Mozi (5th century BC)

Mozi was the first philosopher to question the ideas of Confucius. Scholarly debate centres around the issue of whether Mozi was a ‘weak’ or a ‘strong’ utilitarian, an ‘act’ or ‘rule utilitarian’, and whether he was a ‘language utilitarian’ or rather placed the religious authority of a personalized Heaven at the centre of his system. He is noteworthy for being the first thinker to develop a tripartite methodology for verifying claims to knowledge and for attacking the Confucian emphasis on ritual and the centrality of the family as the basis for social and political action.