Mo Tzu
(c. 479 B.C - c. 391 B.C)
"Humane men are concerned about providing benefits to the world and eliminating its calamities. . . . When we come to ask about the causes of the calamities (war, poverty, etc.) that people suffer, from what do these calamities arise? Do they arise from people loving others and benefiting others? Certainly not. We should say that they arise from people hating and injuring others. If we should classify one by one all those who hate and injure others, will we find that they are partial or universal in their love? Certainly, we'll find them partial in their love. Therefore, partial love is the cause of all the human calamities in the world. Partial love is wrong."
Mo Tzu (attrib.)Geoffrey Scarre's Utilitarianism (ISBN 0-415-12197-3. 1996) outlines the views of the moralists Mo Tzu, Jesus of Nazareth, Aristotle and Epicurus. But Scarre credits only the Chinese philosopher Mo Tzu with a full-blown utilitarian ethic. The other three anticipated utilitarianism "only at certain points" (p. 26).
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