墨子與孟子論「兼愛」

Mozi and Mengzi on “Inclusive care” (jian’ai)

墨子提出仇恨、紛爭、戰爭最根本的原因在於人「自愛不相愛」。人因「自愛不相愛」，在遇到犧牲自己的生命還是他人的生命這樣的倫理困境中，人會毫不猶豫地犧牲他人的生命而保全自己。在墨子看來，人會這樣做的根本原因是，人只愛自己，不愛他人，包括自己的父母和家人。墨子將「仁愛」的本質理解為「愛己」，並非「用己」。「愛己」非「自愛」，「自愛」當轉化為「兼愛」，理由是天的意願。墨子與孟子對「兼愛」的不同理解奠基於各自對天之意願的認知與信念差異上：孟子相信天要人「親親」，墨子相信天要人相愛，即「愛人如己身」。 Mozi advocates that the fundamental reason for hatred, strife and war is that people only care about themselves instead of caring about others. Since people only care about themselves, when faced with a moral dilemma they will not hesitate to sacrifice the lives of others in order to preserve their own lives. In Mozi's view, the fundamental reason why people do so is that they only care about themselves and do not not care about others, including their own family. Mozi understands the essence of ''benevolence'' to be ''caring about oneself'' rather than ''using oneself.'' ''Caring about oneself'' is not identical with ''self-love'', and ''self-love'' should ideally be transformed into ''inclusive care'', which is in conformity with ''Heaven's intention''. Mozi's and Mengzi's different understandings of ''inclusive care'' are based on their divergent conceptions of ''Heaven's intention'': Mengzi believes that ''Heaven'' wants people to care about their parents; Mozi, however, believes that ''Heaven'' wants people to be as concerned for others' interests as for their own.