Philosophy of Mozi Essay

Romeo and Juliet, the two young lovers in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, ended up becoming a large part of what could be called â€Å"fate†. Fate seemed to control their lives and force them together, becoming a large part of their love, and the ending of their parents hatred. In ancient China, a philosopher, Mozi, rejected fatalism because it is a belief that gives people excuses to doing nothing. He says: [I]f we were to accept the theories of the fatalists, then those above would not attend to affairs of state and those below would not pursue their tasks. If those above do not attend to affairs of state, then the government will fall into disorder, while if those below do not pursue their tasks, there will not be enough wealth and goods. There will be no way to provide security for the worthy and able men of the world below. There will be no mean to entertain and conduct exchanges with the feudal lords who come as guests from abroad, while within the state there will be no means to feed the hungry, cloths the cold, and care for the aged and weak. One should not believe that one is determined by one’s fate because this belief does not promote universal benefits for the world. For most people, when they think fate is at work on their situation, they stop thinking about their own solutions. They will think less, be less alert, and be more trusting. It is what they do, say and act as a result of believing in fate that can cause major disasters in their lives. When one stops thinking, stops acting, stops working the hardest one could towards something, then one is letting the ball drops. As a result, he is not achieving as much as he could, he may lose money, lose job and lose responsibilities. However, he would not care so much because he blames it on fate, not himself. Everything that happens in human life is a product of what they do to their life and not determined by fate alone. There is a saying goes, â€Å"Life is what you make it. † A man truly creates his life and should not rely too much on fate. There are many factors affect man’s life. These different factors either make him or unmake him. The circumstance depends on whether one has grabbed the correct reign to man the horse or one has missed it. What people do today that is crucial in what happens to him in the future. One of the critics Mozi makes of Confucians is that they encourage the idea that one’s fate was predetermined which lead to resignation and failure on the part of the people. Mozi seems to have believed to the contrary that a man’s fate was to be shape by a man effort; that Heaven might guide. A lot of successful and driven people in variety fields confess that fate seems to be against them at the launch of their career. It was hard, many successful folks say, but nothing could have held them back as they strove to the best. Besides that, sometimes a person whom one thinks cannot succeed will suddenly emerged as the most successful businessman. Without even noticing what had really occurred the man whom everybody had pinpointed as the useless and most unwanted person will turn out as the best person in one day. Sometimes the turn of the wheel is just so confusing that people find themselves confused and not being able to cope with what life provides. Everything depends on our determination, our strength to defeat the obstacles we meet on our life journey. Mozi states, â€Å"Heaven might guide. † The term â€Å"Heaven† here can be people around us, for instance, an elderly person, a teacher, a friend and etc. who lend helping hands in assisting our succeed. Opportunities and time wait for no man. â€Å"Heaven† will only guide people who are well prepared and highly determined and not who believe in Him sincerely but doing nothing. People choose what they do and what could happen to them in the future. If one is going to look what life really is, one should begin to analyze what one has done in the past that made one is today. You are what you did and not really destiny and fate. Man cannot really tell what is going to happen in the future and what should be avoid is a mistake that goes on and on until the person who made the mistake does not come out quagmire he has built around him. Mistakes do happen in everyone’s life but making the same mistake over and over in one’s life is not at all proper for a person who has knowledge unless he wants to ruin his life. A person who commits the same mistake throughout his life is trying to test what life is all about without thinking of the consequences that the mistake could do him in the future and not considering the future. In short, Mozi’s criticism of fatalism does not point to the proponent’s weakness in reasoning; it points specifically to the bad consequences such a theory will bring. Fate sometimes make an abrupt turnaround which will make people either lost balance or being thrown away so far that one cannot grasp anything to hold on it. For those people who have done good things in their life and have planned their future ahead in their younger years, they are the people who have smooth sailing boat. In contrary, those people who have thought fortune angel is always at their site, it would be a sorry state for them. REFERENCES Liu, JeeLoo. (2006). An Introduction to Chinese Philosophy: from ancient philosophy to Chinese Buddhism. United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. HOL B126 L564 2006. Watson, Burton (1963). Mo Tzu Basic Writings. USA: Columbia University Press. HOL B128 M6 W3.