Selfish desires, throughout the traditions of East and West, have long been
regarded as the hindrance to realization of the flourishing life of human being.
Mencius’ and Mozi’ positions on this concept of selfish desires deserve our
attention because they marked the beginning of the Hundred Schools of
Thought and therefore lay the foundation for the later development of Far-East
Asian thought.
Both Mencius and Mozi view the selfish desires of political leaders as the
biggest hindrance to the realization of world order though the selfish desires of
ordinary people matter to some extent. This is because they, as in the case of
other thinkers of the Hundreds Schools of Thought, take gradual progress from
the above as an ideal change. Mencius takes the coordination of selfish desires
as the way of avoiding selfish desires because he believes that the selfish
desires of ordinary people are not different from those of the sage. Mozi, on
the other hand, notes that the avoidance of selfish desires is possible only
through the intelligence’s calculation of the profits and losses of them because
selfish desires are based on emotions. This way, Mencius and Mozi suggest
both cultivation and calculation as a way of avoiding selfish desires
respectively. This article compares and analyzes both Mencius’ and Mozi’s
positions on selfish desires and avoiding them. To conclude, this article points
out that there are similarities as well as differences between them because Mencius’ way contains rational aspect and Mozi’s way emotional aspect beyond
expectations.