The Augustinian Concept of Love: From Hannah Arendt’s Interpretation to Impartial Love of Mozi

Abstract

Augustine and Mozi are doubtlessly two of the most important theorists about love in the Western and Chinese traditions. Augustine has made a sharp distinction between caritas and cupiditas, whereas Mozi proposes the theory of impartial love (jian’ai 兼爱). Hannah Arendt has made her irreplaceable contribution to the understanding of the Augustinian concept of caritas in her work with the title Der Liebesbegriff bei Augustin, Versuch einer Philosophischen Interpretation (1929). She treats the central question of whether for Augustine love towards neighbors has an independent value. In the Chinese tradition, Mozi proposes the theory of impartial love as a remedy for disposing of the disorders of society on the one hand, but on the other hand to love others impartially comes ultimately from the divine command of tian or Heaven, and tian seems to be the final authority or standard for being morally good and righteousness. It needs explanation or clarification if Mozi commits an inconsistency by holding two different ethical principles. In this article, I will first concentrate on discovering the fundamental characteristics of caritas and cupiditas, and then turn to dealing with the problem of the instrumentalization of the others in the love towards neighbors if they are used as tools to ascend to God’s love. In the last part, I will discuss the impartial love of Mozi and compare it with that of Augustine to see their distinctions and similarities. We will see that through the comparison we can obtain a better understanding of the concept of love in different traditions.