Greek philosophy has the dialogues of Plato. Chinese philosophy has those of Mencius. As one half of the “Kong-Meng” 孔孟 duo (Confucius and Mencius), Mencius was more responsible than perhaps anyone in history for the spread of a kind of thought that later generations would call Confucianism. In this podcast, we talk about a famous dialogue Mencius had with a local lord on the importance of wise rule.
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- Jin Yong - Sword of the Yue Maiden April 27, 2024
2 Comments
In this episode you said mencius is like a libertarian. I think this is incredibly inaccurate as libertarianism is tied to capitalism and is all about profit. Mencius admonishes king Hui for even thinking in profit. This is the first thing mencius says.
“Mencius replied, ‘Why must your Majesty use that word “profit?” What I am provided with, are counsels to benevolence and righteousness, and these are my only topics. ‘If your Majesty say, “What is to be done to profit my kingdom?” the great officers will say, “What is to be done to profit our families?” and the inferior officers and the common people will say, “What is to be done to profit our persons?” Superiors and inferiors will try to snatch this profit the one from the other, and the kingdom will be endangered. In the kingdom of ten thousand chariots, the murderer of his sovereign shall be the chief of a family of a thousand chariots. In the kingdom of a thousand chariots, the murderer of his prince shall be the chief of a family of a hundred chariots. To have a thousand in ten thousand, and a hundred in a thousand, cannot be said not to be a large allotment, but if righteousness be put last, and profit be put first, they will not be satisfied without snatching all. There never has been a benevolent man who neglected his parents. There never has been a righteous man who made his sovereign an after consideration. Let your Majesty also say, “Benevolence and righteousness, and let these be your only themes.” Why must you use that word – “profit?”.'”
I think that is a bit narrow in terms of how you are defining liberatarian. The Oxford Dictionary defines liberatarianism as “an extreme laissez-faire political philosophy advocating only minimal state intervention in the lives of citizens.” Certainly, in the past decades, liberitarianism has been associated with captialism and the right, but that is not something that is inherent in liberatarianism, and it is not how we were using the term, though I appreciate that you are right, we should have probably been more careful and defined these politically charged terms.