Wang Yang-ming's ethics of war

Sumner B. Twiss*, Jonathan K L Chan

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in book/report/conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

Mozi was an early critic of the tradition of thought associated with Confucius, and founder of a religious and social activist community. The main source for Mohism the thinking associated with Mozi and his followers, the Mohists is the eponymous Mozi. Modern critics believe that the received corpus was probably written over an extended period of time throughout the Mohist community's existence, possibly taking final shape only in the early imperial age well after the demise of the community. The Mohists' main intellectual attention was focused on offering arguments against military aggression, and relatedly, on the distinction between unjustified military aggression and justified punitive interventions. Mohist doctrine has a broadly consequentialist structure specific ways of conduct or policies are moral if, when put into practice, they promote the world's welfare, and immoral if they harm the world. This chapter concludes with some brief remarks regarding the nature of the Mohist writings on war.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationChinese Just War Ethics
Subtitle of host publicationOrigin, Development, and Dissent
EditorsPing Cheung Lo, Sumner B. Twiss
PublisherRoutledge
Chapter7
Pages153-178
Number of pages26
Edition1st
ISBN (Electronic)9781317580966, 9781315740706
ISBN (Print)9781138824355, 9781138729216
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 May 2015

Publication series

NameWar, conflict and ethics
PublisherTaylor & Francis

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Arts and Humanities(all)

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