Their most important principles are that right action is what benefits the world and that the underlying outlook for benefiting the world is inclusive care, whereby each person receives equal consideration. The early Mohists are clearly objective-list consequentialists, whereby benefiting the world amounts to promoting the most basic goods. Stephens argues that the later Mohists shift to a preference-satisfaction consequentialism whereby benefiting the world amounts to promoting what happens to please individual people. Stephens argues that while the direct texts are ambiguous between an objective-list interpretation and a preference-satisfaction interpretation, the latter better explains later Mohist engagement with opponents. I argue that the direct texts actually preclude Stephens’ preference-satisfaction interpretation, which moreover has the later Mohists concede an implausible amount to their opponents

China · Consequentialism · Economics · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Mohism · Political science · Preference · Sociology · Chinese history and philosophy · Free Will and Agency · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment

• Later Mohist ethics and philosophical progress in ancient China

  Daniel J Stephens•British Journal for the History…•2021

  Add to list

• The Philosophy of the Mòzi

  Chris Fraser•Philosophy of the Mòzĭ•2016

  Add to list