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Persona #238

Mozi

c. 470–391 BC
Founder of Mohism; classical Chinese consequentialist

Impartial caring, anti-ritualism, and the first systematic consequentialist ethics in world philosophy

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where personas disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid (32 attributes) is shown.

Attribute Mozi
Time · Extent Infinite
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom NDet
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Finite
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Finite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Single
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Immediate
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Active
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Limited
Observer · Moral Authority Reason
Observer · Theological Method Mystical
Energy · Extent Finite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Conserved
Information · Granularity Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each persona's writings reveal about their stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

Mozi

Conventional pre-modern Chinese cosmology; the Mozi includes some discussion of how Heaven (tian) intervenes in human affairs through reward and punishment.

Space

Mozi

Conventional.

Matter

Mozi

Substantival; the later Mohist Canons include sophisticated geometric and mechanical discussion.

Observer

Mozi

Embodied moral agent capable of impartial caring; metaphysical agency exists (Heaven, ghosts) but Mohist ethics is fundamentally consequentialist about human welfare.

Energy

Mozi

Pre-modern conventional.

Information

Mozi

Personal continuation through reward and punishment by Heaven and ghosts; the Mohist conception of these is more functional than metaphysical.

Internal Tensions

Where each persona's working synthesis strains against itself.

Mozi

Mohism's reliance on Heaven (tian) and ghosts (gui) as enforcers of impartial caring sits in tension with its broadly anti-supernaturalist ethical empiricism; modern readers sometimes set the religious-mythological dimension aside as inessential to the philosophical core, others read it as integral.